Wendi McLendon-Covey

McLendon-Covey was born in Bellflower, California, in the family of Carolyn and Robert McLendon. She was raised Baptist, in Long Beach, California. She went to DeMille Junior High and graduated from Millikan High School. She attended Long Beach City College, Golden West College, and California State University, Long Beach, where she graduated with a B.A. in liberal studies and creative writing.

While McLendon-Covey was working at a hotel in Anaheim and after graduating from college, she enrolled in a weekend class for non-actors at The Groundlings, an improvisational group in Los Angeles. She officially joined The Groundlings in 2002, and meanwhile worked as an editor for California State University's academic journal of social work, a job she kept until 2012.