The 25 best Saturday Night Live cast members of this century

Each era of Saturday Night Live has its mega-stars, the ones whose sketch-comedy contributions linger long after those weekly, wistful goodbye segments and that final saxophone blow. There are, of course, those legendary 1975 originals, the Not Ready For Prime-Time Players like John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Chevy Chase, and Gilda Radner. There’s the eighties domination of Eddie Murphy—a bright spot in a turbulent time for the show, which saw both the exit and return of creator Lorne Michaels—as well as ’90s greats like Chris Farley, Mike Meyers, and Adam Sandler, who revitalized the long-running NBC program as it stretched to the millennium’s end.

In comparison, the show’s post-2000 period initially feels too recent to be retrospective about, but, impossibly, Saturday Night Live’s aughts age actually occupies half of the franchise’s five-decade history. In that near quarter century, SNL has ushered in the dawn of the digital short, has boldly commented on historic events from 9/11 to COVID, and has launched the careers of many transcendentally funny cast members.

From long-running Studio 8H-ers like Kenan Thompson and Fred Armisen to impression impresarios like Darrell Hammond and Bill Hader to the formidable performers who upended the traditionally male-dominated show (Poehler! Fey! Rudolph!), the twenty-first century has witnessed some truly fantastic players. Behold: The A.V. Club’s countdown of the 25 best SNL cast members since 2000.

25. Bowen Yang (2019-)

Bowen Yang’s casting alone made SNL history: He is the first Chinese-American cast member and only the third openly gay male to appear on the show. After a breakout second season, which saw Yang brilliantly oscillate between the sobering (a “Weekend Update” reflection on the rise of anti-Asian hate) and the downright silly (his instantly iconic performance as the iceberg that sank the Titanic), he also became the first SNL featured player ever nominated for an Emmy. And given how subtly but substantially radical his comedy has been since—bits like that saucy Sara Lee meeting and his Chen Biao “Trade Daddy” rant are unabashedly queer and undeniably funny—we have no doubt there’s plenty more where that came from. [Christina Izzo]