Three new comedians are entering Studio 8H. Saturday Night Live has announced a trio of new featured players, Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline, who are joining the cast ahead of the primetime sketch comedy show’s 50th season.
The three newbies will replace Marcello Hernández, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker, who, after two seasons as featured players, have all been promoted to full time SNL cast members. Hailing from the Bay Area, Padilla cut her teeth as an improviser from the The Groundlings’s Main Stage Company, the comedy troupe that birthed SNL greats like Maya Rudolph, Kristin Wiig, and Will Ferrell. Not solely an improviser, Padilla has dabbled in stand up comedy and recently appeared NBC’s Night Court reboots as well as on the final season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. She scrubbed most of her social media presence ahead of the SNL announcement—but according to Diane Keaton‘s Instagram, Padilla co-authored a book on fashion called Fashion First with the Oscar winner. Perhaps Padilla will add a touch of glamour to this season of SNL.
Recently featured on Vulture’s Comedians You Should and Will Know, Wakim is a Brooklyn-based Lebanese-American stand up comic. Originally from Chicago, Wakim made his late night television stand up debut on the Lorne Michaels-produced The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in 2022. That same year, Wakim was selected for the currently on pause Montreal comedy festival Just For Laughs as a New Face of Comedy in the standup division. Since then, he’s opened for seasoned comics including Roy Wood Jr., Hasan Minhaj, and 2025 Golden Globe host Nikki Glaser. In his Tonight Show set, Wakim riffed on his Middle Eastern background and told Vulture that the comedian whose career he most looks up to is Ramy Yousseff. “I feel like Ramy has the coolest career right now,” he said. “Being able to work on a special and a show and then put it out and then go back to work on the next thing without having to check in every day and post stuff all the time online? That seems pretty dope.”
Those on TikTok may already be familiar with Wickline, who has amassed almost 1 million followers on the platform with her delightfully deadpan and wonderfully bizarre shortform comedy videos. A sketch performer and standup comedian, Wickline has amassed over with 45.5 million likes on Tik Tok and was a cast member on TikTok’s live sketch show Stapleview. She’s also a staple of the alt-comedy scene in Brooklyn, and can be found performing in the musical comedy duo “Dukes” with Liva Pierce. Wickline is making her film debut 2024 Mubi movie My First Film starring Odessa Young. With the addition of Wickline, SNL gets a healthy dose of Gen Z energy ahead of its 50th season.
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With the new cast members come a few departures. Earlier this summer, Punkie Johnson, the first out Black queer woman cast member of SNL, announced she was leaving the program after four years. On the Fly on the Wall podcast, Johnson told hosts and SNL alums Dana Carvey and David Spade that she ultimately didn’t feel like her comedic stylings were a match for the sketch show. “I didn’t really feel like I fit, like I didn’t feel like that was my zone,” she said. “That show is for a different type of person.”
Following Johnson’s exit, Molly Kearney, the first nonbinary cast member on SNL, also announced their exit, after joining the show as a featured player alongside, Hernández, Longfellow, and Walker. “That’s a wrap on my time on SNL!” Kearney wrote. “Reflecting on the amazing 2 seasons I got on this show, it was such a dream come true. So incredibly grateful for this period in my life.”
Chloe Troast, the only new hire ahead of SNL‘s 49th season, is also not returning for the sketch show’s 50th season. Troast, who had a breakout sketch in “Little Orphan Cassidy” which featured her impressive vocal chops and Timothée Chalamet, announced the news on Instagram. “Unfortunately I was not asked back to SNL this season,” Troast wrote. “I wish I was going back to be with all the amazing friends I made there, it truly felt like home. But it wasn’t in the cards.”
Saturday Night Live returns for its 50th season on Saturday, September 28th, with a musical guest and host to be announced.
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