Continuing a week of Saturday Night Live cast and crew shake-ups, Emil Wakim has announced he will not be returning to the show for its 51st season. “[It] was a gut punch of a call to get but i’m so grateful for my time there,” the comedian, who was hired in 2024, wrote on Instagram. “[I] was at six flags celebrating my friend’s 36th birthday and went on a really emotional walk through bugs bunny park and stared out across daffy duck lake thinking about life.”
In the post, Wakim wrote that “every time i scanned into the building i would think how insane it is to get to work there. it was the most terrifying, thrilling, and rewarding experience of my life and i will miss it dearly and all the brilliant people that work there that made it feel like a home. thank u to lorne for taking a chance on me and changing my life.”
Of the four people who have publicly parted ways with the show this week, Wakim is the only person to indicate that he’d been let go. (Devon Walker teasingly titled his goodbye statement, “Wait… did he quit or get fired?”) Perhaps notable in a political climate in which diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are under fire, three of the four exits so far have been non-white staffers, including Walker, Wakim, and Celeste Yim, who was the show’s first ever out trans writer. Deadline reports Wakim had the third-least amount of screen time in the past season after Jane Wickline and Walker. He offered some memorable political commentary as a Weekend Update guest, including weighing in on the youth movement in support of Palestine. “[I] was so lucky to bring some of myself in there and say things i believed in and i’m excited for whatever chapter comes next,” Wakim wrote in his Instagram post. “here’s to making more art without compromise.”
