‘SNL’ Adds ‘Wild ‘N Out’ Alum, ‘America’s Got Talent’ Finalist to Season 42 Cast
The identities of the host and musical guest planned for Saturday Night Live's Season 42 premiere are still mysteries, but there will be at least three confirmed new faces beside the likes of Kate McKinnon and Vanessa Bayer.
Current SNL writer Mikey Day, Second City alum Alex Moffat and America's Got Talent finalist Melissa Villasenor will make their way to 30 Rockefeller Center for the 2016-2017 season of the late-night variety show, according to Deadline.
Villasenor is a skilled impressionist who's worked on Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time and Family Guy and has a YouTube channel through which she's impersonated Christina Aguilera, Iggy Azalea and more celebs. Day, a writer on SNL since 2013, also appeared on MTV's Wild 'N Out, hosted by Nick Cannon, from 2005 until 2007 and also as part of a 2013-2015 reboot on MTV2. Moffat has performed at Zanies, The Comedy Bar and The Annoyance clubs and made his film debut in 2015's Uncle John.
The cast-additions come after the August 9 firings of longtime cast members Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah, who each appeared for six seasons (newcomer Jon Rudnitsky was later let go, too). Killam indicated scheduling conflicts might have contributed to the choice, and told Uproxx, "I was never given a reason why, really. I can assume until the cows come home. But I do know I’m directing this movie [Why We’re Killing Gunther with Arnold Schwarzenegger] and I’ll have two months of post-production that would have bled into the SNL production schedule, so we kind of communicated that."
SNL Season 42 premieres on October 1 on NBC.
Check out a Mikey Day appearance on the "My Drunk Aunts" series above and share your thoughts on the new cast in the comments.
See Photos from the SNL Season 40 Anniversary Red Carpet: