A Field Guide To Allison Williams

This past week, Brian Williams's daughter has been causing quite a stir all across the internet, all thanks to a little bit of mouth to butt love featured in the series premiere of "Girls." On our part, we've been aware of Ms. Williams since the day "Girls" launched (hard to ignore one of the main characters in a show featuring so much nudity), but it wasn't until this moment that she really sparked our interest (what can we say? Analingus – simulated or not – just does it for us). But now that she's more firmly on our radar, it's time to learn as much as we can about her: so without further ado, here's a loving field guide to Allison Williams!

Allison Williams was born April 13, 1988 in Hartford, Connecticut, and grew up not too far away in New Canaan. From an early age, she was marked by ambition and a dedication to what would eventually become her career: even before she was in elementary school, Williams was convinced she wanted to be an actress. As she told Town & Country, "My childhood was stamped with this one certainty, that I knew what I wanted to be, which I realize now was very unusual.  Most of my friends are still figuring it out. I only knew one other kid like me; she wanted to be a singer, and in first grade we'd have sleepovers, and she dressed up like a Beatle and I dressed up like Marilyn Monroe."

But even with her intense focus on acting, Williams's parents made sure she explored a few other areas of life. Her Connecticut childhood was filled with a number of extracurriculars and activities, like soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey (although – somewhat weirdly for the daughter of a news anchor, she was banned from watching any TV but PBS, even if it was just the news). Significantly, Williams's parents barred her from acting professionally until after she graduated from college – which, given that her alma mater ended up being the super swanky Yale University was probably the right thing to do.

Williams continued to explore a well rounded curriculum well into her college career, taking more English and archaeology classes than acting ones. Not to say that she ignored acting, mind  you. In her freshman year, Williams joined an improv troupe and explored her more humorous side, and – after scoring the business card of a legendary casting director at a party – managed to secure herself an agent at Paradigm, even with the caveat that she wouldn't be able to take on professional gigs for another four years.

After college, of course, Williams was free to pursue her dreams, so she set off to Los Angeles, securing an apartment in Santa Monica and hoping to make her dreams come true. That fall, things started to take off. In an attempt to earn the attention of Hollywood types, Williams shot a video of herself singing a mashup of "Nature Boy" and "A Beautiful Mine" (also known as the theme to "Mad Men") while dressed in an evening gown and white gloves. Williams figured she'd send it around to some of the entertainment industry types she'd met over the years and maybe get herself an audition or two. Instead, her video went viral, and a few weeks later she was meeting with Judd Apatow to discuss taking on the role of Marnie in "Girls."

In the years since, Williams has become synonymous with her "Girls" character – but don't let that fool you into thinking that role's the only one she's capable of performing. In addition to her work on "Girls," Williams appears regularly on College Humor's "Jake & Amir" in the role of Cheryl, and has her own Funny or Die series in which she plays Kate Middleton (all that improv really came into handy!). And, of course, some might remember her appearance on "The League," where she appeared as Danielle in the episode "Guest Bong."

But friends, we can't wrap up this piece without returning to Allison Williams's most important accomplishment to date: yes, we are in fact talking about that butt munching scene once more. In spite (or perhaps because?) of all the drama that handful of seconds of analingus has caused, Williams fans have continued to show support (and, we'd wager, a few new fans have joined her cause as well). In fact, Williams has even managed to find support in a somewhat unlikely corner: surprising as it might seem, her parents came down in favor of the scene, with her father offering that, "She’s always been an actress. For us, watching her is the family occupation and everybody has to remember it’s acting, no animals were harmed during the filming, and ideally nobody gets hurt."

Brian Williams supports his daughter's right to get her ass fake eaten on television, guys. We can't think of a better sentiment with which to conclude this piece.