Saturday Night Live is currently going through a “transition year” following the May 2022 departure of longtime mainstays Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, and Kyle Mooney, which was followed up with more cast changes in September when Melissa Villaseñor, Alex Moffat, and Aristotle Athari left the popular sketch comedy show. Though Lorne Michaels’ program has lost some of its major stars in recent months, the show must go on. Luckily, the Saturday Night Live Season 48 cast is looking mighty strong with multiple returning repertory players as well as some additions to the featured player portion in the form of four new arrivals.
Ahead of the return of Saturday Night Live, which is set to premiere Saturday, October 1st on NBC (and streaming live for Peacock subscribers for the first time ever), we have put together a running list of all the returning and new faces confirmed to be returning to Studio 8H this fall.
If you're looking to see who's hosting or performing throughout the season, check out our updated list of 2022-2023 SNL hosts and musical guests for Season 48.
Michael Che (Repertory Player)
Michael Che has been a permanent fixture of the Saturday Night Live cast since joining the Weekend Update desk in September 2014, and it looks like the co-head writer of the sketch comedy show will remain in his position for at least another season.
Che’s status was up in the air following the mass exodus of longtime stars in May 2022, with the comedian telling The Bill Simmons Podcast that he thought he was staying around but didn’t provide a definite answer. The comedian sang a different tune a few weeks later, when he appeared on The Howard Stern Show (via NY Daily News) and revealed he was sticking around for a while longer following a conversation with SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels.
Colin Jost (Repertory Player)
Colin Jost, despite not having as much screen time as other members of the Saturday Night Live cast, is one of the longest-running active players on the show, having been with the program since 2005. The Weekend Update co-host and the show’s co-head writer, who has sat at the desk since 2014, will be around for at least another season, if not more.
A couple of months after a lot of his costars and friends left SNL, Jost told ET that he was going to “miss them being around everyday” when the show picked back up in Fall 2022.
Kenan Thompson (Repertory Player)
Kenan Thompson, who is the longest-running Saturday Night Live cast member by a long-shot (he’s completed 20 seasons), will be around a little while longer. During a red carpet interview with People prior to hosting the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2022, Thompson said “there’s always more to do” on the successful sketch comedy show and that they keep calling him so he can’t say no.
Though he hasn’t revealed when he will leave SNL for good, Thompson told ET in June 2022 that he was at least trying to get to the show’s 50th season, which is slated to take place in Fall 2024. He doesn’t know what will happen after that.
Bowen Yang (Repertory Player)
Bowen Yang has been a member of the Saturday Night Live on-air cast since 2019, and we will be seeing more of the Emmy-nominated comedian when the show returns in October.
When speaking with ET in June 2022, Yang described the upcoming season as “an interesting sort of envisioning of the show and recalibration” after so many people left the show after Season 47. Despite the uncertainty of it all, Yang said he was “excited to see where it goes” when talking about SNL’s future.
Marcello Hernandez (Featured Player)
In addition to all the familiar faces coming back for another season of Saturday Night Live, the long-running sketch comedy show will also see a few new additions to the cast in Season 48. In September 2022, Variety reported that Marcello Hernandez was one of the new comedians coming in as a featured player after building a name for himself on the stand up comedy circuit (he has opened for former SNL cast members Jim Breuer and the late Gilbert Gottfried in the past) as well as on various social media platforms.
Molly Kearney (Featured Player)
Molly Kearney will become the first openly nonbinary member of the Saturday Night Live cast when the show makes its Fall 2022 debut, per CBS News. Kearney, who was one of the four new featured players added to the cast ahead of the Season 48 premiere, previously appeared on shows like A League of Their Own and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers.
Michael Longfellow (Featured Player)
Also joining the Saturday Night Live Season 48 cast as a featured player is comedian Michael Longfellow. In addition to touring the country as an up-and-coming comedian, Longfellow has also appeared on the TV show, How to Be Broke, and in the short film, Get Over It.
Devon Walker (Featured Player)
The same month Vulture named Devon Walker as one of the comedians you should know in 2022, the standup comedian was announced to be joining the Saturday Night Live Season 48 cast as a featured player. Prior to landing a spot on the roster, Walker served as a writer on Everything’s Trash and appeared on shows like G.O.A.T., Min-Mocks, Bite Size Halloween, and Comedy Central - As Seen On CC).
As we get closer to the Saturday Night Live Season 48 premiere, expect to hear more about the returning cast members as well as the hosts and musical guests who will appear each week. And remember, SNL is just one of the shows returning for the 2022 fall TV schedule.
