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As summer ends, so inevitably comes Saturday Night Live's announcement of its new tributes—ahem—cast members—to enter the arena. Before the 43rd season of the comedy juggernaut launches this Saturday, here's the rundown on the new players. Who will survive past Christmas? Who will become the next Kristen Wiig?
Like Ana Gasteyer, Cheri Oteri and Maya Rudolph before her, Heidi Gardner comes from the LA-based Groundlings comedy group. She's set to appear in next year's Melissa McCarthy sorority comedy Life of the Party, and has voiced Yasmin on the Bratz animated show and Cooch on Supermansion.
Chris Redd arrives with a pretty lengthy resume. He was in the Andy Samberg comedy Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and has a regular role as Dank on the Netflix weed dispensary sitcom Disjointed (if he's Kathy Bates-approved, he's good enough for me). He's currently on a stand-up tour through Ireland, Australia and the United States and has a Comedy Central stand-up special premiering this month.
Luke Null joins the cast with little industry experience, though he was a member of the iO theater in Chicago.
As for the seven new writers, two are women, so things are good! Sam Jay, Claire Friedman, Nimesh Patel, Steven Castillo, Andrew Dismukes, Erik Marino and Gary Richardson will take over behind-the-camera duties on an unpredictable, post-election-year season. With last year's ratings hitting highs untouched since the Adam Sandler years, the stakes couldn't be higher to keep the masses happy.
Let the bloodbath begin!