Alison Gates (born 1988 or 1989) is an American comedy writer and actress who is currently a head writer forSaturday Night Live. She previously lived inChicago and worked withthe Second City's touring company and an all-femaleiO Theater troupe.
Born and raised inWellesley, Massachusetts,[2] Gates said she started doing improvisational theatre in high school, and then continued "in college sort of as a way to meet people." She was part of Yale's oldest improv comedy troupe, The YaleEx!t Players.[1] AtYale University Gates, who plays guitar and mandolin, performed inMeasure for Measure among other shows.[3][4] She was also a managing editor ofThe Yale Record humor magazine and graduated from Yale in 2011.[5]
When you get to know other performers in your cast and know their voices and sense of humor, it can be so fun to write pieces that showcase those things. That can be more freeing than writing material for yourself.
Gates on her writing process at the Second City[6]
After moving toChicago, Gates began to take improv "a little more seriously" and, after going throughthe Second City's conservatory program, was hired by the Second City after its annual general audition, eventually moving from understudy to part of the BlueCo touring company in 2015.[1][6]
She said that "one of the great things about performing at Second City" was getting to continually "make tweaks and re-improvise" scenes after having planned with fellow cast members and performed in front of an audience.[1] While with Second City, Gates said that "my dream job would be writing instead of performing".[1]
In Chicago, Gates was also a member of Virgin Daiquiri, an all-femaleiO improv group.[7] She also performed with Casual Encounters for iO, Shinbone Alley for Chemically Imbalanced Comedy, and the Fallen Elegant.[6]
At an iO showcase before theforty-fourth season ofSaturday Night Live,NBC's long-running sketch comedy show, Gates performed pieces about "a plantationdocent describing her awful life, a teacher humiliated by a fall in front of the class, andWhite House advisorStephen Miller," according to theChicago Sun-Times.[7] Gates was announced as a newSNL writer on September 21, 2018.[8]
After her fourth week atSNL, Gates was noted for her sketch "Teacher Fell Down," which Alison Herman ofThe Ringer called "a gloriously weird bit from theJonah Hill episode centering on[Kate] McKinnon's drama queen of a driver's ed instructor,"[9]
She is a head writer for the show as of the second half of the show's47th season.[10]
