‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Changes: Beck Bennett Is Leaving, Three New Faces Are Joining

The cast of Not Ready for Primetime players at Studio 8H is remaining largely unchanged. On Monday, Saturday Night Live announced its repertory for the upcoming 47th season, which will consist of 21 cast members. Longtime cast member Beck Bennett (known for playing Vice President Mike Pence and a shirtless Vladimir Putin) departs the show after eight seasons, as does featured player Lauren Holt, who only joined SNL last year.

Bennett bid farewell to the show on Instagram, writing alongside several photos from his stint, “Love you, SNL. Gonna miss you so much. Thank you for 8 years of remarkable people and incredible experiences that completely changed my life. I had so much fun.”

A trio of new cast members have also joined Saturday Night Live as featured players: Aristotle Athari (Silicon Valley), James Austin Johnson (deemed to have the Internet’s best Trump impression), and Sarah Sherman (The Eric Andre Show). Both Chloe Fineman and Emmy-nominated Bowen Yang have been promoted to full-time cast members after being hired in 2019.

Despite speculation about their exits, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Aidy Bryant, and Pete Davidson are all set to return. In mid-August, Variety reported that Lorne Michaels had urged cast members to stay at SNL, particularly as the show nears its 50th season in 2025. One way the longtime producer enticed actors to stay was by loosening restrictions for filming other projects. Last year, Bryant and Strong each dipped out of several episodes while shooting, respectively, Hulu’s Shrill and Apple’s Schmigadoon! Thompson and Chris Redd also spent much of last season filming their NBC comedy, Kenan. (Notably, Michaels’s entertainment company Broadway Video produces all of these shows.)

It appears that Michaels’s tactic worked. Others set to return to their posts include Colin Jost, Michael Che, Heidi Gardner, Kyle Mooney, Ego Nwodim, Mikey Day, Chris Redd, Alex Moffat, and Melissa Villaseñor; plus featured players Andrew Dismukes and Punkie Johnson.

Season 47 of Saturday Night Live premieres on October 2 with host Owen Wilson and musical guest Kacey Musgraves.

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