Kate McKinnon

Kathryn McKinnon Berthold^[1][2][3] (born January 6, 1984), known professionally as Kate McKinnon, is an American comedian and actress. She is best known for her sketch comedy work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and The Big Gay Sketch Show.^[4] She played Dr. Jillian Holtzmann in the Ghostbusters reboot.

McKinnon is known for her character work^[5] and celebrity impressions.^[6] She is known for her impressions of pop singer Justin Bieber, comedian television host Ellen DeGeneres,^[7] and politician Hillary Clinton.^[7][8] She has been nominated for four Primetime Emmys, three for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, winning one in 2016, and one for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

Childhood

Kate McKinnon Berthold was born and raised in Sea Cliff, New York.^[1][9] She is the daughter of Laura Campbell, a parent educator, and Michael Thomas Berthold, an architect.^[10][11][12] She has a younger sister, Emily.^[1][12] Her father died when she was 18 years old.^[1][11]

As a child, McKinnon played the piano, cello, and guitar. She graduated from North Shore High School in 2002^[13] and from Columbia University in 2006 with a theater major, where she co-founded a comedy group, Tea Party, which focused on musical improv comedy.^[1][2] She was also a member of Prangstgrüp, a similar student comedy group who set up and recorded elaborate college pranks.^[14]

Career

In 2007, McKinnon joined the original cast of Logo TV's The Big Gay Sketch Show, where she was a cast member for all three seasons.^[5]

Since 2008, she has performed live sketch comedy regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City.^[5][15] She has also worked as a voice-over actress, and has voiced characters for series such as The Venture Bros., Robotomy, and Ugly Americans.^[15][16] In 2009, McKinnon won a Logo NewNowNext Award for Best Rising Comic.^[17] She was nominated for an ECNY Emerging Comic Award in 2010.^[5] In 2016, she starred in the reboot Ghostbusters, alongside Melissa McCarthy, and fellow SNL cast members Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones.^[18]

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,^[19][20][21] 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).^[22] She was promoted to repertory status in season 39.

In 2013, McKinnon was nominated for an EWwy for Best Supporting Actress, Comedy.^[23] McKinnon won the 2014 American Comedy Award for Best Supporting Actress, TV for her work on SNL.^[24] In 2014, she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series,^[25] as well as for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics along with four of her colleagues for the song "(Do It On My) Twin Bed".^[26] She was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the second time in 2015.^[27] She eventually won the very next year, becoming the first actor from SNL to win the award in many years.

She began appearing as Hillary Clinton on the series leading up to the 2016 presidential election. The real Clinton appeared alongside her in a sketch during the show's season 41 premiere.^[28] McKinnon has said that her impression of Hillary Clinton comes from a place of deep admiration, and that "I unequivocally want her to win" the 2016 US presidential election.^[29] On the Saturday following the election she reprised her role as Hillary Clinton to open the show with a solo performance of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen, whose death was announced two days before her performance.^[30][31]

Characters

• Olya Povlatsky, a Russian woman who appears on "Weekend Update", the SNL sketch, and voices her opinions on current events, comparing them to the outrageous struggles she faces in her village.
• Sheila Sovage, a heavily intoxicated woman at a bar who meets and hooks up with a heavily intoxicated man, played by the host, at closing time.
• Deenie, aka "Somebody's Mom", a middle-aged woman who appears on "Weekend Update" and attempts to recap soap operas she's been watching, but only knows the characters by self-applied nicknames, such as "Big Boobs" and "Mustache". She is always (actually) eating some foul concoction out of Tupperware, such as brussels sprouts and imitation crab, which generally both revolts and breaks up anchor Colin Jost.
• Jodi Cork, one of the hosts of Women in the Workplace.
• Barbara DeDrew, a lesbian volunteer at a cat shelter called Whiskers R We.
• Mrs. Santini, an apartment dweller who writes passive-aggressive notes to her neighbors. Originally performed as Effie Villalopolus on Comedy Bang! Bang!.
• Helga Lately, A Swedish TV presenter who speaks only in exaggeratedly Swedish-sounding gibberish, occasionally saying crude English words.
• Mrs. Rafferty, a middle-aged woman who recounts miraculous events that she experiences in an honest and realistic way, as opposed to the other participants in the sketch who describe the same event using flowery and vague language.
• Les Dykawitz, a lesbian cop from the 1970s who works for Chicago PD along with her partner, Chubina Fatzarelli, played by Aidy Bryant.
• Debette Goldry, a septuagenerian actress who appears in different round table panels.

Celebrity impressions

Other work

Aside from SNL, she also co-created and co-stars in the web series Notary Publix with her sister Emily Lynne.^[32][33] In addition to Aidy Bryant, who stars in the series, McKinnon's SNL co-stars Beck Bennett, Jay Pharoah and SNL writer Paula Pell all guest-starred in the six-episode first season of the web series.^[32]

In 2015, she appeared in a number of commercials for the Ford Focus.^[34]

In 2016, she co-hosted 31st Independent Spirit Awards with Kumail Nanjiani.^[35]

She has made appearances as a voice actress in series like The Simpsons (as Hettie in season 27 episode 14 "Gal of Constant Sorrow") and Family Guy (a voice in season 14 episode 15 "An App a Day" and as Karen / Heavy Flo in season 14 episode 6 "Peter's Sister"), and films such as Finding Dory (as Stan's fish wife) and The Angry Birds Movie (as Stella / Eva the Birthday Mom).

Personal life

McKinnon is openly gay.^[36] McKinnon has a pet cat, Nino Positano,^[29] whom she jokingly refers to as her son. She does not currently participate publicly on any social media platform, citing a fear that she will "misrepresent her true feelings".^[37]

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations

See also

• LGBT culture in New York City
• Saturday Night Live parodies of Hillary Clinton

References

External links

• Kate McKinnon at the Internet Movie Database