Kate McKinnon
Kate McKinnon Berthold[1] (born January 6, 1984)[2] is an American actress, comedian, impressionist, and writer. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2012 to 2022, where she became known for her character work and celebrity impressions. 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.
Kate McKinnon
- Actress
- comedian
- impressionist
- writer
2002–present
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).[3][1]
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).
Early life[edit]
McKinnon was born and raised on Long Island in the town of Sea Cliff, New York,[1][4] to Laura Campbell, a parent educator, and Michael Thomas Berthold, an architect.[5][6] She has a younger sister, comedian Emily Lynne, with whom she has collaborated on the Audible series Heads Will Roll,[7] as well as the digital series Notary Publix.[1][6] Their father died when McKinnon was 18 years old.[1][5]
As a child, McKinnon played several instruments. She started playing the piano when she was five years old, the cello at age 12, and taught herself how to play the guitar at 15.[8]
McKinnon's knack for accents began when she was in fifth grade. She auditioned to be "the queen of reading week" and used an English accent. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she says, "I think the genesis of my entire life, probably, was the smiles I elicited doing this British accent. I've been chasing that dragon ever since."[9]
She graduated from North Shore High School in 2002,[10][3] and from Columbia University in 2006 with a degree in theatre. There she co-founded a comedy group, Tea Party, that focused on musical improv comedy.[1][11] At Columbia, she starred in three Varsity shows: V109 Dial D for Deadline, V110 Off-Broadway and V111 The Sound of Muses.[1][12][13] Her cast and crewmates included future actors Jenny Slate and Grace Parra, directors Tze Chun and Greta Gerwig, and The Onion managing editor Peter Koechley.[14][15][16] She was also a member of Prangstgrüp, a student comedy group which set up and recorded elaborate college pranks.[17]
Personal life[edit]
McKinnon was in a relationship with photographer and actress Jackie Abbott from 2016 to 2019. While presenting Ellen DeGeneres with the Carol Burnett Award at the 2020 Golden Globe Awards, McKinnon opened up about being a lesbian and thanked DeGeneres for making it less scary for her to accept her sexual orientation while watching her TV sitcom Ellen.[55] While attending Columbia University, she dated future journalist Bari Weiss.[56]
McKinnon has a cat, Nino Positano—named after a pizza restaurant where he was found—whom she jokingly refers to as her son.[57][58] Nino appeared in a "Whiskers R We" sketch filmed from McKinnon's home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, playing the role of all the cats up for adoption.[59]
She doesn't have any social media accounts, fearing that she will "misrepresent [her] real feelings".[60]