After 39 Yrs, Saturday Night Live Adds a Black Woman

06 Jan, 2014

NBC’s comic institution “Saturday Night Live,” criticized
recently for a lack of diversity, said on Monday that it was adding
a black woman to its repertory cast when new episodes start again
later this month. Sasheer Zamata, who graduated from the University
of Virginia in 2008 and has worked with the New York Upright
Citizens Brigade comedy troupe, will join for the Jan. 18 episode,
for which Drake is the host and the musical guest. Zamata, 27, is
from Indianapolis. The 137 regular cast members who have been part
of “Saturday Night Live” since its 1975 debut have been mostly
white and have included only four black women. The most recent was
biracial Maya Rudolph, who left in 2007. Black men, including Eddie
Murphy, Tracy Morgan and Chris Rock, have played more prominent
roles. The lack of a black woman among the 16 regular or featured
players became an issue this season when the two black male cast
members, Kenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah, commented publicly about
it and made it known they would no longer dress in drag to portray
black women. “SNL” turned the issue into comedy when “Scandal” star
Kerry Washington was a guest host. Washington was portrayed as
exasperated when she was asked to impersonate first lady Michelle
Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Beyonce in the same skit. At the top of
the show, an “SNL” producer apologized for the number of black
female characters Washington needed to play that night. Behind the
scenes, though, “SNL” founding executive producer Lorne Michaels
was busy holding comedy showcases across the country, searching for
a black woman to join the cast. “It’s not like it’s not a priority
for us,” Michaels said two months ago. “It will happen. I’m sure it
will happen.” AP Image Heidi
Gutman

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