Cecily Strong is departing Saturday Night Live after 11 seasons

• Cecily Strong has been a cast member of NBC’s Saturday Night Live since 2012.
• She made her final appearance on December 17.
• Former co-anchor Michael Che asked, “Wait, where are you going?”. and she said, “Turns out, prison!”.

Cecily Strong is saying farewell to NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

The celebrity made an appearance in what was declared to be her final episode as a cast member on December 17 after 11 seasons of being a part of the show. While playing one of her most well-known recurrent roles, Cathy Anne, she made her exit announcement during the Weekend Update segment.

“I’m a little emo tonight because, truth is, I’m here to say goodbye,” she said, to which co-anchor Michael Che asked, “Wait, where are you going?”

Strong’s character then responded, “Turns out, prison!”

She later said she had “friends on the inside,” and a picture of former SNL cast mates Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant wearing orange prison garb was shown. Both actors left the show in May.

In another comedy on the show, Strong played herself as a departing RadioShack employee as episode presenter Austin Butler, who played the late Elvis Presley in the movie Elvis, started to serenade her as “Casual Elvis” with the 1957 classic “Blue Christmas” by the King of Rock and Roll.

Strong and the rest of the cast joined in, with the musical number ending in many hugs.

Strong, 38, was acting in the Off-Broadway revival of Jane Wagner’s one-woman piece The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe while she was gone from much of the current 48th season of SNL until December 17.

Strong, a Springfield, Illinois native, debuted on Saturday Night Live in season 38 in 2012 as a featured player before becoming a cast member the following year. She stepped down from her role as co-anchor of Weekend Update in 2014 so that Che may concentrate on acting in comedy.

Strong’s role on SNL earned her nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series at the Emmys in 2020 and 2021. She rose to fame during her tenure on the programme for portraying original characters such Cathy Anne and The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation with at a Party, as well as for her impersonations of famous people like Melania Trump and Jeanine Pirro.

“Every time she gave to work, she had a new character or new accent or new impression that would blow you away,” cast member Kenan Thompson said in the “Blue Christmas” sketch. “She’d have a power and a joy to her performance that made you remember why you loved working at Radio Shack in the first place.”

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