Saturday Night Live has officially added its first black female cast member in years
Ending many years in which it was unable to find a suitable black female cast member—and a couple of weeks in which it suddenly, fortuitously was, right when everyone was making such a huge public deal about it—Saturday Night Live has announced that Sasheer Zamata will officially join the cast. Among her many comedy credentials that are being made to seem unjustly secondary thanks to the hasty, defensive way she's being ushered in, Zamata hosts the weekly variety show School Night at New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade theater, regularly performs standup, and stars in the web series Pursuit Of Sexiness.
You may have also seen her in sketches on Inside Amy Schumer or Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell, the Julie Klausner/Michael Showalter-produced MTV sketch show Hey Girl, the ABC prank show Would You Fall For That?, or in College Humor videos like the popular “HBO Should Show Dongs.” And now, beginning with SNL’s Drake-hosted episode on Jan. 18, you can see Zamata in every sketch that calls for a black female character, as well as every debate about its lack of diversity henceforth.
And yes, she does Michelle Obama.