SNL Embarks on Season 50 With New Cast Members
Saturday Night Live returns with season 50, showcasing new cast members, well-established personas, and its everlasting humor.
Live from New York for nearly 50 decades, the comedy sketch group delivers satirical news, pop-culture trends, video shorts, and popular musical performers, all while accompanied by an award-winning ensemble cast.
On September 9, the series revealed the new cast members and confirmed the date of the upcoming three-hour special commemorating 50 years on NBC. The series is set to bounce back on September 28, at 10:30 p.m. CT and 11:30 ET/PT.
While the new season is comprised of fresh characters, the late-night sketch group sends off three castmates. Not to mention, they’re adding three new ones and welcoming 14 members back. So who’s coming, who’s going, and who’s staying?
Returning Members
As SNL prepares for its much-awaited 50 season, audiences anticipate the comeback of their favorite comedians and actors. Following their first appearance in Season 49, Marcello Hernández, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker will stay put. With their signature humor and witty social commentary, these returning cast members—who are well-known for their wide range of impressions and sketch characters—are set to lead Saturday Night Live into this monumental season.
Here is a list of the returning cast:
Andrew Dismukes
Bowen Yang
Chloe Fineman
Colin Jost
Devon Walker
Ego Nwodim
Heidi Gardner
James Austin Johnson
Kenan Thompson
Marcello Hernández
Michael Che
Michael Longfellow
Mikey Day
Sarah Sherman
Leaving Cast Members
Heading into its newest season, three of the seventeen castmates depart from the production, with two of its individuals making SNL history.
Chloe Troast
With her breakout role in “Little Orphan Cassidy, “American Comedian and actress Chloe Troast became a new hire for season 49. Despite appearing as a prominent member of SNL in the previous season, Troast stated on Instagram that she had not been asked to come back.
“Unfortunately I was not asked back to SNL this season,” Troast wrote. “I wish I was going back to be with all the amazing friends I made there, it truly felt like home. But it wasn’t in the cards.”
Molly Kearney
Molly Kearney, who made history as the first nonbinary cast member, revealed in August that they would not return after two seasons. In an Instagram post, Kearney stated, “It was such a dream come true. So incredibly grateful for this period in my life.”
Punkie Johnson
Following four years on the cast Punkie Johnson—the first queer Black woman cast member to come out—announced her departure from the series. Johnson admitted to hosts and former Saturday Night Live cast members Dana Carvey and David Spade on the Fly on the Wall podcast that she finally didn’t think her comedic talents were a good fit for the sketch comedy. “I didn’t really feel like I fit, like I didn’t feel like that was my zone.” Posting a video to her Instagram, Johnson confirmed that she was not leaving on bad terms.
New Cast Members
Joining the cast for Season 50 are three newcomers, each offering their own personality and charisma to the mix.
Ashley Padilla
Brought up in the Bay Area, Ashley Padilla got her start in comedy by joining The Groundling, a Los Angeles improv and sketch comedy group, in 2021 before Lorne Michaels approached her. Alongside Padilla came many other SNL alumni, including Lauraine Newman, who originally joined the series’s ensemble after coming from The Groundlings.
Emil Wakim
Based in New York City, stand-up comedian and writer Emil Wakim has opened for noteworthy comedians including Hasan Minhaj and Nikki Glaser. Wakim, born in Chicago and raised in Bloomington, became known as the 2022 New Face of Comedy at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. The Lebanese-American performer made his late-night debut on NBC with a stand-up performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in April 2022.
Jane Wickline
Wickline is primarily recognized on social media, with almost a million followers on TikTok, where she posts short sketches. In addition to having a large social media presence and touring the country doing stand-up, she frequently makes appearances on the live TikTok comedy series Stapleview.
With a new monumental season coming to light, audiences can soon indulge themselves with more content. An upcoming film about the comedy series originally premiering in 1975 was announced in July 2024. The film, Saturday Night, is set to release on October 11 and is a retelling of one of the most iconic evenings in comedy history, the first-ever episode of SNL.
Season 50 of Saturday Night Live airs on September 28 on NBC and Peacock.
