Report: LI's Kate McKinnon's 'SNL' contract nearing its end
Kate McKinnon attends the premiere of Hulu's "Shrill" on March 13, 2019, in New York. Credit: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP/Andy Kropa
Is "Saturday Night Live" star Kate McKinnon near the end of her contract with the late-night comedy show?
Variety said Monday that according to two people with knowledge of the matter, the Sea Cliff native is in negotiations with producers over whether to extend her time on "SNL," which she joined in April 2012. Three episodes remain in the show's current 44th season.
McKinnon, 35, has won two Emmy Awards for her "SNL" work, garnering acclaim for performing impressions of figures as varied as Hillary Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and "Long Island Medium" star Theresa Caputo, and even men, including Rudy Giuliani and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
An NBC spokeswoman did not respond to a Newsday request for comment. McKinnon has no publicly known social-media accounts.
A 2002 North Shore High School graduate, McKinnon has appeared in such films as "Sisters" (2015), starring fellow "SNL" veterans Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph, and "Office Christmas Party" (2016), and starred in the ensemble cast of the 2016 "Ghostbusters." McKinnon is slated to headline the Hulu streaming miniseries "The Dropout," about alleged fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the purported high-tech blood-testing company Theranos.
Born Kate McKinnon Berthold, she had joined "SNL" just as high-profile star Kristen Wiig's contract was ending. The former Upright Citizens Brigade improv performer, whose early work included the Logo cable series "The Big Gay Sketch Show," was "SNL" 's first out lesbian cast-member. (The late Danitra Vance, from season 11 in the mid-1980s, was not out during her lifetime.)
Variety described the contract negotiations as "fluid," and noted McKinnon has a good relationship with "SNL" creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels. McKinnon and her sister, stand-up comic Emily Lynne, are soon to start a podcast for Michaels' production company, Broadway Video, the trade magazine said. A source close to "SNL" told Newsday no contract decision has been made.
