5 new cast members join 'Saturday Night Live' after high-profile
departures
[September 03, 2025]
NEW YORK (AP) — Five new cast members will join the upcoming season of
“Saturday Night Live,” NBC 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. 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. No cast members had announced
their departure following the season’s conclusion. In an interview with
Puck that ran last month, Michaels answered “yes” when asked if he
expected to “shake things up.”
“It’ll be announced in a week or so,” he said then.
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.
Here’s a look at the “SNL” members confirmed to be leaving and joining
the show so far.
ADDITIONS
All new cast members will be joining the show as featured players.
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. The
group is currently on tour together. (Higgins confirmed Tuesday he is
departing the “SNL” writing staff.)
Brennan has performed on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and
was selected as a Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy in 2023. Culhane, a
regular on Dropout TV, is known for his viral videos and also performs
with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles.
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.”
Slowikowska, known for her viral online comedy sketches, has appeared in
“Tires” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”
DEPARTURES
Michael Longfellow
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.
Longellow wrote on Instagram that he wishes he could've stayed on,
adding that his three seasons on the show were “the best three years of
my life so far. I feel nothing but gratitude for the experience and
everyone there. Lorne, you gave me the greatest job in the world and
changed my life. You even put my mom on TV. Thank you doesnt begin to
cover it, but thank you.”
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Emil Wakim, from left, Devon Walker and Michael Longfellow appear at
the American Museum of Natural History's Museum Gala in New York on
Dec. 5, 2024. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
 The actor and comedian had some
successful stints on the “Weekend Update” segment of the show.
Emil Wakim
On Wednesday, 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.
“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,”
he wrote in an all-lowercase Instagram post that thanked “SNL”
creator Lorne Michaels.
“i was so lucky to bring some of myself in there and say things i
believed in and i’m excited for whatever chapter comes next,” Wakim
wrote. “here’s to making more art without compromise.”
Devon Walker
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.”
Walker, whose repertory of characters included Eric Adams, was
promoted last year.
The note in his post was titled: “wait ... did he quit or did he get
fired?”
Writers
“SNL” writer Celeste Yim announced they were leaving after five
seasons, while Rosebud Baker is leaving after four seasons on the
show.
Yim, the show’s first openly nonbinary writer, posted 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.”
Baker, who wrote for “Weekend Update,” confirmed her departure to
LateNighter.
Higgins, son of “SNL” writer and producer Steve Higgins, announced
his departure Tuesday, saying he is looking forward to pursuing
acting opportunities.
“It was my dream and I got to live it. And to do it with my two best
friends and my dad was an unbelievable experience,” he wrote. “Thank
you to everyone who made my time there so special, it made this
decision that much harder.”
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