Kate McKinnon, who was on SNL for 11 seasons from 2012 to 2022, is returning to her roots to host this season’s final episode of 2023. She will be joined by musical guest Billie Eilish.
McKinnon is famous for several SNL characters, including Barbara DeDrew, owner of Whiskers R We; Olya Pavlotsky, a Russian villager who became a Weekend Update regular; and Colleen Rafferty, who keeps being abducted by aliens and can’t seem to keep her pants on.
McKinnon is also known for her ridiculously spot-on impressions, including Ellen Degeneres, Hillary Clinton, RBG, Rudy Giuliani, Elizabeth Warren, and even Justin Bieber.
McKinnon is having a fantastic year after appearing as Weird Barbie in arguably the movie of the year, Barbie. Many queer people connected to her character for her zany look, behavior, and quips, but more importantly, recognized how similar Weird Barbie’s experience in Barbieland was to being a queer woman in a cisheteronormative society.
Musical guest Billie Eilish was also involved in “Barbie,” as her “What Was I Made For,” co-written with her brother Finneas, was used during the movie’s climatic montage as well as the end credits tune. Fans are hoping this means there will be at least one Barbie-themed sketch.
In McKinnon’s decade-long run on SNL, she won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2016 and 2017 and was nominated for the same category nine times. When asked why she was leaving the show, she said “I thought about it for a very long time, and it was very, very hard because all I ever wanted to do in my whole life was be on Saturday Night Live, and so I did. I loved it. I had the best decade, and then I was just like, my body was tired, and I felt like it was time.”
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