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Emily Lynne Berthold (American Actress & Comedian)
Emily Lynne Berthold biography tells the story of an American actress, comedian, writer, and voice artist who has steadily carved out her own space in the entertainment world through talent, versatility, and a sharp sense of humor. Born and raised in Sea Cliff, a quiet coastal town on Long Island, New York, Berthold grew up in a household that clearly valued creativity. She later studied film at the State University of New York at Purchase, where she also sharpened her comedic instincts as a member of the college troupe Purchase Late Night.
After graduating, she moved to New York City and built her early reputation on the stand-up circuit, performing at respected events including the Women in Comedy Festival, the Boston Comedy Festival, and the New York Comedy Festival. Those stages were just the beginning.
Berthold is perhaps most widely recognized for voicing two distinct characters in Red Dead Redemption II — one of the best-selling video games in history — a credit that speaks to her range as a voice performer. She has also appeared in the animated series Our Cartoon President and co-created the Audible original series Heads Will Roll alongside her sister, Emmy-winning comedian and actress Kate McKinnon.
While her famous sibling has brought her name into wider public conversation, Emily Lynne Berthold is far more than a footnote in someone else’s story. She is a working creative professional with a diverse body of work that spans television, film, audio, and live performance.
| Full Name | Emily Lynne Berthold |
| Date of Birth | November 18, 1989 (birth year unconfirmed publicly) |
| Place of Birth | Sea Cliff, Long Island, New York, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession | Actress, Comedian, Writer, Voice Artist |
| Employer | Freelance / Independent (no single employer confirmed) |
| Education | B.A. in Film, State University of New York at Purchase — Graduated 2011 |
| Career Start | Stand-up comedy circuit, New York City (post-2011) |
| Current Role | Actress, Voice Artist, Writer and Producer across television, audio and digital projects |
| Notable Work | Our Cartoon President (TV), Red Dead Redemption II (video game voice roles: Mary-Beth Gaskill & Sadie Adler), Heads Will Roll (Audible), Notary Publix (web series) |
| Marital Status | Married to Matt Leary; engaged 2024, married September 2025 |
| Children | Not publicly available |
| Awards | Not publicly confirmed |
| Estimated Net Worth | Over $2.5 million (estimated; not officially confirmed) |
| Salary | Not publicly available |
| Siblings | Kate McKinnon (older sister; Emmy-winning actress and SNL comedian) |
| Parents | Father: Michael Thomas Berthold (architect, deceased); Mother: Laura Campbell (parent educator) |
Who is Emily Lynne Berthold?
Emily Lynne Berthold is an American actress, comedian, writer, and voice artist born in Sea Cliff, New York. She is known for voicing characters in Red Dead Redemption II, appearing in Our Cartoon President, and co-creating the Audible series Heads Will Roll with her sister, SNL star Kate McKinnon.
Early Life and Education
Emily Lynne Berthold was born in 1989 in Sea Cliff, a small coastal village on the North Shore of Long Island, New York. That single detail — a small town, a tight community, a place far from the noise of celebrity — says something important about how she grew up.
Childhood and Family Background
Sea Cliff is not the kind of place that produces entertainers by accident. It is a quiet, artistic enclave known for its Victorian architecture and close-knit community. Growing up there, Berthold was surrounded by people who took creative work seriously.
Her father, Michael Thomas Berthold, was a professional architect. He passed away from brain cancer, a loss that has been acknowledged by both Emily and her sister publicly. Her mother, Laura Campbell, worked as a parent educator — a career built around nurturing development and communication. Between an architect father and an educator mother, the household was one where both structure and expression were valued equally.
Her older sister is Kate McKinnon, the Emmy Award-winning comedian and long-running cast member of Saturday Night Live. The two siblings grew up sharing the same creative environment, and that early bond would later translate into professional collaboration.
Educational Journey
Berthold attended North Shore High School in Sea Cliff before enrolling at the State University of New York at Purchase to study film. SUNY Purchase has a strong reputation for producing working artists, and it proved to be the right environment for her. She joined the college comedy troupe Purchase Late Night, where she developed her skills as both a writer and a live performer — two disciplines that would define her career. After graduating, she relocated to New York City to begin her professional life in entertainment.
Emily Lynne Berthold Career — Acting, Comedy and Voice Work
Emily Lynne Berthold is known professionally as an actress, stand-up comedian, writer, and voice artist whose career spans live performance, short film, television, video games, and audio production. What makes her story compelling is not a single breakout moment but a steady, deliberate build across multiple creative disciplines.
