Alison Gates (born 1988 or 1989) is an American comedy writer and actress who is currently a head writer for ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

''. She previously lived in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and worked with

the Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise. It is the oldest improvisational theater troupe to be continuously based in Chicago, with training programs and live theaters in Toronto and New York. Since its debut in 1959, it has b ...

's touring company and an all-female

iO Theater iO, or iO Chicago, (formerly known as ImprovOlympic) is an improv theater and training center in central Chicago. The theater teaches and hosts performances of improvisational comedy. It was founded in 1981 by Del Close and Charna Halpern. The ...

troupe.

Career

Improvisational theatre

Born and raised in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of M ...

, 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 Yale

Ex!t Players The Yale Ex!t Players, or the Exit Players, is an improvisational comedy group at Yale University in New Haven, CT, United States. The Exit Players was founded in 1984, making it the oldest Yale improv group. It is also one of the oldest colleg ...

. At

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Gates, who plays guitar and mandolin, performed in ''

Measure for Measure ''Measure for Measure'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604 and first performed in 1604. It was published in the First Folio of 1623. The play centers on the despotic and puritan Angelo (Measure for ...

'' among other shows. She was also a managing editor of ''

The Yale Record ''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it is the oldest humor magazine in the United States."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/history/ ''The Record'' is c ...

'' humor magazine and graduated from Yale in 2011. After moving to

, Gates began to take improv "a little more seriously" and, after going through

'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. 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. While with Second City, Gates said that "my dream job would be writing instead of performing". In Chicago, Gates was also a member of Virgin Daiquiri, an all-female iO improv group. She also performed with Casual Encounters for iO, Shinbone Alley for Chemically Imbalanced Comedy, and the Fallen Elegant.

''Saturday Night Live''

At an iO showcase before the forty-fourth season of ''Saturday Night Live,''

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's long-running sketch comedy show, Gates performed pieces about "a plantation

docent The term "docent" is derived from the Latin word , which is the third-person plural present active indicative of ('to teach, to lecture'). Becoming a docent is often referred to as habilitation or doctor of science and is an academic qualifi ...

describing her awful life, a teacher humiliated by a fall in front of the class, and

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

advisor Stephen Miller," according to the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

.'' Gates was announced as a new ''SNL'' writer on September 21, 2018. After her fourth week at ''SNL'', Gates was noted for her sketch "Teacher Fell Down," which Alison Herman of '' The Ringer'' called "a gloriously weird bit from the

Jonah Hill Jonah Hill (born Jonah Hill Feldstein; December 20, 1983) is an American actor. List of awards and nominations received by Jonah Hill, The accolades he has received include nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, BAFTA ...

episode centering on McKinnon's drama queen of a driver's ed instructor," She is a head writer for the show as of the second half of the show's 47th season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gates, Alison American comedy writers Living people Screenwriters from Massachusetts Writers from Chicago Actresses from Massachusetts Actresses from Chicago Yale University alumni 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American actresses American television writers American women television writers American women screenwriters Screenwriters from Illinois Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American screenwriters Comedians from Chicago Comedians from Massachusetts American women comedians