Saturday Night Live Season 49 Cast Shot. Photo:
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It’s been 50 years of Saturday Night Live!
The late-night sketch comedy series kicked off its historic anniversary season in September 2024, saying goodbye to beloved cast members and introducing some fresh new faces.
Following the announcement that stars Punkie Johnson, Chloe Troast and Molly Kearney would be leaving the show after season 49, it was revealed that beloved feature players Marcello Hernandez, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker would be promoted to full-time cast members. Meanwhile, newbies Emil Wakim, Jane Wickline and Ashley Padilla would make their debut as featured players.
When Lorne Michaels created the show in 1975, he never expected it to become the cultural phenomenon that it has today, yet “people have decided somehow that it’s important,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in September 2024.
He added that while picking out the cast for season 50, production was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the closing of iconic sketch groups across the country, like Second City, as well as the writers and actors strikes. However, he said he was optimistic with the crop they pulled that year.
“This was the first time in a while where I could just look at the show and go, ‘This is what’s happening’ — and we just had to make changes, so we did and we’re excited about the new people because they’re people we felt really belonged at SNL,” he said.
From their big breaks to their personal lives, here’s everything to know about the season 50 cast of Saturday Night Live.
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Kenan Thompson is the longest-tenured cast member in SNL history, with season 50 marking his 22nd season. He became a featured player in 2003 and was promoted to repertory in 2005. He was also the first regular cast member born after the show’s 1975 premiere.
Thompson was well-known before joining SNL. As a teen, he starred in the ’90s Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That and the sitcom Kenan & Kel. He also appeared in the cult movies Good Burger and Fat Albert. Thompson has since starred in dozens of other projects, including his own sitcom, Kenan, which ran for two seasons.
As for his personal life, the comedian has two children, Georgia Marie and Gianna Michelle, with Christina Evangeline, whom he married in 2011. The actor filed for divorce from Evangeline in June 2022.
At the 2022 Emmys, which he hosted, Thompson told PEOPLE and Entertainment Weekly that SNL still feels “new” to him all these years later. “It’s exciting like that. It’s really exciting to find new, funny things, especially when you’re further down your tenure.”
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One of the longest-tenured current cast members in SNL history is Colin Jost, who was hired as a writer in 2005. He was then a co-head writer from 2012 to 2015, and again from 2017 to 2022. While he doesn’t appear in many sketches, he has been the co-host of Weekend Update since 2014.
Since 2017, Jost has been in a relationship with actress Scarlett Johansson. The pair met on the set of SNL in 2006 when she was hosting, but did not become romantically linked until years later. They got married in 2020 and welcomed their son, Cosmo, in 2021.
The couple have since appeared on SNL together on several occasions. When Johansson hosted the show in 2019, she called Jost “the love of my life” and joked about her status as one of the highest-paid actresses.
“It’s so great to be back hosting SNL for the sixth time,” she said in her opening monologue. “The sixth time is even more exciting than the fifth because you’re not worried anymore. The show is bad, what are they gonna do, fire my fiancé? Oh no, what will we do without his paycheck?”
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Michael Che began working on SNL as a writer in 2013. He then became the co-anchor of Weekend Update in 2014 and has occasionally appeared in other sketches. From 2017 to 2022, Che was a co-head writer of the show alongside his Weekend Update co-host Jost.
Outside of SNL, Che is a stand-up comedian and a former correspondent on The Daily Show. He has also appeared in the movies Lyle and Top Five. In 2018, he co-hosted the 70th Emmy Awards with Jost.
While Che has faced some backlash for jokes he’s written on SNL, he’s not going anywhere — at least not yet. In March 2022, he clarified that he wasn’t leaving the series after joking about it at a comedy show.
Plus, he told The Hollywood Reporter in September 2024 that he has stayed at the show all these years out of “love,” adding that “it’s a weird thing because you get moments where you love it so much that it drives you crazy and you want to be as far away from it as possible.”
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Mikey Day joined SNL in 2013 as a writer and became a featured cast member in 2016, before being promoted to repertory player in 2018.
In 2016, Day co-wrote the hit David S. Pumpkins sketch starring Tom Hanks, spurring several parodies and a dedicated Halloween special of the character. In a 2017 interview with Uproxx, Day said of the sketch, “I was definitely happy that it became a big deal and it wasn’t necessarily topical or tied to anything. It was just kind of its own thing.”
Prior to SNL, Day was a member of the improvisation theatre group the Groundlings, where many SNL alums began their careers, and a cast member on Wild ‘n Out. He is also known for his acting career, having appeared in various movies and TV shows, including Kath & Kim, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Little and Hubie Halloween, among others. Day co-wrote and starred in the 2021 movie Home Sweet Home Alone as well and is currently the host of the Netflix competition series Is It Cake?.
