Saturday Night Live is set to return for its 52nd season with two new featured players and one notable departure. The long-running sketch comedy show announced the changes as it prepares for its next season.
New Additions to the Cast
Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter will join the show as featured players when it resumes next weekend, SNL announced Wednesday.
“Welcome to the cast!” the show said on Instagram, in all capital letters.
Saidah Belo-Osagie
Belo-Osagie is a New Yorker from Queens. She wrote and directed the short film “Tinge,” created an event series called “Afrobeats Futura,” and had a solo show titled “Saidah Gets Closure,” according to an SNL news release. She shared the SNL post on her Instagram Story, writing, “A DREAM COME TRUE.”
Grace Reiter
Reiter, who is from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, co-wrote, directed, and stars in the upcoming Netflix show “Minimum Wage,” a series about teenagers running a pizzeria. It is based on a series released online in 2024 that gained attention on TikTok and elsewhere, Netflix said.
Chloe Fineman’s Departure
Chloe Fineman, who joined the show in 2019 for the 45th season, announced on July 16 that she was leaving to try something new.
“It’s really hard to leave SNL but it does feel like the right time,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.
Fineman spent seven seasons as an SNL cast member, performing impressions of Drew Barrymore and Britney Spears and appearing in sketches and advertising spoofs such as “Domingo,” “Snackhomiez,” and “Forever 31.”
Deadline reported that Fineman would be joining the cast of “Myron Bolitar,” a Netflix drama series based on Harlan Coben’s thriller novels about a former basketball star who reinvents himself as a sports agent.
Cast Turnover at SNL
The annual turnover of cast members can be minimal, indicating that the show and its longtime executive producer, Lorne Michaels, are fine-tuning its cold open, sketches, and news segment. Every several years, a greater number of on-air and writers room departures foreshadow a virtual reset for SNL.
Amid and after the 50th season and its accompanying anniversary specials, the show had some big-name departures, including those of Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, and Bowen Yang. Fellow departing talents Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, and Emil Wakim held the freshman-like title “featured player,” a position that often leads to repertory player status.
Season 52 Premiere Details
Season 52 of SNL premieres Sept. 26 with New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson as host and musical guest Katseye. SNL airs on NBC, a division of NBCUniversal, which is also the parent company of NBC News.