By Robert Goldrich

Liz Patrick is a primetime Emmy nominee and DGA Award-winning director for Saturday Night Live. Previously she garnered nine Daytime Emmy Awards–three as a director and six as a producer for The Ellen Degeneres Show.

Patrick graduated from Boston University with a degree in film production. In 1997, she made her directorial debut at MTV in New York City. From there, she went on to direct thousands of hours of television including a wide range of live multi-camera shows, concerts, red carpet specials, award shows, sports, game shows, and sketch comedy.

In 2008, Patrick headed west to become the director of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. In addition to 13 seasons and over 2,000 shows at Ellen, Patrick directed three other shows for DeGeneres’ production company: ABC hidden camera show Repeat After Me, HLN game show Heads Up! and NBC’s Ellen’s Game of Games.

In 2021, Patrick returned to NYC to become the director of Saturday Night Live, only the fifth director and second woman in the show’s 48 seasons.

For the Billie Eilish-hosted episode of SNL–in Patrick’s first year of directing the series–she shared an Emmy nomination in 2022 with the venerable Don Roy King in the Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series category. This year she was nominated again–this time as a solo director–for the SNL episode co-hosted by Steve Martin and Martin Short. 

It’s been an eventful 2023 on the awards circuit for Patrick. Besides her current primetime Emmy nod, she earlier this year won the alluded to DGA Award for her helming of the “Jack Harlow” episode of SNL.

Patrick discussed SNL and the Steve Martin-Martin Short co-hosted episode which yielded her second career primetime Emmy nomination.

SHOOT: You’ve been on SNL for seasons 47 and 48. Please provide some backstory on how you got the opportunity to work on the series and what attracted you to it.

Patrick: What a thrill to be working on SNL!  The last two years have gone by incredibly fast.  It’s sometimes shocking. 

As a lifelong fan of SNL I have always wanted to work on the show.  When I started my directing career at MTV I was given the opportunity to work on so many different styles of shows. I directed thousands of hours of television including a wide range of live multi-camera shows, concerts, red carpet specials, award shows, sports, game shows, and sketch comedy. After MTV I moved on to The Ellen DeGeneres Show where I directed over 2,000 episodes and got to work with Ellen who is a comedy legend. In 2021 the Ellen show was set to begin its final season and before I could even think what was next I got a call asking if I would be interested in taking a meeting with Lorne [Michaels, SNL creator] and the producers at SNL. Don Roy King was possibly going to retire from the show and they were beginning to interview potential director candidates. I was honored to be on their list and the excited for the opportunity to meet with them. I feel lucky that in my career that I have worked on so many different types/styles of shows and I think that made be a great fit for SNL. Week after week I love reading the scripts that the writers have dreamt up. I enjoy the challenge that each sketch presents. It’s been really fun to bring their sketches to life.  

 
SHOOT: What was (were) the biggest challenge(s) posed to you as director by the Steve Martin and Martin Short-hosted episode for which you are nominated?

Patrick: Every episode is a challenge. Steve and Martin made my job look easy and they were absolutely amazing to work with. They are some of my comedy heroes and they made so many great choices in the characters they played. The Holiday Train sketch that we did was one of our more challenging sketches.  It was based on a train scene from the 1954 White Christmas movie. The production design department built the inside of a train that had the ability to split in half and our cast and hosts could then perform in a different environment. With some audience on the floor and the other sets in the show it was more challenging to pull it off but the stage crew did an amazing job making it all happen seamlessly.  

SHOOT:  How has the show evolved in terms of directing it over your two seasons? Or how has your directing evolved over these two seasons?

Patrick: Working on a show that has been on the air for 46 seasons before you were ever working there is like jumping onto a high speed train and then trying to drive it. After two seasons of directing the show I definitely have a greater sense of comfortability and I feel settled. When I joined the show in season 47 I observed Don for the first two episodes. It was an incredible opportunity to see how the show runs.  After those two shows I jumped in the director chair and we started splitting up the weekly sketches. Each week I would take on more and more. Having Don there in that transition was incredibly helpful as he had been there for 15 years and could help with any question or concerns that I had.

SHOOT: What is your biggest takeaway or lessons learned from your SNL experience? We ask this in the spirit of what are among the things you feel you walk away with first and foremost from the experience? What has made a lasting impression or had a lasting impact on you?

Patrick: I joke about this but one of the biggest lessons is to rest and recover on your days off. You need to reboot so you are ready to tackle the next week.

Directing the show has been an amazing experience. It’s kind of a culmination of all of my experience but hopped up on speed and A-List talent. The schedule is tight, the cast is amazing, the scripts are continuously changing and every department is challenged to the fullest and they never disappoint. I work with so many talented people and week after week we take pride in what we do and try our best to deliver the best show ever. I’m looking forward to season 49 and the challenges it will bring. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

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