Kate McKinnon Will Be Saturday Night Live’s First Real Live Out Lesbian Person!

Our very own Kate McKinnon has been handed the keys to potential international stardom: she will make her debut on Saturday Night Live next Saturday, April 7. Kate co-starred on The Big Gay Sketch Show alongside Julie Goldman and Nicol Paone for three seasons where she played Barbara Walters and most memorably, Fitzwilliam, a British boy whose only wish was to have a vagina. Since Big Gay, she has performed several one woman shows at New York City’s Upright Citizen Brigade theatre, starred in Vag Magazine, a web series about running a third-wave feminist magazine, and sailed the high seas with Autostraddle on the 2009 Sweet cruise.

Kate with Julie Goldman & Nicol Paone

Kate is poised to fill the missing shoes of Kristen Wiig, likely to leave SNL for a big movie career when her contract expires this May. Beyond Wiig, her cast of characters and range of impressions is reminiscent of the women who have come before her, including Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph so she will clearly be the Next Big Thing and probably have her own NBC sitcom in 2018. Have I mentioned she’s the first out lesbian cast member in SNL’s 37 year history on television?

photo by Robin Roemer for Autostraddle

Interestingly, Kate was one of Autostraddle’s very first interview/photoshoots way back in June 2009, and although we’ve since been asked to take it down, there’s a quote from the interview that seems particularly relevant:

“My ultimate dream would be to be Lily Tomlin or to be Tracy Ullman, you know, just a character woman. A character woman who does characters where characters are needed. “I would kill to be the first gay person on SNL or have a Tracy Ullman-type show. That would be my ultimate dream.”

In honor of Kate’s big SNL debut (and to prove we knew her when), I present the top 5 Kate McKinnon Things We Love (that weren’t removed from the internet by Logo).

Commitment Ceremony with Julie Goldman

[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE6UtcJtqE4′]

Speed Dating

[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKn0DWskifU’]

Celesbian Interview featuring Dani Campbell (Part 1)

[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rf2bmqxDGI’]

Celesbian Interview featuring Dani Campbell (Part 2)

[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VT8uVSzfK0′]

Big Gay Sketch Show: Fitzwilliam Goes to Hogwarts

[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsEbNPP8Edo’]

Kate with Autostraddle's Robin & Carly

Now if only they could hire a woman of color….