“I grew up in Berkeley, California and had an eclectic, Bohemian childhood. Growing up, I wanted to be an actress and a dancer. I wanted to be Meryl Streep, basically, so I ended up going to the Tisch School at NYU. Comedy wasn’t in my mind at all. After graduating, I moved to Los Angeles to be an actor and kind of failed at it. When I found the Groundlings, an improv group, I didn’t know a lot of people; I was doing improv purely to make friends. In class, I got the suggestion to do Drew Barrymore, and afterwards, everyone was like, ‘Whoa.’ Around that time, Instagram was starting up, and people were starting to put stuff out, and that was that. I made a video compilation to audition for Saturday Night Live and the team liked mine. Then I did a showcase in LA. Ben Affleck was there—not to brag—and it went well. Then I flew out to New York and tested. The first time I tested, it was me, Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Lauren Holt, and people who wanted to be writers. I auditioned twice and got it.

BEAUTY
I’ve always been into beauty in a crazy way. Cindy Crawford used to have these workout videos, and I was obsessed with them. I used to draw a beauty mark on my face. In high school—this is so toxic—I remember using a brown Sharpie. And then I’d cover my face with lipstick. I mean, people wore lip gloss at school already, but I was like, "No, we’re doing lipstick. Huzzah!’ Then I remember when people started plucking their eyebrows, I was like, ‘Ugh, too much work.’ I went into my mom’s bathroom—or maybe I used my dad’s razor—and I shaved my brows right down the middle. I looked like a clown for a while.

SNL and beauty really go hand in hand in a big way. If your script gets picked, you get to decide the wigs and the costumes and the makeup. I will say, it can be a bit of a nightmare for me—I literally cut my hair recently because I had a short wig on during a Weekend Update. Plus, the art of what looks funny versus pretty is always a fine line to walk. I’m always referencing Absolutely Fabulous, which is a British show from the ‘90s. It’s incredible and my favorite thing ever. It features these two women that I always look to for wig inspo. For a recent skit, which got cut, I was trying to have a frazzled wig, but the wig looked too hot. [Laughs] By the way, I still keep my wigs in my oven. If I’m making my sweet potatoes, I take them out.

TREATMENTS
I'm in my thirties, which means I’m at peak med spa mistake age. It all turned dark during COVID. When they lifted enough restrictions in LA, I was like ‘This is the time to get Botox, because no one will see me for probably six months.’ But then I couldn’t lift my forehead until right when we came back to work—and for comedy and acting, you want to be able to move your face. Also, being around other women my age at work, and in New York in general, everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you should do this’ or ‘You’ve got to go here.’ I wanted to get a laser treatment before the first Met Gala I went to, and then next thing I knew I accidentally did Fraxel and couldn’t leave the house for seven days. Another time I wanted a subtle change in my lips, but then they became swollen and way out there. Every six months, I feel like I tell [my makeup artist] Marc Reagan, ‘Sorry, I made a mistake. Whoops.’ That said, Linda Behla is my favorite ever at Hayes Valley Medical Esthetics. She’s heaven. I’ve been going to her for years. I got Emsculpt last summer at Hayes, and it’s crazy what it did to my abs. Dr. Lara Devgan is my favorite for subtle treatments. I once got the tiniest amount of filler in my lips, and I didn’t bruise. They weren’t swollen either. I told her, ‘You’re a wizard.’

SKINCARE
Tracie Martyn’s Amla cleanser is generally great, and Tata Harper’s oil cleanser is great for removing makeup. It’s probably the one I use the most. I don’t think people realize how much makeup we’re wearing on SNL—it’s like a newscaster’s amount of makeup. Honestly, smell is number one for me. I like anything that reminds me of Berkeley—clean and hippie and natural. If that’s a part of anything I’m putting on my face, I feel good. Living Libations’s Best Skin Ever Seabuckthorn has my favorite scent ever.

I’ve used Biologique Recherche P50 maybe three times. I’m afraid of it. Everyone’s like, ‘The purge! The purge!’ And I don’t want to purge. But Kate Berlant, the host of Poog, which is my favorite podcast ever for all things, said it’s important, so I do have it and I look at it. Tracie Martyn has a good toner too, but I’m just not that good about it. Joanna Vargas’s Vitamin C Skin Rescue isn’t scary, nor does it smell like pennies and ham. If everything is just light and actually smells good, I’ll put it on my face no matter what—but the stuff that supposedly changes your life stinks. Like, to put P50 and then ham oil on top of it is really tough. I even hate sunscreen because I hate the smell.

I love U Beauty—that’s a big one for me. The founder, Tina Chen Craig, is iconic. I met her on a fashion trip and she told us she had a skincare line. We tried it and then were all like, ‘This is the best thing ever.’ Her stuff is so simple that I go to it frequently. I love the Resurfacing Compound, I throw on the Super Hydrator, and I love the Intensive Face Oil that she just came out with. To me, that’s easy. Done. And while I do think Augustinus Bader’s Rich Cream is worth the money, I will say that the moisturizer I return to when my skin is dry is Kat Burki’s Vitamin C Intensive Face Cream. I’ve been using it for years and years. It’s delicious. I have one at work. I have one at home. I like to keep it in the refrigerator, and it feels so good when I put it on.

MAKEUP
I don’t want to walk around with makeup on me, so I have it all in my dressing room. I love to slap on some Jones Road Miracle Balm—I have all of the shades—and Tata Harper Cream Blush in Peachy. U Beauty and Macrene both have tinted moisturizers that I love; I use shade 02 and Light-Medium respectively. U Beauty’s is unbelievable. It gives you a beautiful glow. It’s sort of like the Westman Atelier Complexion Drops, which are great but too oily for me.

