Saturday Night Live updates cast, writers, and diversity

The SNL cast has slowly grown more diverse in its 44 years.
Photo courtesy of NBC

Variety show is spotlighting underserved artists

From Will Ferrell to Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy to Chris Farley, the riotous comedy of Saturday Night Live has given much credit to the careers of many iconic comedians and actors today. This is a torch that SNL, still to this day, seems to pass on well, especially with the new curious lineup of hosts, guest stars, and even an all new personality to what is now the 44th season of weekend mayhem, live from New York.

Enter the newest addition to SNL, the lovely and witty Ms. Ego Nwodim, small-time star in shows like Law & Order True Crime and Two Broke Girls. An esteemed veteran of the Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theater in Los Angeles, Nwodim shows herself to be the perfect candidate of America’s favorite late-night variety sketch show.

Taking the place of Luke Null, Nwodim’s addition to the cast has provided a great service to her previous cameos by giving her a prominent spot on the show and possibly encouraging a new wave of LA comedic value to the East.

In addition to new writers such as Writers’ Guild of America award-winning Bowen Yang of the Stuff from the 90’s! podcast and current cohost of the Las Culturistas podcast, and California comedian/ award-winning podcast personality, Eli Mandel, SNL has hit a jackpot of diverse comedic perspectives.

Not to mention, Take a Kid to It trainer Alan Linic, and Second City Touring Company vet, Alison Mandel, both headline new roles and perspectives for late night comedy. Linic is a social justice commentator on his media platforms, and Ms. Mandel is a win on her own for being a new, witty female writer.

The progress made in the writing department is indeed a welcome change among the castings for SNL, where though acting roles such as those for Leslie Jones and Michael Che do offer a great diversity in appearance, the work behind the scenes is revolutionizing to reflect a new perspective in socially aware, timely, and insightful comedy leading into 2019.

In retrospect, this is a great movement that entertainment television is taking to ensure that the average American, diverse in many ways, can identify with the regularly consumed punchlines, stories, and sketches that shows like SNL, and other late-night personalities have been sorely missing up until this point.

Only just recently the Trevor Noahs and Ego Nwodims of late-night hosting and entertainment have gained traction in this media. Now the behind-the-scenes staff members are creating narratives and leisure that no longer exclude points of view that may have made a sketch just one line funnier or the delivery more solid.

With the rest of 2019 still to come, Saturday Night Live has continued its pioneering position in the American media, view by view, line by line. All thanks to its continuous will to embrace diversity, they are creating more absurdity with each new hire. Perhaps at some point, all media hiring at a diverse level won’t become a Che “Weekend Update” punchline, but rather another page of material to add to the show of late-night live television.