Ghostbusters' Kate McKinnon bags lead role in upcoming comedy The Lunch Witch

She was everyone's favourite in Paul Feig's all female Ghostbusters earlier this year and is consistently a stand-out in late night sketch show Saturday Night Live. But now Kate McKinnon is ditching being part of an ensemble in favour of the leading role in upcoming comedy The Lunch Witch.

Based on the young adult graphic novel by Deb Lucke, The Lunch Witch centres around Grunhilda, a grumpy magical woman who swaps her cauldron for a cooking pot when she takes a dinner lady job at a local school. At first, she revels in scaring the children she serves, but when a timid young girl named Madison needs help at both school and home, Grunhilda finds herself fighting her witchy ways and becoming Madison's unlikely friend.

Clay Kaytis, who McKinnon previously worked with on animation The Angry Birds Movie is set to helm, marking his live-action directorial debut while Michael de Luca (Fifty Shades Darker) will produce, report Deadline.

No stranger to donning a costume in order to land some laughs, McKinnon is fast becoming one of Hollywood's most formidable performers when it comes to comedy. Back in September, she won a best supporting actress Primetime Emmy award for her work on SNL, home to her legendary impressions of such people as Justin Bieber, Angela Merkel, Ellen DeGeneres, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Hillary Clinton. And if that wasn't enough, she also received her first Critics Choice Television Awards nomination for the same show just last month.

For now, The Lunch Witch is yet to schedule a release date but fans of McKinnon can currently see her in comedy Office Christmas Party opposite Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. The film will be out in US cinemas from Friday (9 December).

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