Saturday Night Live has officially added its first two cast members for season 52, with just a week and change to go before the season premiere. According to a report in Variety, Grace Reiter and Saidah Belo-Osagie are joining the iconic NBC series, which returns on Sept. 26 with host Jalen Brunson. This will be the last new cast added for the season, according to the original report. All the remaining members of last season’s cast are returning for year 52. This excludes Chloe Fineman, who announced that she was leaving the show this summer, or Bowen Yang, who left in December. Martin Herlihy has also left the writing staff for SNL.
Reiter, who originally hails from Wisconsin, is a stand-up comedian who used TikTok and YouTube to launch a career with quite a sizable following. She later featured in Tim Robinson’s The Chair Company on HBO. She’s also starring in the upcoming series Minimum Wage, and she’s a part of American High’s sketch team. As for Belo-Osagie, the Nigerian American filmmaker from New York City, is the creator of the series Afrobeats Futura. The show Saidah Gets Closure is also among her credits, as is writing and directing the short film Tinge.
The complete cast for Saturday Night Live season 52 includes last year’s new additions, Ben Marshall, Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska. Returning veterans include Kenan Thompson, Michael Che, Colin Jost, and Mikey Day. Also returning are Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernández, James Austin Johnson, Sarah Sherman, Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline. So it’s pretty stacked this year. The upcoming announced hosts and musical guests include Dakota Johnson and Turnstile on Oct. 3, Shane Gillis and Rosalía on Oct. 10, and Obsession star and future Rogue in X-Men, Inde Navarette with guest Gracie Abrams for the Halloween episode.