‘Saturday Night Live’ hired Sasheer Zamata

Sasheer Zamata

Sasheer Zamata

As you’ll probably remember, Saturday Night Live got into some pretty deep sh!t over not having any black women in its cast, which was only made worse when Kenan Thompson said that they weren’t ready for the show. Well, SNL took the note and decided to go out and cast a black comedienne on the show, and went on to hire UCB alumn Sasheer Zamata. She’ll now be the first black female cast member since funny lady Maya Rudolph who left SNL five years ago. Via Deadline

Four years after she graduated from the University of Virginia, Sasheer Zamata is landing a very big break — the young comedy performer has been selected to join Saturday Night Live as a new cast member. Zamata will make her debut on the venerable NBC late-night sketch comedy series on its next live show slated for January 18 with Drake as host and musical guest. Zamata, who trained at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, becomes the first black female SNL cast member in five years since the departure of Maya Rudolph.

There’s a ton of sketches up on Youtube from Zamata if you want to take a look at them — There’s the story about her getting flashed while walking home, as well as some of her stand-up as well as her work for Upright Citizens Brigade — so yay! Finally, a black woman who can actually play black women, instead of just putting Kenan in a wig and having him yell all his lines!

About JEREMY FEIST 5002 Articles
Jeremy Feist is an (ahem) entertainer from Toronto, Canada. He writes, acts, and performs on stage, and has been a writer for Popbytes for almost three years now. He lives in Toronto with his boyfriend, his incredibly dumb but cute puppy, and his immortal cat.