The summer of “Saturday Night Live” casting announcements has come to a close, with the ensemble for this year’s season finally solidified (less than two weeks before the Sept. 26 premiere). This year’s cast has remained largely intact compared to last year’s shakeup. Bowen Yang left midway through Season 51, and Chloe Fineman announced her departure in July.
Martin Herlihy, a member of sketch trio Please Don’t Destroy who was then moved to the writing staff for one season, is also not returning. But the rest of the Season 51 cast is on board for at least another year, with all five freshmen — Ben Marshall, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, Tommy Brennan and Veronika Slowikowska — coming back. Veterans like Kenan Thompson, Colin Jost, Michael Che and Mikey Day are also returning, as well as a handful of other fan favorites like Sarah Sherman, Ashley Padilla, James Austin Johnson, Marcello Hernández, Andrew Dismukes and Jane Wickline.
New to the cast are Grace Reiter and Saidah Belo-Osagie, who auditioned this summer alongside tons of other hopefuls in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Reiter is a Wisconsin-born comedian who stars in Tim Robinson’s “The Chair Company” and the upcoming series “Minimum Wage.” Belo-Osagie is a filmmaker and comedian from New York who created the solo show “Saidah Gets Closure.” Below, read about all the cast members who have left, joined and stayed on “SNL” ahead of Season 52, which premieres on Sept. 26 with host Jalen Brunson. Grace Reiter joins “Saturday Night Live” for her first season.
The Wisconsin-born stand-up comedian and actor amassed a large following on TikTok and YouTube before she went on to star in Tim Robinson’s HBO comedy series “The Chair Company.” She’s also a member of American High’s sketch team and stars in the upcoming series “Minimum Wage.” Earlier this year, she was listed as one of Variety‘s 10 Creators to Watch. Saidah Belo-Osagie joins “SNL” for her debut season. She is a Nigerian American filmmaker and comedian from Queens, who is now based in Brooklyn.
She is the creator of the event series Afrobeats Futura and the solo show “Saidah Gets Closure,” and in 2020 she wrote and directed the short film “Tinge.” Kenan Thompson continues his streak as the longest-tenured cast member, returning to “Saturday Night Live” for his 24th season. The comedy veteran who never breaks character is behind some of the series’ funniest sketches, from “What Up With That?” to “Black Jeopardy!,” and he’s impersonated everyone from Steve Harvey to Whoopi Goldberg. The longest-running hosts of “Weekend Update” are coming back to Studio 8H.
Jost and Che have a comfortable chemistry and have even introduced a new treasured tradition at “SNL” with their biannual “joke swap.” For the Christmas and finale episodes, the co-anchors make each other deliver risky, never-before-seen jokes live on-air (sometimes while sitting next to fake civil rights leaders). Marcello Hernández is heading back to “SNL” for his fifth season on the show. The fresh-faced comic is best known for playing the suave suitor Domingo, who originated in the “Bridesmaid Speech” sketch.
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