Mean Girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters and written by Tina Fey. The movie is based in part on Rosalind Wiseman’s non-fiction self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes, which describes female high school social cliques and the damaging effects they can have on girls.
Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels produced the film; Tina Fey, screenwriter and co-star of the picture, was a long-term cast member and writer for SNL. Although set in Evanston, Illinois (a wealthy Chicago suburb), the film was mostly shot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The film stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Fey, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Franzese, Jonathan Bennett and Amanda Seyfried (in her film debut), and features appearances from SNL cast members Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer and Amy Poehler. The film marks Lohan’s second collaboration with director Waters, the first being Freaky Friday (2003), released a year earlier.