Emily Lynne Berthold: Comedy, Kate McKinnon, and Heads Will Roll
Emily Lynne Berthold is a comedian, writer, and performer. She is also Kate McKinnon’s younger sister. Her best-known work includes Notary Publix and the Audible comedy Heads Will Roll, both made with Kate. She also helped voice Kate’s Millicent Quibb audiobook. In 2026, the sisters returned with Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent.
Her career has grown through comedy, character work, and audio. She and Kate share a love of odd voices and strange comic worlds, but Emily has a clear role in the work. She has been a co-creator, writer, and performer, not just a famous actor’s sister.
A Comedian With Her Own Creative Work
Emily Lynne Berthold is often found through searches about Kate McKinnon. Yet Kate herself has called her sister a comedian.
In a 2024 Publishers Weekly interview, Kate talked about recording The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science. She said she split the book’s many voices with her sister. That gave Emily a key part in the audio version of Kate’s first middle-grade novel.
The detail says a lot about how the sisters work together. Their projects tend to depend on voice, timing, and bold characters. They do not just appear beside each other. They build comic scenes together.
That pattern was already clear years earlier.
Notary Publix Put the Sisters on Screen Together
In 2015, Emily Lynne Berthold and Kate teamed up for Notary Publix, a short web comedy from Above Average, the digital arm of Broadway Video.
The Los Angeles Times covered the series and noted that the real-life sisters played actresses who then played sisters working as notaries.
The setup was meant to be silly and confusing. Kate and Emily played performers inside a fake show. Those performers then took on the roles of Gina and Teresa Fra Diavolo.
The series made fun of soap-style drama, office life, and actors who take strange jobs far too seriously. Aidy Bryant also appeared as a rival notary, while other comedy performers joined the cast.
Notary Publix matters because it shows an early stage of the sisters’ work as a team. The idea came years before their large Audible project.
It also shows the kind of humor they share. The characters are big. The world is absurd. Everyone treats the nonsense as if it is very serious.
Heads Will Roll Took Their Comedy Into Audio
The pair moved into a larger project in 2019 with Heads Will Roll.
Emily Lynne Berthold co-created the fantasy comedy with Kate. Kate plays Queen Mortuana, while her sister plays JoJo, the queen’s raven friend and close adviser.
The story takes place in a wild fantasy kingdom, but many of the jokes are about modern life. Work, status, beauty, love, power, and social pressure all find a place in the strange world.
Audio was a good fit for the sisters. Their comedy often relies on voices, quick timing, and characters with strong points of view.
The first season also had a major cast. Meryl Streep, Peter Dinklage, Audra McDonald, Tim Gunn, and several Saturday Night Live performers took part.
Audible later said the first season reached the New York Times Best Seller List.
That success gave Emily one of the strongest credits in her career. She was not only in the cast. She helped create the series itself.
JoJo Gives Her a Central Role
As JoJo, Emily has one of the main roles in Heads Will Roll.
The character is close to Queen Mortuana and helps drive the story. That gives her much more to do than a short guest part.
Voice acting also puts a lot of weight on sound alone. There is no face, costume, or body language to carry a scene. The actor has to make the character clear through pace, tone, and timing.
That suits the style Emily and Kate use together.
Their scenes can move from fantasy drama to everyday complaints in a few lines. A royal problem can sound like an office problem. A magical crisis can feel like a bad date or a fight with a friend.
The mix gives the series its own voice, and Emily’s work as JoJo is part of that core.
The Millicent Quibb Audiobook Added Another Voice Role
In 2024, Kate released The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science.
The book is aimed at middle-grade readers and follows a group of unusual girls in a strange world of science and danger.
When Kate recorded the audiobook, she did not perform every character alone. She shared the voices with her sister.
Publishers Weekly quoted Kate saying that she knew how each voice should sound while she wrote the book. She wanted to act them out in the audio version, then split the work with Emily.
For Emily Lynne Berthold, the project added a different kind of voice job.
Heads Will Roll is an adult comedy with a full cast. Millicent Quibb is a children’s audiobook built from a novel. The tone and job are different, but both depend on clear character voices.
