Emily Lynne Berthold is an American comedian, writer, actress, and voice performer who works professionally as Emily Lynne. Public interest often starts with one fact: she is the younger sister of former Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon. But that description leaves out a substantial body of work spanning scripted audio, animation, sketch comedy, television, branded writing, and digital entertainment.
What makes Emily Lynne Berthold especially relevant in 2026 is that her career is not simply a footnote to McKinnon’s. She co-created two of the sisters’ most distinctive projects, Notary Publix and Heads Will Roll, and the latter returned on June 25, 2026, with a second installment, Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent. Audible describes the franchise as a New York Times bestselling Audible Original, while a July 2026 interview with Kal Penn provided a rare look at Lynne’s hands-on involvement in outlining, script development, casting, and character creation.
Emily Lynne Berthold Quick Facts
| Topic | Best-supported information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Emily Lynne Berthold |
| Professional name | Emily Lynne |
| Profession | Comedian, writer, actress, voice performer |
| Hometown | Sea Cliff, Long Island, New York |
| Sister | Kate McKinnon |
| Notable projects | Heads Will Roll, Notary Publix, Our Cartoon President, The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show, This Podcast Has Fleas |
| Spouse | Artist Matt Leary |
| Marriage | Announced in September 2025 |
| Major 2026 project | Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent, released June 25, 2026 |
| Exact birth year | Not consistently confirmed by higher-quality public sources |
| Net worth | No authoritative public figure is available |
The distinction between verified and repeated information matters. Many celebrity-biography pages attach an exact age, height, relationship status, or net-worth estimate to Emily Lynne Berthold without establishing where the figure originated. A stronger biography separates documented professional information from claims that cannot be independently confirmed.
Who Is Emily Lynne Berthold?
Lynne is best described as a multi-format comedy creator and performer. WNYC’s professional biography credits her with appearing in Friends from College, doing voice work for Nature Cat, contributing writing to branded spots involving Ford, MasterCard, and the 89th Academy Awards, and co-creating Notary Publix with Kate McKinnon.
Her screen and audio credits broaden that picture. IMDb lists Emily Lynne as a major voice contributor to Our Cartoon President, a cast member of The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show, and a performer in Friends from College, alongside credits involving This Podcast Has Fleas, Donkey Hodie, Heads Will Roll, and Red Dead Redemption II.
That range is important because Lynne is frequently reduced online to “Kate McKinnon’s sister.” A more accurate description is that she is a working writer-performer and voice actor whose career intersects with McKinnon’s at important moments while also containing independent television, animation, gaming, and audio work.
Early Life: A Comedy-Heavy Childhood on Long Island
Emily Lynne Berthold and Kate McKinnon grew up in Sea Cliff on Long Island, New York. In a 2015 joint interview with Refinery29, the sisters described making numerous homemade videos when they were young and growing up in a household where sketch comedy and classic comedy films were encouraged.
They remembered watching Saturday Night Live and Mel Brooks films with their parents. That background helps explain why their later collaborations feel so instinctive: exaggerated accents, highly specific characters, regional observations, and rapid verbal exchanges were part of the sisters’ shared comedy language years before either had a professional audience.
What About Emily Lynne Berthold’s Age and Education?
This is an area where online search results become surprisingly inconsistent. Some secondary biographies list a 1989 birth year and claim she studied film at SUNY Purchase, but those details are much less consistently established in stronger professional profiles and current interviews.
For that reason, a precise age should not be presented as unquestionable fact without a better primary source. The same standard applies to frequently repeated claims about Lynne’s height, personal wealth, and exact net worth.
This is an important E-E-A-T principle. Repetition across celebrity sites is not the same thing as independent verification.
Notary Publix Showed Her as a Creator, Not Just a Performer
A key early project for Emily Lynne Berthold was Notary Publix, the deliberately absurd 2015 digital comedy she co-created with Kate McKinnon. The sisters portrayed performers who, in turn, played the intensely committed Fra Diavolo sisters, two notaries inhabiting a melodramatic show-within-a-show.
Aidy Bryant appeared as rival Erin Oatmeal, while performers connected to the series included Beck Bennett, Jay Pharoah, and Paula Pell. Crucially, the production credits identify both Emily Lynne and Kate McKinnon as creators, demonstrating that Lynne’s contribution extended beyond appearing on camera.
The series also grew directly out of their Long Island comic sensibility. In their Refinery29 interview, the sisters explained that one inspiration was a memorable local commercial whose distinctive personalities and accents stayed with them.
For anyone researching Lynne’s career, Notary Publix reveals three recurring strengths: character comedy, collaborative writing, and culturally specific observational humor.
Voice Acting Became a Major Part of Emily Lynne Berthold’s Career
Voice performance is one of the clearest through-lines in her résumé. WNYC cast Emily Lynne as Waffles, an enthusiastic dog at the center of This Podcast Has Fleas, a scripted children’s comedy also featuring Jay Pharoah, Eugene Mirman, and Alec Baldwin.
