NEW YORK (AP) — Five new cast members will join the upcoming season of “Saturday Night Live,” NBC announced Tuesday on the heels of several high-profile departures.
Ben Marshall, already an "SNL" writer, will become a featured player, along with newcomers Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska.
The additions follow a string of cast departures in the past month as the storied program prepares for its 51st season. Devon Walker, Emil Wakim and Michael Longfellow confirmed last week on their social media accounts that they are leaving the show. Multiple news outlets reported that cast mainstay Heidi Gardner was also departing the show, but neither Gardner nor NBC have publicly confirmed.
“SNL” creator Lorne Michaels previously said he anticipated changes following the show’s historic 50th season. No cast members had announced their departure following the season’s conclusion. In an interview with Puck that ran last month, Michaels answered “yes” when asked if he expected to “shake things up.”
“It’ll be announced in a week or so,” he said then.
Michaels told Puck at least one cast member was certain to be back: James Austin Johnson, who plays President Donald Trump.
Since its debut in 1975, the NBC program has reinvented itself often, with performers over the past 50 years ranging from John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd to Kate McKinnon and Kenan Thompson. The 51st season will premiere Oct. 4.
Here’s a look at the “SNL” members confirmed to be leaving and joining the show so far.
ADDITIONS
All new cast members will be joining the show as featured players.
Marshall first joined the “SNL” writing staff in 2021, along with the other members of his comedy trio, Please Don't Destroy. Digital shorts from Please Don't Destroy, which includes John Higgins and Martin Herlihy, have been featured on “SNL” for the past four seasons. The group is currently on tour together. (Higgins confirmed Tuesday he is departing the “SNL” writing staff.)
Brennan has performed on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and was selected as a Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy in 2023. Culhane, a regular on Dropout TV, is known for his viral videos and also performs with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles.
Patterson is a regular on the live comedy podcast “Kill Tony,” hosted by Tony Hinchcliffe. The stand-up comedian also appears in Netflix’s “72 Hours.”
Slowikowska, known for her viral online comedy sketches, has appeared in “Tires” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”
DEPARTURES
Michael Longfellow
Longfellow confirmed his departure on Instagram on Thursday. He first joined the show as a featured player in 2022 and was promoted the previous season.
Longellow wrote on Instagram that he wishes he could've stayed on, adding that his three seasons on the show were “the best three years of my life so far. I feel nothing but gratitude for the experience and everyone there. Lorne, you gave me the greatest job in the world and changed my life. You even put my mom on TV. Thank you doesnt begin to cover it, but thank you.”
The actor and comedian had some successful stints on the “Weekend Update” segment of the show.
Emil Wakim
On Wednesday, Wakim announced he wouldn’t be returning, and indicated he had been let go, calling it “a gut punch of a call to get.” Unlike Longfellow and Walker, members of the more established repertory player group, Wakim was a featured player who joined the show just last season.
“every time i scanned into the building i would think how insane it is to get to work there. it was the most terrifying, thrilling, and rewarding experience of my life and i will miss it dearly and all the brilliant people that work there that made it feel like a home,” he wrote in an all-lowercase Instagram post that thanked “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels.
“i was so lucky to bring some of myself in there and say things i believed in and i’m excited for whatever chapter comes next,” Wakim wrote. “here’s to making more art without compromise.”
Devon Walker
Walker announced his departure from the show in an Instagram post last Monday.
“Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool,” Walker wrote. “Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction.”
Walker, whose repertory of characters included Eric Adams, was promoted last year.
The note in his post was titled: “wait ... did he quit or did he get fired?”
Writers
“SNL” writer Celeste Yim announced they were leaving after five seasons, while Rosebud Baker is leaving after four seasons on the show.
Yim, the show’s first openly nonbinary writer, posted on Instagram that the job was a dream come true “BUT was also grueling and I slept in my office every week BUT my friends helped me with everything BUT I got yelled at by random famous men BUT some famous girls too BUT I loved it and I laughed every day and it’s where I grew up.”
Baker, who wrote for “Weekend Update,” confirmed her departure to LateNighter.
Higgins, son of “SNL” writer and producer Steve Higgins, announced his departure Tuesday, saying he is looking forward to pursuing acting opportunities.
“It was my dream and I got to live it. And to do it with my two best friends and my dad was an unbelievable experience,” he wrote. “Thank you to everyone who made my time there so special, it made this decision that much harder.”
The Associated Press
