Early life

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

As a child, McKinnon played the piano, cello, and guitar. She graduated from North Shore High School in 2002 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.

Career

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

Since 2008, she has performed live sketch comedy regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City. She has also worked as a voiceover actress, and has voiced characters for series such as The Venture Brothers, Robotomy, and Ugly Americans. In 2009 McKinnon won a Logo NewNowNext Award for Best Rising Comic. She was nominated for an ECNY Emerging Comic Award in 2010. In January 2015, she was cast in the reboot of Ghostbusters, in which she co-stars with fellow SNL cast alumni Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones.

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, 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). She was promoted to repertory status in Season 39.

In 2013, McKinnon was nominated for an EWwy for Best Supporting Actress, Comedy. McKinnon won the 2014 American Comedy Award for Best Supporting Actress, TV for her work on SNL. In 2014 she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics along with four of her colleagues for the song "(Do It On My) Twin Bed". She was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for the second time in 2015.

She began appearing as Hillary Clinton on the show leading up to the 2016 presidential election. The real Clinton appeared alongside her in a sketch during the show's Season 41 premiere.

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 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!.
• A female TV presenter from Sweden conducting Helga Lately —similar to Chelsea Lately— where humour comes from the fact that people talk gibberish as if they were talking Swedish but actually they are only pronouncing in English specific words such as: meatballs, sex, bitch, or my vagina, giving to the public a surprise kind of humour.

Celebrity impressions

• Iggy Azalea
• Ingrid Bergman
• Justin Bieber
• Kate Bolduan
• Susan Boyle
• Theresa Caputo
• Emilia Clarke
• Hillary Clinton
• Tabatha Coffey
• Barbara Corcoran
• Penelope Cruz
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Robert Durst
• Edie Falco
• Jodie Foster
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Lindsey Graham
• Hozier
• Janet Huckabee
• Kris Jenner
• Billie Jean King
• Jemima Kirke (as Jessa Johansson in Girls)
• Lorde
• Jane Lynch
• Angela Merkel
• Diana Nyad
• Ann Romney
• Kathleen Sebelius
• Shakira
• Ed Sheeran
• Dame Maggie Smith
• Martha Stewart
• Tilda Swinton
• Keith Urban
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz
• Greta Van Susteren
• Cate Blanchett (as Carol in Carol (film))

Other work

Aside from SNL, she also co-created and co-stars in the web series Notary Publix with her sister, Emily Lynne. 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.

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

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Mr. Ross	Debby	Short film
2011	Elizabeth Taylor's Video Will	Elizabeth Taylor	Short film
2011	Pudding Face	Amy	Short film
2012	My Best Day	Heather
2012	Hannah Has a Ho-Phase	Nicky
2014	Life Partners	Trace
2014	Balls Out	Vicky
2015	Giant Sloth	Nina	Short film
2015	Ted 2	Herself
2015	Staten Island Summer	Mrs Bandini Jr.
2015	Sisters	Sam
2016	Masterminds	Jandice	Post-production
2016	The Angry Birds Movie	Stella/Eva the Birthday Mom (voice)
2016	Finding Dory	Inez (voice)	Post-production
2016	Ghostbusters	Jillian Holtzmann	Post-production
2016	Office Christmas Party	Mary	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Mayne Street	Olga Svenson	Episode: "Parking Tickets"
2010	We Have to Stop Now	Angela	Episode: "Celesbianism"
2010	Concierge: The Series	Mary	3 episodes
2006-2010	The Big Gay Sketch Show	Various	23 episodes
2010	Vag Magazine	Bethany	6 episodes
2010-2011	Robotomy	Various voices	5 episodes
2010-present	The Venture Bros.	Nikki and Margaret Fictel, Redusa, Warriana, various voices	10 episodes
2011	The Back Room	Susan Boyle	Episode: "Todd Barry"
2011	The 40 Year-Old 20 Year-Old	Kate	5 episodes
2012	Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday	Voter, Ann Romney, Woman	2 episodes
2012-present	Saturday Night Live	Herself, Various	Main cast
2013	Toy Story of Terror	PEZ Cat (voice)	TV special
2013	Hudson Valley Ballers	Just Jamie	2 episodes
2014	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Effie Villalopolus	Episode: "Nick Offerman Wears a Green Flannel Shirt & Brown Boots"
2014	The Awesomes	Lola "The Agravator" Gold, Mademoiselle Hunchback (voice)	Recurring roles
2015	Notary Publix	Ashlaheigh Braun-Samuels as Gina Fra Diavolo	6 episodes
2015	The Spoils Before Dying	Dallas Boudreaux	Miniseries - Episode: "That's Jazz"
2015	Difficult People	Abra Cadouglas	Episode: "Pledge Week"
2015	Family Guy	Karen Griffin (voice)	Episode: "Peter's Sister"
2015-present	Nature Cat	Squeeks	Voice
2015	Moonbeam City	Panache Miller (voice)	Episode: "Lasers and Liars"
2016	The Simpsons	Hettie (voice)	Episode: "Gal of Constant Sorrow" (S27E14)

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2009	NewNowNext Awards	Brink of Fame: Comic		Won
2010	ECNY Awards	Emerging Comic Award		Nominated
2012	Ashland Independent Film Festival Award	Special Jury Mention for Acting Ensemble: Feature	My Best Day	Won
2014	American Comedy Award	Comedy Supporting Actress - TV	Saturday Night Live	Won
2014	Dorian Award	Wilde Wit of the Year		Nominated
2014	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Saturday Night Live	Nominated
2014	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics	Saturday Night Live for "Home For The Holiday (Twin Bed)"	Nominated
2015	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series	Saturday Night Live	Nominated

Charities

Kate McKinnon supports the following charitable cause: Gay Rights.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]