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‘Saturday Night Live’ cast members come and go frequently over the years. While some do not have the most memorable run on the show, others create moments that will go down in history as some of the funniest sketches and characters on the show. Cecily Strong falls into the latter camp, having brought to life many of the best characters to come across the Studio 8H stage in its 46 years during her nine seasons on the show.
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Her Background
Much like many of the ‘Saturday Night Live greats before her, Cecily Strong got her professional start with Second City Conservatory and iO Chicago, where she learned about improv theater. Through Second City Theater, she worked on a cruise ship, a series of different comedy festivals, and many stage improvisation shows. In 2012, Strong joined the cast of ‘Saturday Night Live’ alongside fellow Second City alums Aidy Bryant and Tim Robinson.
Strong had not planned to audition for ‘Saturday Night Live’ when creator Lorne Michaels came for his annual Second City showcase and auditions. She told The Chicago Tribune in 2013, “I was touring Wisconsin (with Second City), working the box office (at iO), babysitting and just being poor… I was living in Old Town in a small artist studio loft across from Second City. I was just happy to be performing and working in a place I liked. And if that meant being poor forever, I was okay with that. Everybody wants ‘SNL,’ but I wouldn’t say it out loud. It seemed so impossible. I wasn’t going to audition. I didn’t know if I was ready and didn’t want to blow my chances.”
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Her Years On ‘Saturday Night Live’ And Some Of Her Best Characters
Cecily Strong joined ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2012 as a featured player and cemented herself as one of the show’s unspoken anchors in the years to follow. Her first year she introduced an original character who would go on to be one of her most iconic and best-known characters in her time on the show: Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party. This character was known for loudly providing incoherent thoughts, usually political, that were presented absurdly while she rummaged through her purse on ‘Weekend Update’.
In an interview with The New York Times, when asked about creating this character, Strong said, “We were brainstorming characters, and I made fun of one of my ideas. I was like, ‘That’s an important one- for society.’ Then Colin was like, ‘Hey, maybe there’s something to this.’ People have seen bimbos before, but it was so specific to right now – internet culture and everyone having a platform and feeling that they’re right. People have confused playing devil’s advocate with being intelligent.”
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Another one of her characters who appeared quite a bit was Gemma, a British singer who is always making couples feel very uncomfortable. Gemma has appeared six times so far, appearing in sketches alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson twice, Louis C.K., Benedict Cumberbatch, Jason Momoa, and Keegan-Michael Key.
In her first five years, Strong had become known for impersonating political figures on the show. She has impersonated former First Lady Melania Trump several times on the show, in all kinds of sketches varying from a parody of Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’, as a desperate woman who engages in a phone relationship with a customer service agent, and a Cold Open that ended up being a mock ad for the former First Lady’s “Be Best” campaign. On ‘The Tonight Show’ a few years ago Strong even said the Trumps acknowledged her impression, saying “She pointed at me when she walked in and then I think he said, ‘She likes your impression.’ But I’ve heard through the grapevine that she watches the show and likes it.”
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In the past year and a half, Strong has frequently played former Hawaiin Representative Tulsi Gabbard (as a Cruella de Vil-esque character for the Democratic Primary debates), Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Maine Senator Susan Collins, freshman Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, former Trump lawyer Sidney
Powell, former Fox News contributor and Trump campaign advisor Kimberly Guilfoyle, and California Senator Diane Feinstein. Her most popular political impression has been as the Fox News host and ardent Trump supporter Jeanine Pirro, turning her into a constantly wine-drunk and overly-loud pundit on ‘Weekend Update’ who is forever soaking Colin Jost with whatever drink she has on hand, with her most epic display of this character being on the season 46 finale.
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When it came to Strong playing Pirro initially, she told Awards Daily, “Bryan Tucker, who writes it with me, tried to do a full sketch around her a few years ago, but I don’t think enough people knew of her yet. We do so much politics — and not that we shouldn’t — but it can be a little exhausting. Sometimes I just want to do clown stuff. When we brought her back, we needed to do something where it didn’t quite matter if you knew her show or not… Yes, just using her as inspiration for me to play a clown. That day I remember I was so serious about practicing my fall out of the chair. I wanted to know where my pillows were going to be so I could throw myself. I am very serious about my clowning.”
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What She’s Doing Next
The next time fresh Cecily Strong content will be available on our television screens is July 16, 2021, upon the premiere of her new Apple TV+ show, ‘Schmigadoon!’ She and Keegan-Michael Key play a couple going through a rough patch when they wind up in a town where everyone is stuck in a Golden Age-style musical and discover that they are unable to leave until they find true love. The cast is stacked with Broadway legends and talent, including Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Aaron Tveit, Ariana DeBose, Dove Cameron, Jaime Camil, Jane Krakowski, Fred Armisen, and Ann Harada.
Whether she’s in a ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch, doing improv, or starring in a television show, there is no question that Cecily Strong knows how to entertain.
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Caroline Schneider has always had a fascination with television and film. She revels in analyzing and writing about her favorite television shows and movies while looking for the greater meaning within Cinema. Finding the elements that really make people think about deeper messages and trends – which is exactly what Hollywood Insider continues to do.
Caroline Schneider has always had a fascination with television and film. She revels in analyzing and writing about her favorite television shows and movies while looking for the greater meaning within Cinema. Finding the elements that really make people think about deeper messages and trends – which is exactly what Hollywood Insider continues to do.
