NEW YORK (AP) — Ego Nwodim is the latest — and perhaps last — high-profile departure from “Saturday Night Live,” as the long-running sketch show has seen a cast shakeup ahead of its 51st season.
Nwodim announced Friday that she is leaving, just days after Hollywood trade outlets reported the Season 51 cast — which had included her — was finalized. Five new cast members are joining the upcoming season, which premieres Oct. 4.
Ben Marshall, already an “SNL” writer, will become a featured player, along with newcomers Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska, NBC announced last week.
Devon Walker, Emil Wakim and Michael Longfellow confirmed last month 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 has 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 earlier this summer, Michaels answered “yes” when asked if he expected to “shake things up.”
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.
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 in late August. 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.
Ego Nwodim
Nwodim announced Friday on Instagram that she would not be returning — and suggested she’d have more time now to attend weddings. Nwodim joined as a feature player in 2018, and was promoted two years later.
“The hardest part of a great party is knowing when to say goodnight,” Nwodim said in her post. “But after seven unforgettable seasons, I have decided to leave SNL.
She thanked Michaels for the opportunity, and her castmates, writers and crew “for their brilliance, support and friendship.”
“Week after week on that stage taught me more than I could have ever imagined, and I will carry those memories (and that laughter) with me always,” Nwodim wrote, adding: “now invite me to your weddings please!!!”
Emil Wakim
Wakim announced in late August 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 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 was the first cast member to announce his departure from the show, in a late August Instagram post.
“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.
Please Don’t Destroy’s Higgins, son of “SNL” writer and producer Steve Higgins, announced his departure last week, 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.”
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