She is best known for portraying Annie Edison on the NBC sitcom Community and Trudy Campbell on the AMC drama Mad Men. She has also starred in films such as Scream 4 (2011) and The Five-Year Engagement (2012). Brie was born in Hollywood, California.

On The Drew Barrymore Show, Brie shared the rules for how her and Franco's marriage has lasted five years. “The first one is respect,” she shared. “I think we respect each other, and we are so kind to each other.

Her breakthrough came with the role of Trudy Campbell in the drama series Mad Men (2007–2015), which earned her a Screen Actors Guild Award. She gained recognition for her role as Annie Edison in the sitcom Community (2009–2015) and voicing Diane Nguyen in the animated comedy series BoJack Horseman (2014–2020).

Alison Brie was born in Hollywood, California, to Joanne (Brenner), who worked at a non-profit child care agency, and Charles Terry Schermerhorn, a musician and entertainment reporter. Her mother is Jewish and her father has Scottish, Dutch, English, German, and Norwegian ancestry.