Chloe Fineman, the “Saturday Night Live” star known for her impressions of Drew Barrymore, Melania Trump, Timothée Chalamet and Britney Spears, is leaving the NBC sketch-comedy institution after seven seasons. She announced the news in a post on Instagram on Thursday.
In a lengthy caption under a carousel of photos and videos from her time on the show, she called the cast and crew “my family” and the show “my home.”
“It’s cliche to say this but working at S.N.L. has been the greatest privilege of my life,” she wrote. “I fell in love with the place the second I walked through the door.”
Addressing the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, she added: “Lorne (if you’re reading this on your burner account) I want you to know that I am forever in your debt.”
She also described the emotional roller coaster that is inherent to “S.N.L.,” particularly the pain of getting a sketch rejected.
“But that’s just the show,” she wrote. “You respect it so much that you give it absolutely everything you have even when it’s incredibly stupid. So you’re ecstatic when it works out and the most devastated you’ve ever been when it doesn’t.”
Fineman, 37, joined the show in 2019 as a featured player before being promoted to the main cast in 2021. She has pivoted to film in recent years, starring in last year’s “Summer of 69” and “Freakier Friday,” as well as Francis Ford Coppola’s 2024 epic “Megalopolis.” Coming up, she is set to appear in the rom-com “Love Language,” with Chloë Grace Moretz and Anthony Ramos; and the sports comedy “The Dink,” with Jake Johnson, Ben Stiller, Mary Steenburgen and Ed Harris.
Fineman is the first cast member to leave the show since the conclusion of its 51st season in May. “S.N.L.” saw sizable turnover ahead of Season 51 with five cast members (including the stalwarts Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim) departing and five new additions. Longtime favorite Bowen Yang left in the middle of the season.
Season 52 is expected to kick off in the fall.
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