Villaseñor becomes SNL’s first Latina cast member
Saturday Night Live recently announced three new cast members, about a month after the departure of Jay Pharoah and Taran Killam from the show.
Joining the cast is Mikey Day, who has written for SNL since 2013, Alex Moffat, a writer and performer on the Lorne Michaels-produced variety show Maya & Marty, and Los Angeles-based comedian Melissa Villaseñor.
Villaseñor’s casting might be the most exciting. The 28-year-old is best known for becoming a finalist on NBC’s reality show America’s Got Talent, where she won audience’s hearts (and laughs) with her dead-on impressions of nearly anyone you can think of, including Owen Wilson. During one of her final sets on the show, she went through some of her top impressions: Barbara Walters, Natalie Portman, Miley Cyrus, Kathy Griffin and Christina Aguilera.
While her impressions will likely make her a good replacement for Pharaoh, they aren’t the only thing that makes her stand out.
The show has never featured a Latina performer in its 42 years on the air. Villaseñor, who grew up in Whittier, Calif., and is of Mexican descent, is the first.
The chair of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts praised the hire in an interview with Fox News Latino.
“It shows that we’re making progress and that we are an important community that cannot be disregarded,” Felix Sanchez said. “This is an area that is undeveloped and under-represented — Latinas in comedy . ... If Melissa does well, there will be a demand for more. It will open doors for others.”
SNL has only featured two Latino performers — Fred Armisen, whose mother is from Venezuela and father is Japanese-German, and Horatio Sanz, who was born in Chile. In fact, those two created Más Mejor, an online comedy studio with a mission to “cultivate Latino comedic talent.” It’s owned by the Lorne Michaels-founded Broadway Video and airs a recurring series titled Daily Itineraries, which features Villaseñor portraying a day in the life of the various celebrities she impersonates.
A few years ago, preceding (and possibly leading to) the hiring of Sasheer Zamata and Leslie Jones, there was an outcry over the lack of black women represented on the late-night variety show. Cast member Kenan Thompson famously told TV Guide he wouldn’t dress in drag anymore just because the show didn’t have any female black cast members.
In reaction, the show aired a skit featuring that week’s host Kerry Washington portraying a number of black female celebrities, with Beyoncé, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey among them.