'Saturday Night Live': Meet Kenan Thompson, Kate McKinnon and rest of the NBC cast set to return for Season 46
There might be a lot of talk shows and variety shows that are popular but 'Saturday Night Live' (SNL) holds a special place for its loyal fan base. The good news is that SNL Season 46 is set to premiere on October 3. They are planning to have a "limited in-studio audience" and are working closely with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's team to ensure safety for everyone during the ongoing pandemic.
The show’s last in-studio appearance was on March 7, hosted by Daniel Craig. The show then had three at-home performances. Meet the cast of one of the longest-running network television programs in the US.
Kenan Thompson
Thompson has been a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy series since 2003, making him the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history. His Steve Harvey impersonation from 'Family Feud' sketches have been hugely popular. He began his acting career in the early 1990s and was part of the original cast member of Nickelodeon's sketch comedy series 'All That'.
He often collaborated with his 'All That' costar Kel Mitchell and in 1996, they starred in their own sitcom 'Kenan & Kel'. In the past, he has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on SNL, including two for Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics. This year also he has been nominated in the category Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series.
Kate McKinnon
McKinnon debuted as a featured player on SNL in April 2012. Later, she was promoted to repertory status in Season 39 in 2013. McKinnon has been appearing as Hillary Clinton on the series leading up to the 2016 presidential election. During the show's Season 41 premiere, the real Clinton appeared alongside her in a sketch.
After the election, she began to impersonate Kellyanne Conway alongside Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump. And in 2017, she started her impression of Elizabeth Warren during 'Weekend Update' and 'Jeff Sessions' in the cold open. There were speculations if she will return for the new season or not – because of her role in Hulu limited series 'The Dropout' – but reports have stated she is returning.
Cecily Strong
In September 2012, Strong joined SNL as a featured player and the very next season, she as promoted to repertory player and co-anchored the recurring 'Weekend Update' segment with Seth Meyers. She later co-anchored it with Colin Jost. But she was replaced with writer Michael Che in Season 40 because she requested that she wanted to concentrate on doing sketches as part of the regular cast.
Some of her popular recurring characters are 'The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation with at a Party', an unnamed pseudo-activist and Kyra from 'The Girlfriends Talk Show'. She has also done celebrity impressions of Melania Trump, Jeanine Pirro and Tulsi Gabbard. After Kimberly Guilfoyle's 'high energy' speech at the Republican National Convention, a lot of fans said her speech will give good content for Strong to impersonate on SNL. Whether or not that happens, we have to wait and see.
Beck Bennett
In Season 39 of SNL, Bennett debuted as a featured player. He was promoted to repertory status in Season 41 of the show in 2015. His impressions of Mike Pence and Vladimir Putin are quite famous. In 2003, Bennett had joined the improv/sketch group Commedus Interruptus along with SNL cast member Kyle Mooney. They have been friends since they were students at the University of Southern California. The two have been featured in many hilarious SNL sketches together.
The rest of the cast features Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Chris Redd, Melissa Villaseñor, Ego Nwodim and Bowen Yang.
There is more news. Executive producer Lorne Michaels said in a new interview with Vulture that Alec Baldwin will return and so will Maya Rudolph to reprise their roles of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Another surprise that was announced was that Jim Carrey will be joining SNL to play former vice president Joe Biden. Three new cast members, comedians Lauren Holt, Punkie Johnson and Andrew Dismukes, will also join as featured players.
'Saturday Night Live' will premiere on October 3 at 11.30 pm ET on NBC.