When SNL wrapped its 47th season back in May, it bid farewell to four of its main cast members: Kate McKinnon, Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney. Turns out that was only the beginning of a mass exodus. Over the summer, Melissa Villaseñor, Alex Moffat, and featured player Aristotle Athari joined them. Now there’s one more.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Chris Redd — who joined the show in 2017 — is out as well. For his first two seasons, he was a featured player. He was promoted in 2019. Over his five-year tenure, he’s played figures like Kaney West, Stephen A. Smith, Will Smith, and NYC mayor Eric Adams. He even won an Emmy, for the song “Come Back Barack,” which aired during Chance the Rapper’s episode in November of 2017, almost a year into Donald Trump’s one-term presidency. (He shared the award with fellow lyricists Kenan Thompson and Will Stephen as well as composer Eli Brueggemann.)
As for what’s next, he has his very own HBO Max stand-up special due later this year: Chris Redd: Why Am I Like This?
That’s eight SNL cast members leaving, so who, exactly, is left? Glad you asked: Michael Che, Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Cecily Strong, Thompson and Bowen Yang and featured players Andrew Dismukes, James Austin Johnson, Punkie Johnson, and Sarah Sherman are all sticking around. Meanwhile, the show recently announced the addition of four newbies: Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker.
SNL returns to the airwaves on October 2.
(Via THR)