Early Career — Stand-Up and Short Films
After relocating to New York City following her graduation from SUNY Purchase, Berthold entered the entertainment world through stand-up comedy. She performed at some of the most respected comedy showcases in the country, including the Women in Comedy Festival, the Boston Comedy Festival, and the New York Comedy Festival. These were not open-mic nights. They were competitive, curated events — and appearing on those stages established her early credibility as a comedian to watch.
Alongside her stand-up work, she began writing and directing short films. Her on-screen debut came with a role as Theresa in Five to Places, a short comedy film directed by Zack Morrison. She also appeared in Pudding Face, another short film that further demonstrated her range as a performer.
The next significant step was Notary Publix, a six-episode web series she co-wrote and co-starred in alongside her sister Kate McKinnon. Produced for Above Average, the series marked her first major collaborative project and showed that she could hold her own in front of a camera, not just behind a microphone.
Television, Voice Acting and Audio Work
Berthold made her television debut and has since taken on voice roles in the animated series Our Cartoon President, the politically satirical show that ran on Showtime. Voice acting, however, is where she reached her widest audience.
She was cast in Red Dead Redemption II, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed video games ever made. She voiced two distinct characters: Mary-Beth Gaskill, a young woman travelling with an outlaw gang who harbours ambitions of becoming a writer, and Sadie Adler, a widow who transforms herself into a formidable bounty hunter. The two roles are notably different in tone and temperament — a testament to her versatility as a voice performer.
On the audio side, she co-wrote and co-produced Heads Will Roll for Audible, a ten-episode comedy fantasy series created alongside Kate McKinnon. The show follows Queen Mortuana and her raven sidekick JoJo as they navigate a peasant uprising. The project was praised for its sharp writing and distinctive voice performances, and it stands as one of the more ambitious creative projects either sister has undertaken outside of mainstream television.
Major Achievements and Milestones
Berthold’s career is defined less by a single headline moment and more by consistent, quality output across different formats. Several milestones stand out. She voiced two characters in Red Dead Redemption II — a game that sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and is widely regarded as one of the greatest productions in the history of the medium. That credit alone places her among a small group of voice performers attached to a genuinely landmark cultural work.
She co-created an original Audible series at a time when audio storytelling was rapidly gaining critical recognition as a legitimate artistic format. Heads Will Roll is not a side project — it is a fully developed, multi-episode narrative work that she helped conceive, write, and produce.
Perhaps most notably, she has built a recognisable creative identity while working in close proximity to one of the most famous comedians of her generation. That is not a small thing. It requires genuine talent, a clear sense of self, and the discipline to keep showing up and doing the work.
Emily Lynne Berthold Net Worth and Salary
Emily Lynne Berthold’s exact financial details are not publicly available. Like many working artists in film, television, and audio production, she has not disclosed her earnings publicly. What can be reasonably assessed is the breadth of her income streams and what a career of her scope typically represents in financial terms.
⚠️ These figures are estimates based on publicly available information and should not be treated as confirmed financial data.
Salary Details
That said, her professional work spans several income-generating disciplines. She has worked as an actress in television and short films, a voice artist in both animated series and major video game productions, a writer and producer on audio projects, and a stand-up comedian performing at established festivals. Each of these represents a distinct revenue stream that working professionals in the entertainment industry draw from simultaneously.
Her voice work in Red Dead Redemption II is worth particular note in this context. Voice acting roles in large-scale, AAA video game productions — especially games of that commercial magnitude — are known within the industry to carry significant fees. The exact figures negotiated for that project have not been made public, but the scale and success of the game places it in a category where compensation is typically substantial.
Net Worth Estimate
Based on estimates cited by entertainment biography sources, Emily Lynne Berthold’s net worth is reported to be over $2.5 million. This figure reflects a career that spans more than a decade and covers multiple disciplines including acting, voice work, writing, producing, and live performance.
It is important to state clearly that this estimate has not been confirmed by Emily Lynne Berthold herself, her representatives, or any verified financial authority. Net worth figures for working entertainers at her level of public profile are frequently estimated by third-party websites using indirect methods, and should be treated accordingly — as informed approximations, not established facts.
What the estimate does reflect, reasonably, is the cumulative value of a sustained creative career across high-profile platforms. A video game credit on one of the best-selling titles in history, a produced Audible original series, recurring television voice work, and years of live performance do not add up to an insignificant body of work — financially or otherwise.
