Saturday Night Live Adds Sasheer Zamata, First Black Female Cast Member in Six Years

SNL Adds Sasheer Zamata
SNL Adds Sasheer Zamata

NBC’s Saturday Night Live has added Sasheer Zamata as a featured player, to make her debut on Jan. 18, our sister site Deadline reports.

Zamata represents the first African-American female to be a part of SNL‘s regular cast since Maya Rudolph left the show in November 2007.

RELATED | Jonah Hill to Host Saturday Night Live for a Third Time

SNL became the target of much debate/discussion this fall when its new slew of cast additions included not one person of color.

RELATED | Rapper Drake to Host First Saturday Night Live of 2014

A graduate of the University of Virginia, Zamata has performed with Upright Citizen’s Brigade, done stand up at numerous comedy festivals (including the Letterman Showcase at the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival and Comedy Central’s “Comics to Watch” Showcase), and has opened for onetime SNL scribe John Mulaney.

Zamata’s credits also include the self-penned web series Pursuit of Sexiness, videos for College Humor and The Cooking Channel’s web series Fodder and appearances on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell and Inside Amy Schumer.

Saturday Night Live Adds Sasheer Zamata, First Black Female Cast Member in Six Years
Saturday Night Live Adds Sasheer Zamata, First Black Female Cast Member in Six Years

Related stories

Pilot News: NBC Orders DC Comics' Constantine and Mysteries of Laura Procedural

Golden Globes 2014: The Best & Wildest Moments

Golden Globes 2014: Rate Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's Opening Monologue!

Get more from TVLine.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter