Kate McKinnon Berthold[1][2] (born January 6, 1984), commonly known as Kate McKinnon, is an American actress, voice actress, and comedian. She is best known for her sketch comedy work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and The Big Gay Sketch Show.[3]

Early life

McKinnon was born and raised in Sea Cliff, New York.[1][4] She is the daughter of Laura Campbell, a parent educator, and Michael Thomas Berthold, an architect.[5][6][7] As a child, McKinnon played the piano, cello, and guitar. She graduated from North Shore High School in 2002[8] and from Columbia University in 2006, where she co-founded a comedy group, Tea Party, which focused on musical improv comedy.[1][2]

Career

In 2007, McKinnon joined the original cast of the Logo Network's Big Gay Sketch Show, where she was a cast member on the series for all three seasons.[9] Among her best-known characters was Fitzwilliam, a British boy whose only wish is to have a vagina.[10]

McKinnon is known for her strong character work[9] and celebrity impressions.[11] Since 2008, she has performed live sketch comedy regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City.[9][12] She has also worked as a voiceover actress, and has voiced characters for series such as The Venture Brothers, Robotomy, and Ugly Americans.[10][12] In 2009 McKinnon won a Logo NewNowNext Award for Best Rising Comic.[13] She was nominated for an ECNY Emerging Comic Award in 2010.[9]

Saturday Night Live

McKinnon debuted as a featured player on Saturday Night Live on April 7, 2012. She is SNL '​s first openly lesbian cast member,[14] as well as the series' third known gay cast member (after Terry Sweeney and Danitra Vance, the latter of whose sexual orientation was not made public until after her death).[15]

In 2013, McKinnon was nominated for an EWwy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Comedy, which was won by Cobie Smulders (coincidentally, the wife of fellow SNL cast member Taran Killam).[16] McKinnon won the 2014 American Comedy Award for Best Supporting Actress, TV for her work on SNL.[17] In 2014 she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series,[18] as well as for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics along with four of her colleagues for the song "Home for the Holiday (Twin Bed)".[19]

Characters

• Olya Povlatsky, a Russian woman who appears on Weekend Update and voices her opinions on current events, comparing them to the outrageous struggles she faces in her village.
• Sheila Sauvage, a heavily intoxicated woman at a bar who meets and hooks up with a heavily intoxicated man, played by the host, at closing time.
• Jodi Cork, one of the hosts of Women in the Workplace
• Barbara, a lesbian volunteer at a Cat Shelter called Whiskers R We

Celebrity impressions

• Angela Merkel[20]
• Jane Lynch
• Edie Falco (as Carmela Soprano from The Sopranos)
• Ann Romney[20]
• Billie Jean King
• Barbara Walters
• Ellen DeGeneres[20]
• Penelope Cruz[20]
• Tabatha Coffey
• Theresa Caputo (from Long Island Medium)
• Barbara Corcoran
• Martha Stewart
• Jodie Foster
• Tilda Swinton
• Lorde
• Shakira
• Robyn
• Justin Bieber
• Angela Lansbury
• Jemima Kirke (as Jessa Johansson from Girls)
• Kathleen Sebelius[20]
• Keith Urban
• Diana Nyad

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Kate McKinnon at the Internet Movie Database