Day has a son, born in 2012, with his partner, Paula Christensen. He previously dated his Kath & Kim costar Selma Blair.
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Chloe Fineman joined SNL as a featured player in 2019 and was promoted to repertory in 2021. Prior to joining the show, Fineman appeared in small roles in episodes of Mozart in the Jungle, Grown-ish and Jane the Virgin. She has since appeared in the TV series Search Party and Dickinson and the movies Father of the Bride, White Noise and Babylon, and made her Broadway debut in 2024.
Fineman is known for her celebrity impressions, mimicking the likes of Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Coolidge and Timothée Chalamet.
For PEOPLE’s The Beautiful Issue in 2022, Fineman opened up her daily routines and managing her late-night shifts on SNL.
“I hate the taste of water. If I could just live on cold brew, I would,” the actor shared. “I am an early girl, and so it’s really a challenge. I found out I was born at 6:45 in the morning, and maybe I’m making this up, but I get up at that time no matter what, even if I’ve been up really late. It’s definitely a challenge to be on this SNL schedule, hence my cold brew addiction.”
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Like many cast members, Andrew Dismukes joined SNL as a writer first. Shortly after he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, Dismukes was asked to audition for the long-running show after he was seen performing at the “New Faces” showcase at Montreal’s Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. He joined the writing staff in 2017, became a featured cast member in 2020 and was promoted to repertory player in season 48.
In January 2023, Dismukes appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers and spoke about his faux pas during his first SNL table read. “I did have nerves, but I pulled a move that would make people think I was the most confident kid in the world where I showed up to my very first table read in flip flops,” Dismukes said. “Which, apparently, not allowed. Not supposed to do that.”
He said his manager called the next day and told him, “Can’t do that. Gotta wear shoes, can’t have your feet out.”
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Heidi Gardner joined SNL in 2017 as a featured member and became a repertory player in 2019. Since joining the show, Gardner has appeared in the movies Life of the Party, Otherhood and Hustle and on the TV series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Girls5eva and Shrinking. Before starting her career in comedy, Gardner was a hairstylist for nine years, according to an interview with InStyle.
Gardner opened up to the outlet about the types of characters she enjoys playing on the show. “I like playing a range of emotions,” she told InStyle. “In my own life, I think I’ve always been a bit of a people pleaser. Maybe the world around me was a little chaotic, so I had to keep my cool. And so I really like playing characters that don’t care and just let loose in public with no shame, like cry, yell, roll their eyes.”
As for her personal life, Gardner married Marvel comic book writer Zeb Wells in 2010, though the pair announced their split in 2024.
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Ego Nwodim became a featured cast member in 2018 and a repertory player in 2020. Prior to joining the cast, she often performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles, where she also performed her one-woman show, Great Black Women…and Then There’s Me. Nwodim has been in a number of films, including The Broken Hearts Gallery and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, and on the TV shows Law & Order True Crime, Shrill and Love Life.
One of Nwodim’s most popular impersonations on SNL is her portrayal of Dionne Warwick. In 2021, Nwodim opened up to PEOPLE about the music legend making a guest appearance in the reoccurring sketch, The Dionne Warwick Talk Show.
“Oh my God! … I kept having to pinch myself. I couldn’t believe she was really there,” Nwodim said. “And then I was like, ‘That’s who I look like,’ but she’s here. It was incredible and so much fun. She’s so gracious and wonderful.”
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Bowen Yang was hired as a writer for SNL in 2018 and became a featured player the following year. In 2021, he was promoted to repertory player. He is the show’s first Asian cast member.
Yang is also known for hosting the pop culture podcast Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers since 2016. Since landing his big break at SNL, he’s had roles in the movies Fire Island and Wicked and on the TV shows Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens and Girls5eva.
For PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive issue in 2021, Yang opened up about the famous SNL afterparties, which he described as both “wholesome and debaucherous.” He recalled one party in particular, “I drank a bourbon when I went to [host] Kim Kardashian‘s secret afterparty. I turned around and Khloé Kardashian looked me in the eyes and said, ‘What are you drinking? That’s so sad. Drink champs with me.’ I was like, ‘Whatever you say, Khloé Kardashian.’ “
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Sarah Sherman made her debut as a featured player in 2021 before becoming repertory in 2023. Also known as Sarah Squirm, the stand-up comic became known for her body horror comedy in Chicago, according to Chicago Reader. She was asked to audition for SNL after performing at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal. She’s adapted her surrealistic and “gross-out” humor for SNL — as evidenced in season 47’s sketch “Meatballs.”
