SNL’s Kate McKinnon: 5 facts about the beloved sketch show’s first openly gay female star
She portrays Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren bitingly on Saturday Night Live and stars in the Oscar-winning film Bombshell, but what else is there to know about the beloved LGBTQ+ favourite?
In January, actress and comedian Kate McKinnon gave a heartfelt and hilarious tribute to comedian Ellen DeGeneres at the 77th Golden Globe Awards where she praised the beloved talk show host for coming out as gay on television. McKinnon, 36, who also identifies as lesbian, said it allowed women like her to be brave enough to come out as well. She presented DeGeneres with the second annual Carol Burnett Award honouring excellence in television.
“In 1997, when Ellen’s sitcom was in the height of its popularity, I was in my mother’s basement lifting weights in front of the mirror and thinking, ‘Am I gay?’ And I was, and I still am,” McKinnon said. “But that’s a very scary thing to suddenly know about yourself … the only thing that made it less scary was seeing Ellen on TV.”
The brilliantly funny McKinnon doesn’t seem to be scared any more. Here are five things to know about the LGBTQ+ darling who was born Kate McKinnon Berthold.
She is only the second openly gay cast member to join Saturday Night Live
Although Terry Sweeney was the first openly gay cast member to join the popular US television show Saturday Night Live in 1985, McKinnon became the first openly gay female cast member when she joined in 2012 (actress Danitra Vance, who was on the show at the same time as Sweeney, didn’t come out as lesbian while on the show and her sexual orientation was not publicly known until after her death).
McKinnon’s comedic portrayals – especially of former US first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 2016 US election and, most recently, of US Senator Elizabeth Warren – instantly made her a household name.
Her girlfriend is an actual clown