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Devon Walker exits 'SNL' as Lorne
Michaels hints at more changes
[August 27, 2025]
NEW YORK (AP) — Devon Walker is leaving “Saturday Night Live,” in
the first of what could be several cast departures as the storied
program prepares for its 51st season.
“Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really
cool,” Walker wrote Monday on Instagram. “Sometimes it was toxic as
hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all
of the dysfunction.”
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Devon Walker attends the SNL50: The Anniversary Special in New York on
Feb. 16, 2025. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File) |
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The
note in his post was titled: “wait ... did he quit or did he get
fired?”
Walker's announcement comes as “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels is
saying that he anticipates 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 last week, Michaels answered “yes” when asked if he
expected to “shake things up.”
“It’ll be announced in a week or so,” he said then.
Representative for “Saturday Night Live” did not immediately
respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Meanwhile, “SNL” writer Celeste Yim announced they were leaving
after five seasons. Yim, the show's first openly nonbinary
writer, posted last weekend 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.”
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. The
51st season will premiere Oct. 4.
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