The series debuted in 2017 as part of WNYC Studios’ expansion into children’s podcasting. Its central premise involved Waffles and a cat named Jones running competing podcasts while living under the same roof, making voice characterization and comic timing central to the production.
Emily Lynne later became a particularly prolific cast member on Showtime’s animated political satire Our Cartoon President. IMDb credits her across 43 episodes between 2018 and 2020, voicing characters including Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Karen Pence, Betsy DeVos, Ann Coulter, Stormy Daniels, Theresa May, Queen Elizabeth II, and others.
That volume of work is easy to miss in biographies dominated by her family connection. It shows Lynne operating as a flexible character performer capable of moving between political impressions, narration, parody, and exaggerated voices across a multi-season production.
Television and Other Acting Credits
Emily Lynne Berthold also appeared in Netflix’s Friends from College as Bridesmaid #1 in a 2017 episode. Although relatively small, the live-action credit placed her within a comedy ensemble headed by performers including Keegan-Michael Key and Cobie Smulders.
In 2020, she had a considerably larger sketch-comedy presence in The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show. IMDb and TV Guide list Emily Lynne in five episodes, performing characters including Scuzz, Dani, Bridget, Karen, Rachel, Top Knot Sis 2, and Young Cafe Woman 1.
Her credits also extend beyond traditional television. IMDb lists her among the voice performers associated with the Del Lobos in Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption II, while she voiced Moustro in an episode of PBS Kids’ Donkey Hodie.
Taken together, these roles show a performer comfortable moving among live-action comedy, animation, video games, children’s entertainment, podcasts, and adult scripted audio.
Heads Will Roll Became Her Signature Collaboration
If one project best demonstrates Emily Lynne Berthold as a writer, performer, and creator simultaneously, it is Heads Will Roll. The first installment arrived on Audible in May 2019, created and written by Emily Lynne and Kate McKinnon and produced with Broadway Video.
McKinnon plays Queen Mortuana, a spectacularly self-centered ruler dealing with a peasant uprising, while Lynne voices JoJo, her raven companion. The production featured a remarkable ensemble including Meryl Streep, Peter Dinklage, Tim Gunn, Audra McDonald, Aidy Bryant, and other comedy and entertainment figures.
Audible now describes the series as a New York Times bestselling Audible Original. That is a meaningful milestone for Lynne because the achievement is connected to a property she helped conceive, write, and perform rather than simply a supporting role in another creator’s franchise.
Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent Brought Emily Lynne Back in 2026
The biggest recent development is the franchise’s return. Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent was released on June 25, 2026, with Emily Lynne and McKinnon returning as creators, writers, and lead performers.
The sequel expands the Night Realm with performers including Megan Mullally, Richard Kind, Patti LuPone, Sam Richardson, Carrie Coon, Laurie Metcalf, Jimmy Fallon, D’Arcy Carden, Jenifer Lewis, and Susie Essman. Queen Mortuana faces a supernatural deadline to produce an heir, while JoJo’s attempted physical transformation ends with her becoming a toad.
This is more than a nostalgic reunion. The sequel gives Lynne renewed visibility as a current comedy creator at a time when scripted audio provides writers with the freedom to stage enormous fantasy scenarios without the production costs of visual effects.
How Emily Lynne Berthold Actually Writes With Kate McKinnon
A July 9, 2026 Earsay interview with Kal Penn provides unusually concrete information about how the sisters work. Lynne described their division of labor on Heir Apparent as broadly egalitarian: they developed outlines, McKinnon initially took notes, Lynne transferred the structure into Final Draft, and the sisters eventually divided the scripts between them.
That detail provides genuine information gain because it shows how the collaboration functions beyond promotional language. Lynne participates in story architecture, scene breakdowns, dialogue writing, character development, and casting discussions.
She also explained that the writers mined the years between installments for strange, uncomfortable, or ridiculous real-life interactions. Those experiences were transformed into fantasy storylines touching on therapy, cosmetic procedures, home renovations, wellness culture, and self-optimization.
That approach explains much of the show’s appeal. The setting may involve kingdoms, demons, magic, ravens, and monsters, but the underlying comic engine is recognizably modern anxiety.
Emily Lynne Berthold and Kate McKinnon: Why Their Partnership Works
The sisters’ creative chemistry predates their professional careers. Their childhood videos, shared comedy references, Long Island observations, and ability to build on each other’s character voices created a shorthand that would be difficult to reproduce between newly paired collaborators.
By 2015, Notary Publix turned that family rhythm into visual sketch comedy. Four years later, Heads Will Roll expanded it into serialized audio world-building, and the 2026 sequel demonstrates that their collaboration can support a large ensemble, longer narrative arcs, and more elaborate satire.
Still, Lynne’s identity should not be collapsed into the partnership. Her work with WNYC, Our Cartoon President, The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show, Friends from College, and other productions establishes a separate professional footprint.
