The “Saturday Night Live” shake-up continues, as Ben Marshall has been upped to the featured cast. Also joining as featured players are Veronika Slowikowska, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane and Kam Patterson.
The news is part of a larger roster refresh at “SNL,” which this week saw the departure of Heidi Gardner after eight seasons, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker after three seasons each, and Emil Walker after one season.
Season 51 will be Marshall’s fifth season on the NBC sketch show, having first joined as a member of comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy, which also features John Higgins and Martin Herlihy. Marshall and Please Don’t Destroy are known for their off-beat, often self-deprecating digital shorts, following in the footsteps of the Lonely Island. They typically played themselves in the videos, which feature A-list celebrity hosts such as Taylor Swift, Timothée Chalamet, Dakota Johnson, Rami Malek and more.
Slowikowska is best known for viral comedy sketches that she posts on Instagram, where she has one million. Her acting credits include Shane Gillis’ Netflix comedy series “Tires” as well as FX’s “What We Do in the Shadows.”
Patterson, a stand-up comedian, is regularly featured on Tony Hinchcliffe’s podcast “Kill Tony” and will next be seen in Kevin Hart’s Netflix film “72 Hours.”
After three seasons, Walker announced his departure from “SNL” on Instagram on Aug. 25, writing, “Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool. Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction. We made a fucked up lil family.”
“I won’t be returning to SNL next year. It was a gut punch of a call to get but I’m so grateful for my time there,” Wakim wrote in his announcement. “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.”
“Saturday Night Live” Season 51 premieres on NBC on Oct. 4. The new season comes off the heels of a landmark 50th anniversary, which was feted with with several documentaries, a Radio City Music Hall concert special and a three-hour telecast with “SNL” legends.
More to come…
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