Kate McKinnon Live in Conversation in Chicago

Friday 2nd October 2026
 Cahn Auditorium, Evanston 

One of the funniest, most shape-shifting performers of her generation, live on stage.

Kate McKinnon spent a decade on Saturday Night Live becoming one of the most decorated cast members in the show’s history: ten Emmy nominations, two wins, and a catalogue of characters that lodged themselves permanently in the cultural memory. Hillary Clinton. Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Rudy Giuliani. Weird Barbie.

Off screen, she’s proven just as hard to categorise. Novelist, voice actress, comedian, children’s author with a #1 New York Times bestselling series: she has built a body of work that refuses easy summary, animated throughout by the same sensibility. Her Millicent Quibb series, following three peculiar sisters and their mad scientist mentor through increasingly chaotic adventures, has found readers of all ages who recognise something of themselves in its celebration of the brilliantly strange.

Kate joins us for a wide-ranging conversation about a life spent making people laugh, the craft behind character work, and what it means to keep finding new forms. An unmissable evening with one of America’s most beloved comedic voices.