Kathryn McKinnon Berthold (born January 6, 1984), known professionally 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. She is cast as Jillian Holtzmann in the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters.

McKinnon is known for her strong character work and celebrity impressions. She is known for her impressions of pop singer Justin Bieber, comedian and television host Ellen DeGeneres, politician Hillary Clinton and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She has been nominated for three Primetime Emmys, two for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and one for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.

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.

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