“What’s fun now that my audience is broader is that people come to my show thinking, ‘I know Sarah Sherman from TV. She has nice brown hair,’ ” she told Vulture in January 2023. “Then they come to my show and they’re like, ‘Oh my God.‘ They’re all horrified.”
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James Austin Johnson was hired as a featured player in 2021 and was bumped to repertory status in 2023. Prior to SNL, Johnson had appeared in several films and TV shows, including Hail, Caesar!, Adam Ruins Everything and Better Call Saul. He had also gone viral online for his impression of Donald Trump.
Johnson welcomed a baby, Homer, with his wife Rebekah Lain in January 2022. During an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Johnson discussed booking SNL and moving to New York City all while his wife was pregnant.
“If no one has ever told a woman that’s six months pregnant that she has to move to New York in the middle of winter, you should do it,” he joked. “You should give it a try. Because that is one of my favorite conversations I have ever had.”
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Marcello Hernandez made his on-air debut in October 2022 as a featured player, and was promoted to full-time cast two years later. Originally from Miami, the comedian found popularity on TikTok before being cast and made Just for Laughs’ New Faces of Comedy list in 2022.
Growing up, Hernandez was more into soccer than comedy, as he told Hola! in 2022. He shared that a teacher and his mother encouraged him to try out theater, and he eventually gave in.
“In my senior year of high school, I finally went to an event which was a big monologue theater-type event and I did well, and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I’m good at this,’ ” he said. “Then in college, I tried stand-up comedy for the first time, even though I had been a fan, and I was hooked.”
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Michael Longfellow made his debut as an SNL featured player in 2022, and became a full-time cast member in 2024. Longfellow is a stand-up comedian and was featured on the NBC reality competition series Bring the Funny before being cast. In 2017, he was selected as a TBS “Comic to Watch” at the New York Comedy Festival and was consequently featured on Conan.
Before he graduated from Arizona State University, Longfellow was interviewed for a story on the school’s website, in which he talked about his love of comedy and his decision to study English.
“I did comedy for the first time as a freshman and immediately realized it was the only thing I really wanted to do,” he said. “I knew if I was going to have to go to college, a degree that dealt with words and language would best suit my interests.”
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Along with Hernandez, Kearney and Longfellow, Devon Walker became a featured player in 2022. In 2024, he was promoted to a full-time cast member.
Before joining the show, the comedian was part of Comedy Central’s “Up Next” showcase in 2017. He’s also worked as a writer for the shows Big Mouth and Everything’s Trash.
In 2022, Walker was featured on Vulture‘s “Comedians You Should and Will Know” list. When the outlet asked if there was a moment from his childhood that led to him becoming a comic, he answered, “I don’t know if there’s anything from my childhood that explains it … but I know as an adult I’ve had a bunch of jobs, and the only one I’ve ever been good at is being funny.”
Emil Wakim performs on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’ on April 5, 2022. Todd Owyoung/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
Stand-up comic Emil Wakim joined the SNL cast as a featured player in 2024 shortly after being featured on Vulture‘s “Comedians You Should and Will Know” list that year. In an interview with the outlet that September, Wakim shared that his career “highlight” was doing stand-up on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“I was new to New York and desperately needed a credit or something to feel validated and be able to get booked on things. It’s still crazy to me that I survived it. Just the anticipation leading up to the taping was crazy,” he said.
Wakim added, jokingly, “It was also huge for my parents, because it was finally a thing where all their friends and co-workers knew what it was, so it gave them a lot of closure that they could stop wincing when they tried to explain to their friends that a JFL audition was a big deal or whatever.”
Jane Wickline during Weekend Update on ‘Saturday Night Live’ on Dec. 14, 2024. Will Heath/NBC via Getty
In 2024, Jane Wickline joined the SNL crew as a featured player for the show’s 50th anniversary season. Before appearing on SNL, Wickline amassed a following on TikTok, where she contributed to the app’s live comedy show Stapleview.
In an October 2024 interview on Saturday Night Live‘s official YouTube channel, Wickline shared that she was in Times Square when she received the news of her casting. “It was amazing. I started violently sobbing on the phone and then I called my mom also,” the comedian said.
Ashley Padilla attends The American Museum of Natural History’s 2024 Museum Gala on Dec. 5, 2024, in New York City. Slaven Vlasic/Getty
Ashley Padilla joined Wakim and Wickline in making her SNL debut as a featured player in 2024. Although she is from the Bay Area, Padilla moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy thanks to an extra push from her mom, per her Groundlings bio.
Prior to joining the show, she was a member of the Groundlings, like many of her castmates. In addition to improv, Padilla has made waves in stand-up comedy through appearances on NBC’s Night Court reboot and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
