Chris Redd to leave ‘Saturday Night Live’
Comedian Chris Redd has become the latest in a series of departures from the Saturday Night Live lineup. This loss compounds the programme’s so-called “year of change” heading into season 48 of the primetime show.
“Being a part of SNL has been the experience of a lifetime. Five years ago, I walked into 30 Rock knowing that this was an amazing opportunity for growth,” Redd said in a statement. “Now, with friends who have become family and memories I will cherish forever, I’m grateful to Lorne Michaels and to the entire SNL organisation. From the bottom of my heart, I can’t thank you all enough.”
Over the past five seasons, Redd has become a household name thanks to his comedic contributions to Saturday Night Live. His extraordinary ability to manipulate facial expressions has provided many a laugh as he brought his powers of impersonation to satirise prominent figures, including Barack Obama and Kory Booker to Kanye West and Soulja Boy. In 2018, Redd also picked up an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for his contributions to ‘Come Back Barack’, which called for Obama’s return to the White House.
Redd’s news comes three weeks after three other prominent cast members announced their departure at the end of the season. Melissa Villaseñor and Alex Moffat, who both joined the show in 2016, will not return for the 48th season, while Aristotle Athari is leaving after just one season. Show regulars Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson and Kyle Mooney have also confirmed their departure.
Back in May, Saturday Night Live director Lorne Michaels told The New York Times that the show was entering a “year of change”. At the Emmy Awards last week, he reaffirmed that “this will be a transition year,” via Entertainment Weekly, “and the change years are always difficult but also really exciting because there’s new people and things are changing, and a different generation comes into the show.”
“I think people might’ve left earlier, but there was no place to go, and also, we were used to doing it, and we were under pressure to do it,” Michaels said of the show’s performance during the Covid-19 pandemic. “It was difficult, particularly when you’re rehearsing in masks and it’s all protocols, and there’s nothing to do after the show except to go home.”
Elsewhere, Redd’s hour-long comedy special feature, Chris Redd: Why Am I Like This?, is set to hit screens later this year on HBO Max.
