The talent pipeline for “Saturday Night Live” has evolved over the decades. Most stars of the NBC sketch show once were discovered at comedy clubs or improv and sketch theaters, but it’s not uncommon these days for Lorne Michaels and the rest of the show’s brain trust to scout talent on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
This year’s new cast members, announced on Tuesday, made their names on a mix of traditional and new platforms. Ahead of Season 51, which premieres on Oct. 4, here’s some of what helped them stand out from the pack.
Ben Marshall
The most familiar face to “S.N.L.” fans will be Ben Marshall, a member of Please Don’t Destroy, a comedy trio that also includes John Higgins and Martin Herlihy. All three were hired as writers for “S.N.L.” in 2021, and they soon became known for their digital shorts, some of which went viral. A 2021 video in which the guys get dunked on by Pete Davidson and Taylor Swift has been viewed more than 20 million times.
On Wednesday, the day after “S.N.L.” announced Marshall’s addition to the cast, Higgins wrote on Instagram that the group would stop making shorts for the show but clarified that Please Don’t Destroy is not disbanding. (They have tour dates scheduled through mid-September.) Higgins will depart “S.N.L.” to “pursue acting opportunities that I’ll announce soon,” he wrote. Herlihy will stay on as a writer.
The trio began collaborating in 2017 as students at New York University, performing live before expanding to YouTube and eventually TikTok and other social media. Marshall, 30, was born and raised in Savannah, Ga.
Kam Patterson
Kam Patterson, 26, began his stand-up career at open mic nights in Orlando, Fla., where he’s from. He credits co-workers at a Foot Locker for convincing him to try comedy, he told Orlando Weekly. “They were like, ‘Man, you funny as hell. You should be a comedian,’” Patterson recalled.
His star began to rise on the popular comedy podcast “Kill Tony,” hosted by Tony Hinchcliffe. Patterson is a regular, and in 2024, he performed live at a “Kill Tony” show at Madison Square Garden. He also toured with the “Kill Tony” crew this year.
Patterson’s most popular YouTube clips feature his “Kill Tony” sets or his project “Kam & the Whites,” in which he does “white people” activities like rock climbing or cliff jumping. The videos are packed with expletives, a habit Patterson will have to break while performing live on NBC.
Veronika Slowikowska
Fans of “What We Do in the Shadows,” the FX vampire mockumentary series, may recognize Veronika Slowikowska, a 29-year-old Canadian, as the vampire hunter Shanice. She has also appeared in Shane Gillis’s Netflix workplace comedy “Tires” and starred as Davey in the sci-fi teen comedy “Davey & Jonesie’s Locker.”
But it is Slowikowska’s collaboration with Kyle Chase, the straight man to her quirky character in sketches they’ve been posting on Instagram and TikTok since 2023, that highlights her gift for physical comedy and her sketch show potential.
In a representative bit from May, which has racked up over eight million views and 1.5 million likes, she gains wisdom by walking a mile in Chase’s (giant) shoes.
Tommy Brennan
Tommy Brennan, a stand-up comic from Minnesota with a boy-next-door sensibility, was selected as a New Face of Comedy at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal in 2023.
While living in Chicago, Brennan, 32, performed improv at Second City — in a 2023 interview, he said he switched to stand-up in order to perform more. He attributes his point of view to his friendship with the comedy legend Louie Anderson, whom he met in Chicago in 2019. Anderson, who died in 2022, helped Brennan workshop material.
“The best advice he gave me was to write about yourself,” Brennan said in 2023 on the podcast “Small Talk.”
Brennan grew up as one of eight children, and he mined this background in his “Tonight Show” debut in June: “You can’t love eight kids individually. You manage them like a sports franchise.”
Jeremy Culhane
Jeremy Culhane, a performer from California, has appeared on popular TV series including the HBO comedy “The Sex Lives of College Girls” and the Netflix mockumentary “American Vandal.” Culhane, 33, is also a regular on Dropout, a comedy streaming service, and has performed with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles.
But as with Slowikowska, his TikTok sketches best showcase his comedic style. In one viral post from 2023, which has over 10 million views and nearly two million likes, he plays a sweet, excitable guy who mentally unravels while getting ready for a date.
Maya Salam is an editor and reporter, focusing primarily on pop culture across genres.
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