Meet The Four New Saturday Night Live Season 48 Cast Members
At the end of the 47th season of "Saturday Night Live" this past spring, the late-night sketch comedy show lost a quartet of comedians who decided to leave the series. Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, and Pete Davidson all bid farewell to the series in the season finale, but the departures didn't end there. Just a couple weeks ago, leading up to the 48th season premiere of "SNL," it was announced that repertory cast members Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor would also be departing the show after six years, along with featured player Aristotle Athari, who lasted just a single season on the series.
All those cast members moving on from "SNL" left plenty of gaps to fill, even in an ensemble that's still pretty sizeable, but executive producer Lorne Michaels has some new blood who will be joining the cast as the latest round of featured players. Who are they? Let's meet each of them below.
Marcello Hernandez
Marcello Hernandez is a Cuban/Dominican writer and actor, and he was selected as a Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy in 2022 (via Deadline), which is a pretty big deal in the career of a comedian. Based out of New York and Miami, Hernandez also has a media presence as the host of segments for Only in Dade, a Miami-based media company with over 958,000 followers on Instagram keeping up with their commentary on daily news, sports, pop culture, and more. Hernandez has also appeared on Telemundo's Acceso Total & NBC's 6 in the Mix, so he's got plenty of exposure on TV.
In the clip above, you can see a comedy bit that Hernandez posted to Instagram in the summer of 2021. It's not hard to imagine this being something that he might use to introduce himself to the audience at the Weekend Update desk. Hernandez's comedy has been good enough to land him opening spots on tour with the likes of Tim Dillon, Ashley Hesseltine, Mark Viera, and the late Gilbert Gottfried. Not bad for a 25-year-old.
Molly Kearney
Molly Kearney might look familiar if you watched Prime Video's recent series adaptation of "A League of Their Own," where the comedian guest-starred as Fern Dannely. Kearney was also part of Comedy Central's "Up Next" showcase in 2019, another prestigious honor for stand-up comedians that gets them a lot more attention. Kearney comes from Cleveland, but they cut their teeth in the Chicago comedy scene, including the beloved indie comedy showcase known as The Lincoln Lodge (via Chicago Tribune).
If you watch the clip above, you'll hear a hilarious story about how Kearney came out to their brothers. Not only are they part of the LGBTQ+ community, but they're also making history as the first "SNL" cast addition who identifies as nonbinary, using they/them pronouns. They'll bring a unique comedic perspective to "SNL," and hopefully the series will figure out how to utilize their skills.
Michael Longfellow
Michael Longfellow recently participated in Netflix's "Introducing..." showcase during the 2022 Netflix Is a Joke Comedy Festival (which you can see in a clip above). You might also recognize Longfellow as a competitor on the NBC comedy competition series "Bring the Funny." The comedian was also featured with a stand-up set on "Conan," not to mention being named as one of TBS' "Comics to Watch" during the 2017 New York Comedy Festival (via TV Line).
Longfellow has a more subdued, mellow comedic style, which is a refreshing change of pace. Many of the talents who come to "SNL" often bring a lot of energy to the stage, but there are some comedians who can get laughs without being overly enthusiastic. It will be interesting to see what he can bring to the table.
Devon Walker
Finally, Devon Walker probably has the most experience out of this batch of new cast members. Walker worked as a story editor on the Freeform series "Everything's Trash," and TV Line says he's also written on Netflix's raunchy animated comedy "Big Mouth." On the stand-up side, Walker was part of Comedy Central's "Up Next" showcase in 2017.
Walker has some hilarious bits based on racial comedy and observations, including the above bit that has over 1.3 million views. Considering the fact that he's already written for television, clearly, he's got the chops for a job like "SNL." But the late-night sketch comedy show is a unique challenge in TV, so he'll have to bring his A-game to make an impression.
The rest of the "SNL" cast for season 48 includes Michael Che, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang. There were rumors that Andrew Dismukes, Punkie Johnson, James Austin Johnson, and Sarah Sherman were all being promoted to repertory players, and with four new featured cast members, that makes sense. Plus, let's not forget that the Please Don't Destroy trio of Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy will presumably be delivering pre-recorded sketches every now and then.
The 48th season of "Saturday Night Live" begins on October 1, 2022.