It also shows the trust between the sisters as performers. Kate wrote the characters, then brought Emily into the job of giving some of them a voice.
Heads Will Roll Returned in 2026
In April 2026, Audible announced a second season called Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent.
The sequel came out on June 25, 2026. Emily Lynne Berthold and Kate returned as both creators and stars.
Kate again played Queen Mortuana. Emily returned as JoJo.
Audible’s 2026 announcement said the new cast included Megan Mullally, Richard Kind, Laurie Metcalf, Sam Richardson, Carrie Coon, Patti LuPone, Jimmy Fallon, Jenifer Lewis, and more.
The size of that cast shows how far the project had grown.
The new season also kept the same basic comic idea. It uses a fantasy kingdom to poke fun at modern fears and social rules. Mortuana faces pressure to produce an heir, while JoJo goes through a bizarre change of her own.
The plot is strange on purpose. The feelings under the jokes are much more familiar.
A Co-Creator, Not Just a Cast Member
One of the most useful facts about Emily Lynne Berthold is her role behind Heads Will Roll.
She is a co-creator.
That means her work is not limited to reading lines written for her. She shares credit for the world, the tone, and the comic idea with Kate.
Audible’s 2026 announcement put both sisters at the center of the project. It described them as the creators and stars of the series.
This is an important point because many short bios focus only on the family link.
The creative credit tells readers more.
Emily has helped build a comedy property that ran for two seasons, drew major actors, and reached a national best-seller list in its first run.
The Sisters Have Worked Together for More Than a Decade
The timeline shows a long working bond.
Notary Publix arrived in 2015. Heads Will Roll followed in 2019. The Millicent Quibb audiobook came in 2024. Heir Apparent brought them back to their own audio world in 2026.
That is more than one family cameo.
Each project also uses a different format.
Notary Publix was short video comedy. Heads Will Roll is a full audio series. Millicent Quibb is a book performance.
The same skills keep showing up: voices, character work, odd ideas, and fast comic rhythm.
That helps explain why the sisters keep returning to each other as creative partners.
Kate has a much larger public profile because of Saturday Night Live and films such as Barbie. Emily’s career has stayed smaller and more focused on comedy work behind or away from the biggest screen roles.
Still, the projects they share give her a clear place in their creative partnership.
Why Emily Lynne Berthold Draws Search Interest
Most people first search Emily Lynne Berthold because they know Kate McKinnon.
Then the questions change.
They want to know whether she is also a comedian, what she has made, and where the sisters have worked together.
The strongest answers come from the work.
She is a comedian. She co-created Heads Will Roll. She plays JoJo. She appeared in Notary Publix. She also shared voice work on the Millicent Quibb audiobook.
Those facts give a fuller picture than personal details that have little to do with her career.
They also show why her name still draws interest in 2026. Heir Apparent put her back in a lead creative role on a new Audible release.
Her Comedy Has a Clear Pattern
Emily’s best-known projects share a style.
They like characters who are too serious about ridiculous things. They use odd voices and big personalities. They take common fears and place them in strange settings.
Notary Publix made a tiny office task feel like a soap opera.
Heads Will Roll turns modern pressure into fantasy chaos.
The Millicent Quibb audiobook uses voice work to bring a strange book world to life.
That pattern helps connect work that might otherwise look very different.
It also makes Emily Lynne Berthold easier to understand as a creator. Her career is built around character comedy, writing, and performance, with audio becoming a major part of that work.
Where Her Career Stands in 2026
By 2026, Emily Lynne Berthold was still active as a comedian and creator.
Heads Will Roll: Heir Apparent gave her a fresh co-creator credit and brought her back as JoJo. Audible promoted the series as the return of both sisters, not as a solo Kate McKinnon project.
That wording fits the work.
The two women built the series together.
More than a decade after Notary Publix, their partnership is still producing new comedy. The format has changed and the casts have grown, but character work remains at the center.
Emily’s career does not need to be measured against her sister’s fame. Her strongest credits stand on their own: comedian, co-creator, writer, and voice performer.
For another profile of a creative person with a famous family connection and a career of his own, read our Henry Wolfe profile on LakewoodScoop.co.uk.