Kate McKinnon
This 28-year-old actor/comedian just made a historic leap in her career by becoming the first openly lesbian cast member of NBC’s perennial hit Saturday Night Live this past season. Before her impressive debut on SNL, McKinnon was already celebrated for her hilarious characters, celebrity impressions and sketch comedy work on LOGO’s The Big Gay Sketch Show, produced by Rosie O’Donnell. A Long Island native, McKinnon was attending Columbia University in 2006 when she auditioned for The Big Gay Sketch Show, a platform where she would develop her best-known recurring character, Fitzwilliam, an endearing English nancy boy who wants desperately to become a girl. Apparently, McKinnon discovered her own queerness when X-Files babe Gillian Anderson made her feel all tingly. (We can relate.) McKinnon has also been a regular with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, the improv comedy troupe that counts SNL veterans Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell among its alums. She also starred in the popular web series Vag Magazine, about a fictional “hipster third-wave feminist magazine.” PS, she does a spot-on Hillary Clinton.
