SNL Names 5 New Cast Members

Five new cast members will join the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live, showrunners announced Tuesday on the heels of several high-profile departures. Ben Marshall, already an SNL writer, will become a featured player, along with newcomers Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska.

• The additions follow a string of cast departures in the past month as the storied program prepares for its 51st season, which will premiere Oct. 4, the AP reports. Devon Walker, Emil Wakim, and Michael Longfellow confirmed last week 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 have publicly confirmed.

SNL creator Lorne Michaels previously said he anticipated changes following the show's historic 50th season. In an interview with Puck that ran last month, 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 Trump. Here's a look at the SNL members confirmed to be leaving and joining the show so far. All new cast members will be joining the show as featured players.

Additions.

• Ben 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.
• Tommy Brennan has performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and was selected as a Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy in 2023.
• Jeremy Culhane, a regular on Dropout TV, is known for his viral videos and also performs with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles.
• Kam 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.
• Veronika Slowikowska, known for her viral online comedy sketches, has appeared in Tires and What We Do in the Shadows.

Departures.

• Michael Longfellow confirmed his departure on Instagram on Thursday. He first joined the show as a featured player in 2022 and was promoted the previous season. Longfellow wrote on Instagram that he wished he could have stayed on, adding that his three seasons on the show were "the best three years of my life so far."
• On Wednesday, Emil Wakim announced 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.
• Devon Walker announced his departure from the show in an Instagram post last Monday. "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."