When it comes to brows, I get mine tinted. In New York, I go to Azi Sacks—she’s a character. I love texting her, and being like, ‘Hey, when can I come in?’ She’s like, ‘April 2026.’ Anytime I see her, it’s probably because she had a cancellation. In LA, I used to go to Striiike, but now, I just go to Michelle Holmes for the same feathered brow look. She’s so lovely and talented and has a great brow serum called Rye. I use it all the time. She was the one who got me hooked on the Obagi brow serum, which has made my brows amazing and changed my life. It’s magic. Still, I like to fill them in with an Anastasia Beverly Hills pencil—I like all of them but especially Brow Wiz—in Taupe. I curl my lashes with the Kevyn Aucoin eyelash curler, and then I love all of Kevyn Aucoin’s mascaras. Tom Ford and Makeup by Mario have amazing neutral eyeshadow palettes. I love taupe-y shades. Meanwhile, Pat McGrath’s Mothership VII Divine Rose eyeshadow palette is great for going out.

The best lip liners ever are from Fara Homidi. They’re like nine million dollars, but I have never found better colors than Minky and Doux. I love all of the Bisou Balms from Violette_FR, too but especially Amour Fou and Bêtise. Les Filles En Rouje has these great gold lip palettes. They make my lips look like I got them filled. I always toss the Signature one in my purse.

I just got the Chanel Multi-Use Glow Stick. It’s really glistening and beautiful. Chanel also has my favorite waterproof eyeliner. I’ve been using 30 Marine, the navy blue one, since high school. Brown is also great—I feel like black eyeliner looks really harsh on me since I have blue eyes. In the fall, I like Lancôme’s Black Coffee eyeliner, especially in my waterline.

HAIR
Jacob Schwartz at Mèche Salon has been dyeing my hair for nine years. I’ve been blonde probably for seven years now. He does Margot Robbie, Sydney Sweeney, and any famous blonde really. He’s the best. There’s something weird with comedy and blonde. For me, dark hair is drama, so when I did Francis Ford Coppola’s movie Megalopolis, I had to be a brunette. Then I went back to SNL and everyone was confused. They were like, ‘You have to be blonde.’ This is dorky, but over the summer I went to Comédie-Française, an old theater in Paris, and on the walls, one side was full of dramatic actors and the other side was comedic actors. All of the comedians were blonde or strawberry blonde, and all of the dramatic actors were brunette. I’ve at least figured out the color, but when it comes to the cut, I’m like, ‘I don’t know,’ so I just get it short. My friend Desiree Roberts, who was the first person to make me blonde, cuts it. She cuts every one of my family and friends’ hair, too. She even did my sister’s hair at her wedding. If I’m in New York and can’t see Desiree or Jacob, I like Jenna Perry.

For products, I love RŌZ, Mara Roszak’s line. She does Emma Stone, and anything that’s on her hair is great. It all smells like heaven. I use the Foundation shampoo and conditioner, but I love the Santa Lucia styling oil and the milk hair serum, too. LolaVie, Jennifer Aniston’s brand, smells so good, too, kind of like lemongrass and Malibu. And Kevin Murphy’s Doo Over is a really good hairspray. We use that at work.

FRAGRANCE
I’ve never liked feminine scents. I want my perfumes to be more gender-neutral. My girliest perfume is Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Baccarat Rouge 540. It’s really good, but now everyone wears it. Terre d’Hermes is my tried-and-true. It smells orange-y and beautiful. I wore it all through college. My best friend, Casey Thomas Brown wears it. My boyfriend wears it. My dad wore it growing up, so I guess that makes me a disgusting pervert. [Laughs] I guess all the men in my life wear it.

Tom Broecker, who does the costumes at SNL, wears Straight to Heaven from Kilian. I would always ask what he was wearing, and he’d be like, ‘I’m not telling.’ Finally, he told me, and I bought it. The same thing happened with a friend of mine who wore Escentric Molecule 01 and wouldn’t tell me the name either. Then one day I was in an Uber Pool and I smelled it on someone who kindly told me what it was. And I wear Aēsop herbal deodorant, so that kind of acts like a scent, too.

At home, I burn Cire Trudon’s Abd El Kader candle. I love it, but Hotel Costes in Paris has my favorite candle. It’s their brown scented candle. I have the room spray version, too.

FITNESS + NAILS
My parents got really into pilates in the ’90s, so I had a full sex dungeon in my basement as a kid. I was in middle school when they got all the equipment, and that’s when you have middle school parties and boys over, so all my memories are us destroying those machines and laughing. Then I learned pilates myself when I was 14, so I have 21 years of pilates under my belt. Not to brag. I am a broken person, and I need pilates to relax. If I’m visiting my parents in Northern California, I go to X˙CORE. If I’m in LA, I go to Studio Metamorphosis. If I’m in New York, I like SLT or Tracy Anderson.

I hate getting manicures and pedicures—sitting there hurts my back. It’s better if I’m with my sister or my best friend because we just talk the whole time. For that I go to QQ Nails & Spa because they’re fast and I can always walk in. Otherwise, if I’m on my own, I’d much rather get a massage. I do a 90-minute body massage and a 30-minute foot massage at All Seasons Body Work in Greenwich Village. It’s the best.”

—As told to Daise Bedolla

Photographed by Alexandra Genova in New York on April 8, 2024 (eclipse day!)