Cecily Strong’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Cecily Legler Strong (born February 8, 1984) is an American actress, voice actress, and comedian, known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live, having joined the show in 2012.

Early life

Strong was born in Springfield, Illinois, and was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. She is the daughter of Penelope Strong and Bill Strong, who worked as an Associated Press bureau chief and is now managing partner at a Chicago public relations firm. Strong’s parents are divorced. She has a younger brother. Strong grew up adoring SNL as a child, reenacting sketches with her friend and watching old SNL commercials on VHS. “I had a tape of the best commercials, and I wore it out, every day.” She has stated that she was inspired by Phil Hartman.

She attended Oak Park and River Forest High School before transferring for her senior year to the Chicago Academy for the Arts, where she graduated in 2002. She then studied acting at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), graduating in 2006 with a BFA in theatre. After graduating from CalArts, Strong returned to Chicago, where she studied at the Second City Conservatory and iO Chicago.

Career

Strong performed regularly at The Second City and iO Chicago. Strong has performed on a “cruise ship with fellow Second City members for four months” [1]. She appeared at the Chicago Sketch Fest, Chicago Just for Laughs, New York Sketchfest, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, at the Goodman Theater, Bailiwick Theater, the Mercury Theater, and with the all-female improv troupe Virgin Daiquiri.

Saturday Night Live

Strong debuted as a featured player on Saturday Night Live on 15 September 2012. Strong co-anchored the recurring Weekend Update segment with Seth Meyers, beginning with the season 39 premiere. Strong later co-anchored with Colin Jost, and was replaced on Weekend Update with writer Michael Che, beginning with the season 40 premiere in September 2014. However, she remained a part of the regular cast.

The moment that largely defined Strong as a hit on Saturday Night Live was from Strong’s character in “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party”. Colin Jost, who succeeded Seth Meyers on “Weekend Update,” also co-writes with Strong “non sequiturs and risqué malapropisms, “Porn Stars”: “Herpes handbags! One out of every four people has it—and so should you.” [2]

Strong’s recurring characters include a ditzy, unintelligent and unnamed pseudo-activist known as “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party”, Dana (one of a pair of retail employees who always insult their coworkers out of fear of being fired), Kyra from “The Girlfriends Talk Show”, and an unnamed blond former porn star-turned-model/commercial actress who hawks elegant items. Most of her recurring characters are either very feminine or mentally unstable. Her celebrity impressions include Allison Williams, Anjelica Huston, Ariana Grande, Sofia Vergara, Brooke Baldwin, Fran Drescher, Jill Kelley, Khloe Kardashian, Lydia Callis, Lana Del Rey, Paula Broadwell, Megyn Kelly, Alanis Morissette, Gloria Estefan, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, Sarah Koenig, Rachel Maddow, Melania Trump, Carly Fiorina, Michelle Rodriguez, Erin Burnett, Gloria Borger and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Other work

Strong was the featured entertainer at the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. She lambasted the various news organizations in attendance, politicians of all persuasions, and President Obama. She also took shots at the US Secret Service, host location the Washington Hilton, Brian Williams, Sarah Koenig, and the state of Indiana.

In 2016, she appeared in a commercial for Old Navy, alongside other SNL cast members Nasim Pedrad and Jay Pharoah. That year, Strong also joined the climate change documentary show Years of Living Dangerously as a celebrity correspondent. In 2016, she guest starred in an episode of Angie Tribeca and Scream Queens.

Filmography

Film

Television