Emily Lynne Berthold Personal Life, Husband and Family
Emily Lynne Berthold is, by most accounts, a private person. She has built a public career without making her personal life a subject of public discussion. What is known comes from limited but verified reporting, and that restraint is itself worth acknowledging — it reflects a deliberate choice rather than an absence of story.
Husband and Relationship
Emily Lynne Berthold is married to Matt Leary. The couple became engaged in 2024 and married in September 2025. Beyond those confirmed details, very little has been reported about Matt Leary in the public domain. His profession, background, and personal life have not been the subject of verified media coverage, and Berthold has not offered extensive public commentary on her relationship.
What is clear is that the relationship moved from engagement to marriage within a relatively short public timeline, and that Berthold has chosen to keep the personal dimensions of that life largely separate from her professional identity. That is not unusual for working artists who prefer their work to speak for itself.
Children
As of the most recent publicly available information, Emily Lynne Berthold has not confirmed having any children. No verified reports, interviews, or official statements reference children. This section will be updated if and when credible information becomes available.
Information on this topic is not publicly available and has not been confirmed by Emily Lynne Berthold or any verified source.
Relationship with Sister Kate McKinnon
Of all the personal relationships in Emily Lynne Berthold’s life, the one that has received the most public attention is the one she shares with her older sister, Kate McKinnon — the Emmy Award-winning comedian and longtime cast member of Saturday Night Live.
The bond between the two sisters is both personal and professional. They grew up together in Sea Cliff, New York, raised by the same parents in the same creative household. Their father, Michael Thomas Berthold — a professional architect — passed away from brain cancer. That kind of shared grief has a way of deepening a sibling relationship in ways that are difficult to articulate publicly, and both sisters have acknowledged the loss.
Professionally, the collaboration between Emily and Kate is well documented. They co-created and co-starred in Notary Publix, the six-episode web series produced for Above Average. They later co-wrote and co-produced Heads Will Roll, the ten-episode comedy fantasy series for Audible — a significantly more ambitious project that demonstrated the depth of their creative partnership.
Kate McKinnon is openly gay and has spoken about her personal life in various public contexts. Emily’s own personal life, by contrast, has remained largely private — a distinction worth making clearly, as the two sisters have distinct public identities despite their shared background and close relationship. What connects them most visibly is creative ambition, a shared sense of humour, and a family history that clearly shaped them both.
FAQ: Everything You Need to Know About Emily Lynne Berthold
Key questions answered about the American actress, comedian, writer, and voice artist
She is known for voicing two characters in Red Dead Redemption II — Mary-Beth Gaskill and Sadie Adler — as well as for her voice work on the animated series Our Cartoon President and for co-creating the Audible original series Heads Will Roll alongside her sister, Emmy-winning SNL star Kate McKinnon. She studied film at the State University of New York at Purchase and began her career as a stand-up comedian in New York City.
The couple became engaged in 2024 and married in September 2025. Beyond these confirmed details, Matt Leary's profession and personal background have not been covered in verified public reporting. Emily has consistently kept the details of her personal life private and has not offered extensive public commentary on her relationship.
The two sisters grew up together in Sea Cliff, New York, and share a close personal and professional bond. They have collaborated on multiple creative projects, including the web series Notary Publix and the Audible original series Heads Will Roll, which they co-wrote and co-produced together.
Emily has kept her personal life largely private throughout her career. She has never publicly confirmed or discussed having any children. This detail remains entirely out of the public domain and will be updated if verified information becomes available.
This estimate reflects a career spanning more than a decade across stand-up comedy, television, voice acting in major video game productions, audio writing, and independent film. It has not been officially confirmed by Emily Lynne Berthold herself or any verified financial authority and should be treated as an informed estimate only.
She voiced Mary-Beth Gaskill and Sadie Adler in Red Dead Redemption II — one of the best-selling video games in history. She also co-wrote and co-produced Heads Will Roll with her sister Kate McKinnon, a ten-episode comedy fantasy audio series for Audible that received praise for its sharp writing and distinctive performances.
Before college, she attended North Shore High School in Sea Cliff, New York. At SUNY Purchase, she also joined the college comedy troupe Purchase Late Night, where she developed her skills as a writer and live performer — the foundation on which her professional career was built.
Her income is drawn from multiple sources including television acting, voice work in animated series and video games, audio writing and production, and live comedy performances. Her voice roles in Red Dead Redemption II — a major AAA video game title — are widely understood within the industry to carry significant compensation, though exact figures have never been made public.
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