“Saturday Night Live” added two new names to its cast for its 52nd season, while another cast member is moving on.
Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter will join the sketch comedy show as featured players when it resumes next weekend, “SNL” announced Wednesday.
“Welcome to the cast!” the show said on Instagram, in all capital letters.
Saidah Belo-Osagie
Belo-Osagie is a New Yorker from Queens. She wrote and directed “Tinge,” a short film; created an event series, “Afrobeats Futura”; and had a solo show, “Saidah Gets Closure,” “SNL” said in a news release about the two additions.
She shared the “SNL” post on her Instagram Story, writing, “A DREAM COME TRUE.”
Grace Reiter
Reiter, who is from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, co-wrote, directed and stars in the upcoming Netflix show “Minimum Wage,” a series about teenagers running a pizzeria. It’s based on the series released online in 2024, which made waves on TikTok and elsewhere, Netflix said.
‘SNL’ departures
Chloe Fineman, who joined the show in 2019 for the 45th season and beyond, said July 16 that she was leaving to try something new.
“It’s really hard to leave SNL but it does feel like the right time,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.
Fineman spent seven seasons as an “SNL” cast member, performing impressions of Drew Barrymore and Britney Spears and appearing in sketches and advertising spoofs, such as “Domingo,” “Snackhomiez” and “Forever 31.”
Deadline reported that Fineman would be joining the cast of “Myron Bolitar,” a Netflix drama series based on Harlan Coben’s thriller novels about a former basketball star who reinvents himself as a sports agent.
The annual turnover of cast members can be minimal, indicating that the show and its longtime executive producer, Lorne Michaels, are fine-tuning its cold open, sketches and news segment. Every several years, a greater number of on-air and writers room departures foreshadow a virtual reset for “SNL.”
Amid and after the 50th season and its accompanying anniversary specials, the show had some big-name departures, including those of Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim and Bowen Yang. Fellow departing talents Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker and Emil Wakim held the freshman-like title “featured player,” a position that often leads to repertory player status.
Season 52 of “SNL” premieres Sept. 26 with New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson as host and musical guest Katseye. “SNL” airs on NBC, a division of NBCUniversal, which is also the parent company of NBC News.
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