Saturday Night Live Reveals 4 New Cast Members Joining Season 48
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Saturday Night Live has added a quartet of brand-new faces!
Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker will join the late-night sketch series ahead of its upcoming 48th season, according to a Sept. 15 press release.
Hernandez is a comedian, writer and actor from Miami and was recently selected as a Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy in 2022.
Before SNL, Cleveland-born Kearney appeared in Amazon's A League of Their Own and Disney+'s The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers and was selected for Comedy Central's Up Next showcase in 2019. Kearney will be SNL's first nonbinary performer.
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Longfellow, who is originally from Phoenix, has been featured on Netflix's Introducing showcase and NBC's Bring the Funny. He was also selected as one of TBS's Comics to Watch for the 2017 New York Comedy Festival.
Texas native Walker also appeared in Comedy Central's Up Next showcase in 2017 and has written for Freeform's Everything's Trash and Netflix's Big Mouth.
RELATED: SNL Creator Lorne Michaels Calls Season 48 a 'Transition Year' in the Wake of 7 Cast Members' Exits
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It's been a transformative year for the series after longtime cast members Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney and Pete Davidson left the show after the season 47 finale.
PEOPLE confirmed on Sept. 1 that three additional SNL comedians — cast members Melissa Villaseñor and Alex Moffat, as well as featured comedian Aristotle Athari — would not be returning for season 48.
"There are new people, and things are changing, and a different generation comes into the show," Michaels, 77, told reporters backstage at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards after SNL picked up its sixth consecutive outstanding variety series trophy.
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RELATED: Kenan Thompson Says There's 'Always More' for Him to Do at Saturday Night Live
Michaels noted that the COVID pandemic over the last few years may have played into SNL stars' decisions about when and how to take their final bow.
"I think people might've left earlier, but there was no place to go," he acknowledged. "It was difficult, particularly when you're rehearsing in masks and it's all protocols and there's nothing to do after the show except go home."
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Season 48 of SNL will premiere Oct. 1 on NBC.
