'SNL' Reveals New Cast Members for Historic Season 50

by

Saturday night live welcomes three new cast members for the series' historic 50th season.

Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline have joined the NBC late-night show as featured actors for 2024-25. The season will debut Sept. 28 with most of last season’s ensemble intact, though Punkie Johnson and Molly Kearney announced their departures from the show over the summer. Chloe Troast, a featured actress last season, will also be leaving.

“Unfortunately I was not asked to return SNL “This season,” Troast wrote in an Instagram Story Monday night. “I wish I could go back and be with all the amazing friends I made there, it felt so homey. But that wasn’t in the cards.”

However, most of the show's remaining veterans are expected to return for season 50, with Marcello Hernandez, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker making the jump from lead actors to the main cast. Former cast member Maya Rudolph is also set to play Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, in the run-up to the election. Rudolph played Harris multiple times during the 2020 campaign and in the months following Joe Biden and Harris' inauguration.

Furthermore SNL'regular episodes next season, the show will celebrate its 50th anniversary on the air with a three-hour primetime special on February 16, 2025. (The actual 50th anniversary of the first show falls on October 11, 2025.) Also, and not directly related to the show, Jason Reitman's feature film Saturday nightwhich dramatizes the period leading up to the series premiere, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be released in theaters in late September.

Padilla has been a member of the Los Angeles based Groundlings principal company since 2021 and has had guest roles in Curb your enthusiasm AND Court of Night. Wakim has performed as a comedian in Tonight's show and the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, where he was named the 2022 “New Face of Comedy”; he has also opened for comedians Roy Wood Jr., Nikki Glaser, and Hasan Minhaj. Wickline is part of the ensemble for Staples Viewa sketch show that has gained a considerable following on TikTok.

Leave a Comment

url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url url