Even before Saturday Night Live’s 47th season ended, fans of the NBC sketch comedy show learned it would be the curtain call for repertory players Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, and Kyle Mooney. And over the hiatus, repertory players Melissa Villaseñor, Alex Moffat, and Chris Redd announced their SNL exits, as did featured player Aristotle Athari. The departure of eight cast members represents a major shake-up for the show, but creator Lorne Michaels doesn’t seem worried—especially with the new talent coming in.
“This is a year of reinvention,” Michaels told The New York Times last week. “And change is exhilarating.… If I don’t add new people every year, then the show isn’t the show. There have to be new people, for both our sake and also for the audience.”
For Season 48, premiering October 1, Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker are those new people.
“I think all four are fresh,” Michaels said. “They bring things we don’t have, and they’re complementary to the people we already have.”
As featured players, Hernandez, Kearney, Longfellow, and Walker will enjoy SNL’s network-TV platform and may even become full-fledged repertory players. “The new people could last for years,” Michaels observed. “They’re not load-bearing walls. They’re not yet what they’re going to be, but at least half of the fun of watching the show is watching people [who] are beginning and discovering them.”
In the spirit of discovering the four SNL recruits’ comedy, here are glimpses of them in action.
Devon Walker
It’s been a big year for Walker: Not only did he get his SNL gig, but he also served as writer and story editor for the new Freeform comedy Everything’s Trash. Back in 2017, the Texas native appeared in Comedy Central’s Up Next showcase, and he has written for the Netflix comedy Big Mouth.
Michael Longfellow
Longfellow has brought his comedy to the TV shows Conan, Bring the Funny, and Laugh After Dark, and he earned a spot in TBS’ “Comics to Watch” at the 2017 New York Comedy Festival. Plus, his IMDb profile reveals that when he was in grade school, Longfellow wrote a book report on General Schwarzkopf (aka Stormin’ Norman), so that’s something!
Molly Kearney
You may have already seen Kearney, SNL’s first nonbinary cast member, on the small screen: They had a small part in Prime Video’s A League of Their Own, and they were picked for Comedy Central’s Up Next showcase in 2019. Coming up, Molly will appear in Season 2 of Disney+’s Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.
Marcello Hernandez
This Miami-raised comedian, writer, and actor has been doing stand-up since age 18, opening for Gilbert Gottfried, Jim Breuer, and Mark Viera, among other acts. Earlier this year, the Just For Laughs festival named Hernandez as one of its New Faces of Comedy.
Saturday Night Live, Season 48 premiere, Saturday, Oct. 1, 11:30/10:30c, NBC
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