Cecily Legler Strong (born February 8, 1984)[2][3] is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2012 to 2022.[4] She is the longest-tenured female cast member in the show's history.[5]
Strong was born in Springfield, Illinois, and was raised in Oak Park, an inner ring suburb of Chicago.[6] She is the daughter of Penelope and William "Bill" Strong, who worked as an Associated Press bureau chief and as of 2013 ran his own public-relations firm.[2][6] Penny Legler Strong is a nurse practitioner, having worked extensively at area hospitals. Strong's parents are divorced.[7] Strong grew up adoring SNL as a child, reenacting sketches with her friend[8] 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.[9]
In a 2021 interview with Terry Gross on the National Public Radio program Fresh Air, Strong said that because her uncle is a Broadway producer, as a child she often was able to attend Broadway shows and sometimes go back stage to meet their casts.[10]
Strong drew praise from abortion-rights supporters, and strong backlash from abortion opponents, after appearing in a comedy skit, "Goober the Clown Who Had An Abortion When She Was 23," during a Weekend Update sketch on the November 6, 2021, episode.[24] The sketch followed U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments in two cases relating to the Texas Heartbeat Act.[25] Strong later confirmed on her Instagram account that the sketch referenced her own abortion.[26] Strong followed up on the commentary a year later, during a Weekend Update sketch on the November 5, 2022, episode, appearing as "Tammy the Trucker on Gas Prices and Definitely Not Abortion" before the 2022 midterm elections.[27]
Strong returned to SNL for season 48, and passed former castmate Kate McKinnon as the longest-running female cast member in the show's history,[28][5] though she missed the first three shows of the season reprising her role in the play The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe in Los Angeles.[29] She returned on the October 29, 2022, episode.[30] Strong passed McKinnon's record with the December 17, 2022, episode,[31][5] her last.[32][5]
Dana, a loud-mouthed, unfriendly retail employee who along with Niff (played by Bobby Moynihan) always insults her coworkers out of fear of being fired,
Donna Fingerneck, The Art of the Encounter and Women in the Workplace co-host with Jodi Cork (played by Kate McKinnon),
Heather, a one-dimensional female character from a male-driven comedy,
Cathy Anne, the drug-addicted neighbor of Michael Che (usually introduced by Che as "the woman who's always yelling outside my window"), who has strong opinions on current events,
An unnamed blonde former porn star-turned-model/commercial actress who hawks elegant items alongside Brecky (played by Vanessa Bayer),
Gemma, an aspiring British singer with various boyfriends,
In 2016, she appeared in a commercial for Old Navy,[38] 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.[39] In 2016, she guest starred as Samantha Stevens in TBS's Angie Tribeca and Catherine Hobart in Fox's Scream Queens. She has appeared in a series of commercials for Triscuit since 2017. Starting in 2020 she starred in a series of Prego Spaghetti sauce commercials and in 2022 she was in several Verizon commercials featuring Apple+ TV with several co-stars including Adam Scott and Julian Edelman.
Her first book, a memoir titled This Will All Be Over Soon, was published on August 10, 2021.[40][41] The book addresses "the challenges of beginning in a relationship during the pandemic; the pain of losing family and friends; the pivotal events of her life that shaped her; and the importance of gratitude for each passing day."[42] It developed from an essay she wrote about grieving the loss of her cousin Owen to brain cancer in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic that was first published on Vulture.com in 2020.[43][44]
It was then announced in December 2023, that Strong would co-star in the off Broadway play Brooklyn Laundry, which opened at the New York Center on February 28, 2024.[51]
.jpg)
