With Saturday Night time Reside celebrating 50 years on tv in 2025, the long-running comedy sketch present has by no means been extra in style within the media. Between Peacock’s new SNL docuseries, SNL 50: Past Saturday Night time, and Jason Reitman’s acclaimed film, Saturday Night time, the favored NBC present has been having fun with a number of legacy-making honors. Talking of legacy, it is laborious to eclipse the towering achievements of the longest-tenured forged member, Kenan Thompson.
As SNL‘s fiftieth season closes with two extra episodes in January 2025, there is not any higher time to replicate on Thompson’s historic path. Not solely is Thompson the longest-running forged member set to finish his run in 2025, however he additionally made historical past by changing into the primary forged member born after the present’s inception in 1975. As a fond farewell, Thompson’s SNL profession retrospective is so as.
- Launch Date
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October 11, 1975
- Seasons
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50
- Solid
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Leslie Jones
, Aidy Bryant
, Kyle Mooney
, Alex Moffat
, Kate McKinnon
, Beck Bennett
, Kenan Thompson
, Colin Jost
, Mikey Day
, Cecily Robust
, Michael Che
, Pete Davidson
, Melissa Villaseñor
Who Is Kenan Thompson?
Born Could 10, 1978, Kenan Thompson is an American actor and comic who started his profession in entrance of the digital camera as a youngster. After making his display debut in D2: The Mighty Geese and co-starring within the underrated comedy Heavyweights, Thompson started his Nickelodeon TV profession in 1996 by starring within the in style buddy sitcom Kenan & Kel together with Kel Mitchell. The present lasted 4 seasons and 62 episodes, spawning the spin-off film Good Burger in 1997.
Whereas honing his comedic timing and appearing chops on Kenan & Kel, Thompson additionally logged over 80 episodes of the sketch comedy collection All That, additional growing his capability to create a number of characters. By the point he was forged on SNL in 2003, Thompson was able to transition to America’s most acclaimed sketch comedy collection easily and seamlessly. Little might he have identified that he would make historical past by changing into the longest-tenured SNL forged member and the primary forged member born after the present debuted in 1975.
Kenan Thompson’s ‘SNL’ Historical past
Thompson made his SNL debut in 2003 throughout the twenty ninth season’s first episode. After starting as a featured forged member, Thompson graduated to a collection common two years later and has been a mainstay ever since. Thompson’s most memorable caricatures early in his tenure embrace spoofing Invoice Cosby, Gary Coleman, Serena Williams, Sammy Sosa, Ray Lewis, Al Sharpton, and different popular culture celebrities.
In 2019, Thompson detailed his SNL beginnings to Self-importance Truthful, claiming he despatched audition tapes to Lorne Michaels two years after he discovered success on Nickelodeon, however was informed he appeared too younger to be forged. Lastly, at age 25 in 2003, Thompson earned an audition. In response to Thompson through Self-importance Truthful:
“I principally began doing sound results and a telephone name between [Al] Sharpton and [Arnold] Schwarzenegger for some odd purpose. It was humorous to me, however I had no setup, so all people was simply form of misplaced.”
Regardless of the awkward tryout, Thompson was forged and went on his history-making path. Throughout his 22-season SNL run, Thompson has earned six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, together with a 2018 win for Excellent Unique Music and Lyrics for the tune “Come Again, Barack.”
Associated
SNL: Kenan Thompson’s Most Iconic Characters, Ranked
Kenan Thompson has performed quite a lot of nice characters throughout his time on Saturday Night time Reside. These are his greatest.
Thompson Grew to become the Longest-Operating Solid Member
One 12 months earlier, in 2017, Thompson eclipsed SNL alum Darrell Hammond’s long-held tenure of 14 seasons. When he broke the document in 2017, Thompson didn’t know when his SNL run would finish. With time and reflection, Thompson informed Fatherly in 2023:
“I believe you keep so long as you might be welcome and also you don’t actually really feel such as you’re not rising in any capability. As soon as I really feel stalemated, it’ll most likely be a really clear indication that I want one thing else or one thing like that. It’ll simply be… an inevitability of time. It’ll simply be my time to maneuver on, I assume. Hopefully, they received’t kick me out.”
Thompson’s most notable characters and skits embrace internet hosting “Black Jeopardy” and spoofing in style recreation present host Alex Trebek together with his character Darnell Hayes. Showing in additional than 1,500 sketches, Thompson’s most well-known characters and imitations embrace Elliot Pants, Scary Gary Loomis, Steve Kane, Jean Okay. Jean, Charles Barkley, O.J. Simpson, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Harvey, David Ortiz, and others.
As the primary SNL forged member born after the present launched in 1975 and the longest-tenured since then, Thompson deserves a particular honor for bridging the hole from the primary technology to the second. Capable of stay related, reinvent his humor, and ship constant laughs speaks volumes about Thompson’s abilities. After concluding his record-breaking twenty second Season of SNL in 2025, it is time for Thompson to convey his abilities elsewhere.
What’s Subsequent for Kenan Thompson?
In 2021, Thompson returned to his ’90s sitcom roots with the eponymous Kenan, which lasted two seasons and 20 episodes earlier than ending in 2022. In 2023, Thompson starred within the YouTube net collection Lil Interns, appeared in Good Burger 2., and printed the guide, Once I Was Your Age. With simply two SNL episodes remaining in January 2025, Thompson appears to be like ahead to at the very least two initiatives in improvement.
As Lil Interns hangs within the steadiness, Thompson will voice roles within the upcoming animated motion pictures Pierre the Pigeon Hawk and the Untitled Lani Pixels Challenge. Behind the scenes, Thompson has begun producing movies and TV reveals, together with Kenan, Good Burger 2, and most not too long ago, Crossword in 2024.
Associated
Virtually 50 Years In the past, ‘SNL’ Had One Non-Celeb Host
In 1977, ‘Saturday Night time Reside’ ran a contest the place any house viewer might enter for an opportunity to host the present.
Discussing his bittersweet exit, Thompson tells the Thanks Dad podcast (as reported by Deadline):
“Being there a very long time, you watch folks come and go. So you must cope with the parting of friendships, that form of factor. The mourning of the lack of sure folks’s presence and all that. So there’s quite a lot of bittersweet to it.”
Kenan Thompson’s ultimate SNL episode will air on January 25, 2025. Saturday Night time Reside is accessible to stream on Peacock