Why Kate McKinnon Moved from N.Y.C. to Live 'in the Woods' After “Saturday Night Live” (Exclusive)
- - Why Kate McKinnon Moved from N.Y.C. to Live 'in the Woods' After “Saturday Night Live” (Exclusive)
Jack SmartFebruary 14, 2026 at 5:39 AM
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Kate McKinnon at the Sundance Film Festival premiere of 'In The Blink of an Eye' on Jan. 26
Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic
Kate McKinnon spoke to PEOPLE at the Sundance Film Festival premiere of In the Blink of an Eye
Following her time living in New York City and starring on Saturday Night Live, McKinnon confirms that she’s “living in the woods” now
“I'm doing that pretty hard,” she adds of life these days
Kate McKinnon is living the country life.
The actress, 42, spoke to PEOPLE at the Jan. 26 Sundance Film Festival premiere of her new movie In the Blink of an Eye and confirmed that she has swapped New York City for life in an unspecified rural location.
“I'm living in the woods,” McKinnon says with a smile. “I moved to the woods — and I'm doing that pretty hard.”
Kate McKinnon on 'Saturday Night Live' in 2023
Caro Scarimbolo/NBC via Getty
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Yes, the Saturday Night Live alum is “serious,” she adds, and yes, she loves it. “Come over,” she tells PEOPLE. “I’ll make you pie.”
Asked for what she’s leaving behind in 2025 and bringing into 2026, McKinnon says, “We are manifesting things being okay on some level.”
Since her Emmy-winning run on SNL from 2012 to 2022, the actress and comedian has starred in such Hollywood projects as Barbie, The Roses and now In the Blink of an Eye, director Andrew Stanton’s sci-fi epic.
But she’s also left bustling Manhattan for a homestead in the country, as she told Amy Poehler on the Good Hang podcast in October. “I think the reason I’ve done it is that I believe very much that we are doomed,” she said at the time.
Kate McKinnon in 'In The Blink of An Eye'
Hulu/YouTube
“My goal is surviving the apocalypse [for] four days,” joked McKinnon. “If I can make it to four, oh mama, I will have achieved something.”
After bidding farewell to SNL in 2022 — wrapping up a run as the sketch show’s first openly lesbian cast member and, at that time, the longest tenure of any other female cast member — McKinnon explained on Live With Kelly and Ryan that she “thought about it for a very long time, and it was very, very hard. … I loved it, I had the best decade, and then I was just like, my body was tired, and I felt like it was time."
In the Blink of an Eye, also starring Rashida Jones and Daveed Diggs, is on Hulu Feb. 27.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
