Amid speculation that Kristen Wiig may be leaving the show at the end of this season to focus on her post-Bridesmaids movie career, “Saturday Night Live” has added a new female cast member, Upright Citizen’s Brigade performer Kate McKinnon. She will make her first appearance next week, in the episode hosted by Sofia Vergara (“Ay, Jay! Oo ees thees new woooman?”). In addition to her work with the UCB, McKinnon has appeared in Rosie O’Donnell’s “Big Gay Sketch Show,” as well as videos for Funny or Die, and a one-woman show titled “Disenchanted” about washed-up fairy tale characters. (Buzzfeed has a cool collection of her work from around the web.)
I know Kristen Wiig has become a divisive figure, with some people really digging her work at “SNL” and others finding her stable of awkward, weird-voiced characters to be grating, but the truth is that she’s been more or less carrying the show for a few years. It’s probably time to get some fresh blood in there, and by all accounts McKinnon is a talented comedian. “SNL” has had a run of strong female performers lately — from Molly Shannon to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to Wiig — so here’s hoping McKinnon or one of the other women on the show can step up to fill that role. As long as none of them try to roll out a frizzy-haired, mentally deranged character who commits escalating acts of violence against her fellow classmates then apologizes to Will Forte, I wish them all the best.
via HuffPo
