Kate McKinnon

Kathryn McKinnon Berthold (born January 6, 1984), better known her stage name Kate McKinnon, is an American actress, comedienne, writer, and singer. McKinnon is most notable for being a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy and variety series Saturday Night Live from 2012 to 2022, where she became known for her character work and celebrity impressions. Her first episode is on April 7, 2012, replacing first-year featured player Paul Brittain. For her work on the series, she was nominated for ten Primetime Emmy Awards, including one for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics and nine for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning in 2016 and 2017. She is also the first openly lesbian member of SNL's cast, as the first gay cast member since Terry Sweeney and Danitra Vance in 1985. She was promoted to repertory status in Season 39 in 2013, along with Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong.

McKinnon starred in the Logo sketch comedy series The Big Gay Sketch Show (2007–2010), voiced lead roles in the PBS Kids animated series Nature Cat (2015–2024) and the Netflix animated series The Magic School Bus Rides Again (2017–2021), and portrayed Carole Baskin in the Peacock miniseries Joe vs. Carole (2022).

McKinnon has also appeared in numerous films, such as Sisters (2015), Office Christmas Party (2016), Rough Night (2017), The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018), Yesterday (2019), The Bubble (2022), and Barbie (2023).

McKinnon won a 2014 American Comedy Award and 2016 and 2017 Primetime Emmy Awards for her work on SNL. She also starred in the female reboot of Ghostbusters (2016), alongside Saturday Night Live alumni Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones.

McKinnon became the longest tenured female cast member during the May 4, 2019 episode of Saturday Night Live, as it was her 150th episode (compared to former castmate Vanessa Bayer's 149 episodes). Both Bryant and McKinnon departed the series after Season 47 (her 10th full season on SNL). They had both planned on leaving the show at the end of it's 45th season in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic changed their plans and they left at the end of season 47 in 2022. ^[1]^[2]

Though, Kate missed the first seven episodes of Season 47, due to filming Joe Exotic in Brisbane, Australia. She finished with 211 episodes. However, her record was surpassed in season 48 by former castmate Cecily Strong, who entered her 11th full season on SNL, and got the record by December 17, 2022 (Strong subsequently left the show after that episode).

On March 4, 2017 (episode hosted by Octavia Spencer), McKinnon was vocally impersonated by her then castmate Melissa Villaseñor.

She returned to Saturday Night Live to host for the first time on December 16, 2023, the eighth episode and the Christmas show of Season 49, as well as the final episode of 2023, with musical guest Billie Eilish. McKinnon becomes the eighth female former SNL cast member to come back and host, the eighth female cast member who has worked under Lorne Michaels and she host the Christmas show, after leaving the cast in 2022, after having been a cast member for more than 10 years.

She is also the eighth former longtime cast member to host the Christmas show, after Bill Murray (Season 7), Eddie Murphy (Seasons 8, 10, and 45), Jimmy Fallon (Seasons 37 and 39), Martin Short (Season 38), Tina Fey & Amy Poehler (Season 41) and Kristen Wiig (Season 46). Also, McKinnon is the fourth former longtime cast member to host a Christmas show, after Fey, Poehler and Wiig.

McKinnon is also the only longtime female cast member from seasons 37-47 to return to SNL as host and tied for the second 5th-fasted time a former cast member has come back to host for the first time, as well as the 19th first-time host in SNL history to host the Christmas show during their debut, the third longtime former cast member and the first female former longtime cast member to host a holiday episode, after Murphy and Fallon.