sasheerzamata

 

Congratulations to Sasheer Zamata!  The executives at “Saturday Night Live” announced on Monday that she is officially the new female cast member on the show.  As most of you are aware, the show caught some flack from the African-American community about the lack of diversity on the popular sketch comedy program. What sparked the interest of a lot of us was after “Scandal” actress, Kerry Washington, appeared on “SNL” and did a bit that featured her impersonating three Black women (Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Beyonce). The show’s producer understood that this was an issue and apologized for having Washington play several characters in the same skit.

 

Well, “SNL” expeditiously did damage control by holding auditions for a new African-American female cast member. Thousands of comedians and sketch comedy artist auditioned for the job. Only three finalists remained as of December 2013. It wasn’t clear if Lorne Michaels (founding executive producer) was going to hire just one or all three. For now, as we know it, he only hired one person. So, let’s celebrate the addition of Sasheer Zamata.

 

Sasheer is a standup comedian, actress, writer, and improviser from New York. She’s a recent graduate of University of Virgina and student from Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) comedy troupe. She has a laundry list of web-based projects she’s worked on such as Pursuit of Sexiness, CollegeHumor, and Above Average. She’s also appeared on Hey Girl, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, and Inside Amy Schumer.

 

Sasheer will make her debut on “SNL” on January 18th, the episode in which artist Drake will perform.

 

Here are a few videos of Sasheer Zamata:

 

 

 

 

 

Source: AP, Splitsider