Is Emily Lynne Berthold Married?
Yes. Current reporting confirms that Emily Lynne Berthold married artist Matt Leary, with Lynne announcing the marriage in September 2025. PEOPLE reported in June 2026 that Kate McKinnon officiated the outdoor wedding ceremony.
The marriage became a public topic when the sisters appeared together on Today while promoting Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent. Lynne joked about having done something surprisingly “normal,” while McKinnon discussed serving as an ordained officiant.
This detail also illustrates why freshness matters in biographical SEO content. Older pages that still describe Emily Lynne Berthold as single or call Leary only her boyfriend are now outdated.
What Is Emily Lynne Berthold Doing Now?
As of July 2026, Lynne is promoting Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent and speaking publicly about the project’s creative process. Her July 9 appearance on Earsay focused on the sequel’s writing, characters, casting, themes, and the everyday experiences that supplied material for its jokes.
That makes her current professional identity broader than simply “actress” or “stand-up comedian.” A more complete description would be comedy writer, co-creator, voice performer, and actor, with scripted audio presently offering the clearest showcase for all of those skills simultaneously.
For readers trying to understand her work rather than only her family background, a useful viewing and listening path is Heads Will Roll, followed by Notary Publix, Our Cartoon President, This Podcast Has Fleas, and The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show.
Why So Many Online Profiles Get Emily Lynne Berthold Wrong
Celebrity-search pages often reward certainty even when the evidence is weak. That is why exact figures for Lynne’s birth year, age, height, wealth, and personal details may appear on numerous websites without a clearly traceable original source.
The problem is circular sourcing. One website publishes an unsupported number, another copies it, and eventually the volume of repetition makes the claim appear verified.
But repetition does not create evidence.
A stronger biography prioritizes professional biographies, direct interviews, platform credits, established entertainment reporting, and current first-party announcements. Using that standard, Emily Lynne Berthold’s professional credits, 2025 marriage, and 2026 Heads Will Roll return are well supported, while several commonly searched personal statistics remain less certain.
Frequently Asked Questions About Emily Lynne Berthold
1. Who is Emily Lynne Berthold?
Lynne is an American comedian, writer, actress, and voice performer professionally credited as Emily Lynne. She is also Kate McKinnon’s younger sister and has co-created major comedy projects with her, including Notary Publix and Heads Will Roll.
Her independent credits include Our Cartoon President, The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show, Friends from College, This Podcast Has Fleas, Donkey Hodie, Nature Cat, and voice work connected to Red Dead Redemption II.
2. Is Emily Lynne Berthold Kate McKinnon’s sister?
Yes. Emily Lynne is Kate McKinnon’s younger sister. They grew up in Sea Cliff, Long Island, and have recalled making comedy videos together long before they began collaborating professionally.
Their best-known joint projects include Notary Publix and Heads Will Roll. Importantly, both projects establish Lynne as a creator rather than simply a guest appearing because of the family connection.
3. What is Emily Lynne Berthold known for?
She is particularly known for co-creating and starring in Heads Will Roll, voicing numerous political and public figures in Our Cartoon President, performing multiple characters on The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show, and co-creating Notary Publix.
She also starred as Waffles in WNYC’s This Podcast Has Fleas. Her résumé is especially strong in character comedy and voice performance, with writing and creative development playing increasingly visible roles.
4. Who is Emily Lynne Berthold’s husband?
Lynne is married to artist Matt Leary. She announced their marriage in September 2025, and PEOPLE reported in June 2026 that Kate McKinnon officiated their ceremony.
Older articles describing Leary as her boyfriend or Lynne as unmarried are therefore outdated.
5. What is Emily Lynne Berthold doing in 2026?
Her most prominent 2026 project is Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent, the second installment of the fantasy-comedy Audible series she created with Kate McKinnon. It was released on June 25, 2026.
In July 2026, Lynne appeared on Earsay with Kal Penn to discuss writing, casting, characters, and production. The conversation makes clear that she remains directly involved in developing and writing the franchise rather than merely performing in it.
Conclusion
Emily Lynne Berthold has built a career that becomes far more interesting once the “Kate McKinnon’s sister” label is treated as context rather than the whole story. Their creative partnership is undeniably important, particularly through Notary Publix and Heads Will Roll, but Lynne’s own résumé also includes extensive animation voice work, sketch performance, children’s audio, television, gaming, branded comedy writing, and long-form scripted storytelling.
The best next step is to evaluate that work directly. Start with Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent for the newest example of her writing and performance style, then explore Our Cartoon President, This Podcast Has Fleas, and Notary Publix to see how her comic voice developed across formats.
For publishers building or updating a biography, there is another takeaway: prioritize current, first-party, and professionally edited sources. Avoid filling gaps with copied age, height, or net-worth estimates simply because competitors have done so. That combination of accuracy, freshness, original analysis, and transparent sourcing is what gives an Emily Lynne Berthold article a genuine chance to outperform thin celebrity profiles in search.
