Kate McKinnon
I grew up with a pet iguana named Willy. We had a very contentious relationship. It turns out that iguanas are not meant to live in suburban homes.Collection: Relationship
I found I could speak louder and was more comfortable if I was doing it in someone else's crazy voice.
Even if you're an angry, intense person, you also have to have intense joy about life and intense feelings about the world.
I will not hear a word against him. I love my Bieber!
My mom watches really obscure stuff on IFC. She's a real comedy fan. She knows everything that's going on.
My most frequent collaborators at S.N.L. are the incredibly gifted writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider!
It just feels unnatural to me to broadcast anything other than the character I've created.
It's much easier for me to do an impression of someone real, because you and the audience begin with a baseline understanding of this person's life. And then if you subvert that in any way, it's a little comedy surprise.
Basically hated everything made in the '80s, music television - it was really about the '90s for me. 'Encino Man' was a big hit. 'Robin Hood: Men in Tights.'
My couch is made of cat's hair. The cushions have been obscured, and it's made of salt-and-pepper fur. I can't have visitors. I can't ask people to sit on that couch because they become implicated in the furriness of it, and they're walking around, and it's not fair to people.
I have always had eclectic obsessions: astrophysics, music theory, the Mongol empire and its history, and the history of the Silk Road, to name a few.
I've never had a couch that needed to be cleaned or learned how to couch-clean in general. That feels too grown-up.
It's hard not to be the straight man when Zach Galifianakis is there. He's such a delightfully bizarre creature. Everything he does is so surprising. He's such a live wire. It's just so exciting to watch.
I can't do choreographed movement. It has to come from my heart... and my pelvis.
I have only had positive interactions in relation to my impressions of people, which I'm happy because I do them with love, and I hope that the people who I do them of really like them.
Maddie Ziegler is the most amazing dancer I've ever seen, and I'm so obsessed with her. I was obsessed with her even before she did her first Sia video.
You just have to work super hard, and if you have a passion, that's the most beautiful thing in life, and you just have to bust out and do it, baby!
I had this dream in my head of, if I got hired by 'SNL, what that moment would be like. And I dreamed that I would, like, collapse on the sidewalk and cry to the heavens. I got this call, and it didn't happen naturally. But I did it anyway because I wanted to have that moment. So I did collapse.
I love gross kissing. I think it's the most fun thing to do.
You can't make the audience fall in love with a character you don't like.
I tried for a short time to be something I wasn't, and had no success with it. It's a practical solution to just be yourself.
Comedy is a tool of togetherness. It's a way of putting your arm around someone, pointing at something, and saying, 'Isn't it funny that we do that?' It's a way of reaching out.
'Mean Girls' stands the test of time as one of the greatest comedies ever produced. I've seen it way too many times, and I just think it's the most brilliant thing ever written. I love it so much.
I find donating stuff to be the biggest hassle.
I've been a big astrophysics nut since I was 12. I have always had a real soft spot for the bizarreness of quantum mechanics. But I gave up on being a scientist in high school - I'm just not that good at math.
I'm a very low-key person, but for some reason, I like to act out.
I admire my boss, Lorne Michaels. He never stops producing. I think, for him, comedy is a tool of compassion, a way of rallying people together and saying, 'Guys, isn't the world bonkers? Aren't we all just trying our best?' There's a tenderness in everything he does.
I worked as a telemarketer for an SAT-prep company. That was the worst of it, because I had to call people in post-Katrina New Orleans and offer them this very, very expensive SAT class. And I'm not even a good salesman.
If I had Instagram, it would be pictures of my son, who is a cat.
You've gotta believe in yourself, and you just have to work harder at it than you've ever worked at anything before in your life. And if you keep doing that and keep believing in yourself, great things do happen.
Nothing makes me laugh more than farting.
I hate the feeling of having hair on my neck.
When I was on 'The Big Gay Sketch Show' I thought, 'Well, this is going well now, but then when it's over I'll just be a barista.'
What's not to love about a crazy cat lady? You have to be very giving to be a crazy cat lady.
If you asked me to seriously kiss someone on a screen, I would be very uncomfortable. But I will lick any part of your face.
Everyone has some kind of light inside them.
I only come up with things when I am talking to myself, which I do constantly. The sidewalk and the subway are the best places for this. I speak at full volume and then laugh at myself if I like what I just said.
For an impression, I just find that I can do a lot of the people I love without much research, because I've already watched hours and hours of them on video and it seeped into my brain while I wasn't thinking about it.
I was very serene, and I still am, until I start talking in another voice, then suddenly I have a lot of volume and I'm frantic. But I didn't want to be one of those people who's always talking in accents in real life, so I started doing sketch comedy.
I started watching 'SNL' when I was thirteen or so; those were the Molly Shannon/Ana Gasteyer/Cheri Oteri years.
Getting recognized on the street is fine, but I never really wanted to be famous. I just wanted to have mastered the art of sketch comedy.
There was just a lot of comedy on the TV in the house, and my parents are both very funny.
I was just never discouraged from doing something wacky like trying to be a comedian.
I love Jared Hess' movies. He's such a weirdo and such a nice, funny guy.
I just like playing unique characters that I love.
A good impression is sort of a juxtaposition of disparate elements.
I always wanted to live alone for a month in a lakeside cabin. In my fantasy, I enter a state of perfect peace and grow my own kale and stuff, but in real life, I think I might be very bored after four days.
I was an umpire at little league softball games. I only lasted a few games because I wasn't one hundred percent clear on all the rules.
To be employed in the entertainment industry is a miracle.
I have no skills. I'm bad at most things.