Fran Gillespie

Birthplace

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Biography

Fran Gillespie is a former writer and writing supervisor for Saturday Night Live. She was named as writing supervisor in 2017, and overall wrote for the show from 2015 until 2021. Originally from Chicago, Gillespie moved to New York City to attend NYU. She earned a degree in English and Spanish. In 2004 (while still at NYU), she began performing with the Upright Citizens Brigade. Since then, she’s performed with improv groups including The Faculty, Only in LA, The Law Firm, Diamond Lion, Bangs, Tantrum, Asssscat 3000, Stone Cold Fox, Onassis, Gorilla Gorilla, Slow Burn, Sketchcram, and The Wicked Wicked Hammerkatz. She’s toured with the UCB TourCo, and even taught at UCB. She was hired from UCB to SNL, alongside fellow UCB castmates Sudi Green and Will Stephen for season 41 at Saturday Night Live (both Green and herself left SNL in 2021, though Green returned for the first-half of Season 50 in 2024). Aside from her writing and improv skills, she’s also appeared as a guest on multiple television shows, including Big Mouth, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Love, The Good Place, Comedy Bang! Bang!, The Untitled Web Series That Morgan Evans Is Doing for MTV, Kroll Show, Two Guys Named Josh, and The Birthday Boys.