farewells

Sasheer Zamata Is Leaving Saturday Night Live

Photo: Mindy Tucker

The rule of threes seems to be applying to Saturday Night Live’s outgoing season. After the departures of long-time repertory players Bobby Moynihan and Vanessa Bayer were confirmed this week, Entertainment Tonight reported that Sasheer Zamata has quietly left the late-night sketch show following yesterday’s finale. Zamata was hired on SNL as a featured player in early 2014 following intense criticism that the show lacked ethnic diversity and was later promoted to a repertory player in the fall of 2015. (“When one topic gets trendy, everyone starts picking it up, and we all have this induced fake rage. Everyone’s like, ‘Oh! Now we’re all mad about this!’” she later told Vanity Fair about her hiring process. “So it got very heavy, and it had a lot of traction, and then I guess the show responded. And then they were like, ‘We need to have a rushed audition.’”) Since joining the cast, Zamata has performed numerous memorable impressions that included Michelle Obama, Lupita Nyong’o, and Beyoncé. So, what’s next for her? In her perfect world, the Marvel Universe.

Sasheer Zamata Is Leaving Saturday Night Live