Sage Hill Alumni
‘Live From New York’: Lauren Abbott '17 Parlays SNL Run into Casting Career
Lauren Abbott '17 couldn’t believe she was using the same bathroom as then-SNL cast member Kate McKinnon. Abbot was a freshman college student when she started as a primary player in the background of the live comedy show. She fondly recalls being starstruck when Miley Cyrus stepped on stage to perform.
Theatre was everything for Abbott during her years at Sage Hill School.
“Sage Hill taught me the value of having a strong mentor,” Abbott said. “I was so close with Mary Kildare during my time at Sage, and I would go to her with any questions I had, school-related or not. She was just so supportive from my freshman year to when I was applying to college, and even after. She was someone I texted when I got engaged.”
Most recently, Abbott has lived in Chicago as a casting associate for Compass Casting. She’s supported casting for “The Bear” on FX, “Paper Girls” on Amazon Prime, “Chicago Fire” on NBC, and “Dark Matter” on Apple TV+.
While working on Saturday Night Live, Abbott dipped her toe in the business side of the entertainment industry, including casting. She stayed at SNL until the pandemic’s breakout in March 2020, which shuttered in-person sets at theaters and film studios. After earning her BFA in Dramatic Arts from The New School of New York City, Abbott moved to Chicago after finding work at agencies casting extras.
“I got so interested in the business side of it, and also, candidly, having a more steady paycheck,” Abbott said.
In 2023, she started as a studio manager at The Forge, a training hub with on-camera acting classes, audition intensives and reel production. She particularly enjoys teaching audition technique classes for teenagers.
As an incoming ninth grader, Abbott arrived at Sage Hill with an interest in the arts. She graduated with a deep love of storytelling. She recalled having fun performing in her favorite high school musical, “Sister Act,” and “The Addams Family.”
“I was able to kind of focus on everything at Sage but it really got to be involved in the arts,” she said. “It wasn't just one class that I had. I got to be a part of so much of the process, and that was really nice as someone who was so passionate about it from early on.”
Among her other incredible teachers was Mathematics teacher Kelly May, who also served as Abbott’s advisor for four years.
Even though Math was her “worst subject,” Abbott remembers how May showed exceptional kindness and helped instill some of the learning blocks she needed to succeed in class.
For any aspiring actors in high school, Abbott encourages them not to view rejection as the worst thing that could happen.
“View every audition -- and if you're lucky enough to get a callback -- as just experience and continue to grow your toolbox and meet new people and make new connections,” she said.
Sage Hill School
Sage Hill School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship programs, and athletic and other School administered programs.