The verdict’s in: Saturday Night Live UK cast knocked it out the park. Despite naysayers' predictions that our attempt to recreate America's legendary late-night comedy show would inevitably flop, the British lineup proved that humour is one of our nation's greatest strengths – in fact, some might say we do it better.
The inaugural episode, which aired Saturday, 21st March, was outrageous, slightly bonkers and, most importantly, genuinely funny, giving us a taste of what's to come over the rest of the series. Sure, we had some help from across the pond, with SNL legend Tina Fey joining as the first guest host. But she didn't overshadow the main cast. From a laugh-out-loud Weekend Update segment, to a sketch about an anti-ageing cream “that works so well, everyone will think your husband is a nonce”, the gags were constant and fired squarely at the right targets. Oh, and let's not forget an unforgettable Princess Diana impression, which might possibly be the best interpretation we've seen of her on screen (sorry, Kristen Stewart).
Time for a nationwide round of applause, we reckon. And while you wait for this weekend's episode, it wouldn't hurt to properly acquaint yourselves with the cast. Trust us, these guys are about to go stratospheric.
Who’s in the SNL UK cast?
When we say these guys are a cut above the rest, we mean it: the Saturday Night Live UK cast beat 1,800 applicants during the audition process, which included real-life standup shows where they had to prove their funny bones in front of a live audience, who were totally unaware of the stakes. Here's everything you need to know about our new late-night comedy TV heroes.
The man behind that Lady Di impression, Jack Shep has already graced our screens with appearances in Channel 4's Big Boys, Netflix's One Day and Alan Carr's Changing Ends. But the SNL stage is giving the Bedfordshire-born comedian a place to showcase his true talents. "Basically, I’m always doing stupid shit, which I think makes me primed for SNL,” he said in a pre-launch interview. His words, not ours.
What else can we expect to see from Shep? Well, given that his first SNL UK outing also delivered performances as an attention-seeking baby in the womb and an East London-ified Shakespeare, we're putting our money on more Socks House Meeting-coded chaos. Case in point: after the first show aired last Saturday, Shep ended the night in Morley's.
A mainstay on the British comedy circuit, you might recognise 28-year-old Ania Magliano from her appearances on Taskmaster or Live at the Apollo. A stand-up comedian through and through, she's been hustling in the industry for a decade, having first taken to the stage at 18. “Since then, I’ve performed sold-out tours, filmed a stand-up special, and taken shows to Edinburgh. It’s through stand-up that I really found my voice," she says.
Now officially minted as one of SNL UK's Weekend Update anchors – which, for the uninitiated, is the show's satirical news segment – Magliano will be on hand to deliver punchlines on the top headlines each week. "I love performing stand-up, but the chance to work collaboratively with other amazing comedians was a huge draw for me," she told the BBC. “And honestly, being part of SNL UK is just incredibly cool.”
34-year-old Hammed Animashaun will be another familiar face to anyone keenly plugged into the UK comedy scene – mostly thanks to his starring role in the BBC One series Black Ops. But Animashaun has major theatre chops, too, from his award-winning turn in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Bridge Theatre to the original production of Barber Shop Chronicles.
“I think of myself as an actor first and foremost,” he told the BBC. “I've done a lot of theatre. That's my first love so I feel very much at home on the stage and performing live. Transferring that experience over to live comedy is something I'm really excited for." He's already adjusting pretty well. Animashaun's first SNL sketches have received widespread acclaim as some of the show's standouts. His role as brutally honest interviewer at a press junket? Genius.
Another theatre darling, Annabel Marlow cut her teeth in the debut of Six the Musical at Edinburgh Fringe, before going on to star in her own one-woman show, This Okay??, at the festival in 2023. But she's been prepping for her SNL moment for much longer. A superfan of the US show, as a teenager, she had was the proud owner of an SNL fan account on Instagram. “SNL combines everything I love,” she says. “I'm excited to create characters and hopefully write some music as well.”
We're yet to see Marlow's vocals shine on the show, but there's plenty more time yet. For now, she promises that the show's priority is staying true to the casts' varied sense of humour, rather than chasing virality. “We're just doing it for laughs and if it works as a little clip that's a bonus,” she said in a recent interview. “But we're not doing it to be Instagrammable.”
Hailing from Scarborough, Paddy Young appeared in series two of Channel 4 comedy Everyone Else Burns. But like many of the SNL UK cast members, he made a name for himself on stage, thanks to his debut show Hungry, Horny, Scared, which was nominated for an Edinburgh Comedy Award and sold out multiple dates at Soho Theatre. Joining Magliano as one of the Weekend Update news anchors, his wicked, deadpan humour has already made a strong impression on viewers – think: NSFW punchlines about Brooklyn Beckham and political jabs that perfectly toe the line of what's socially acceptable.
He keeps that sense of humour in interviews, too. Before the show aired, he winkingly explained the benefits of joining the cast: "Saturday Night Live UK feels like the most exciting thing that's happened in comedy in this country for a long time, even more than Reels. The scale of it is quackers: 11 in the cast, 18 writers, and the catering is world class.”
If there's anyone on the SNL UK cast who can convince you to quit your day job and follow your dreams, it's Ayoade Bamgboye. Not too long ago, the British-Nigerian comedian was working in advertising. “I decided to quit my job and try comedy for a year,” she says. “My journey in comedy since then has been such a series of blessings and serendipitous moments.”
Such moments include taking her show Swings and Roundabouts to Edinburgh Fringe and winning the Best Newcomer prize, as well as appearing in Channel 4 comedy Rise and Shine with Channel 9. And now, of course, she can add joining this historic SNL cast to that list. “I’m maybe three, four years into comedy, and it just feels like the perfect place to accelerate my learning,” she says. “Having a steep learning curve like this gives me so much bandwidth to try many different things in a short space of time.” We can't wait to see her flourish.
“My favourite thing is playing lots of very intense, insane characters, and I love the glamour of late-night live TV,” said George Fouracres ahead of his SNL debut. And guess what? His first night on the show did not disappoint, delivering a Keir Starmer impression and insane yet brilliant sketch in which he rattled through various impressions of different types of Irish grandads. Confused? You'll just have to watch it for yourself.
Growing up in Wolverhampton, SNL has long been a dream job for Fouracres. But he's just as proficient in serious roles as he is comedy. Before joining the cast, he appeared in a production of Hamlet at Shakespeare's Globe, as well as the Cillian Murphy-helmed Netflix film Steve. Where did he learn to be funny? That's thanks to his sketch group, Daphne, which he wrote and performed in for four years with friends Jason Forbes and Phil Wang.
“Seeing clips of SNL in the US, I always thought, 'I wish we had that. Why don't we have something like that?'” he said, as he prepared for the first episode. “So the fact that we do now, and I get to be part of it, blows my tiny mind.”
Raised on TV shows such as French & Saunders, The Fast Show, Reeves and Mortimer, 34-year-old Emma Sidi is a proper student of sketch comedy. For her, SNL UK isn't just another job. It's a “huge opportunity to get that kind of comedy back on TV and online.”
And Sidi's been putting the work in since uni, where she honed her sketch, character and impov skills. Since then, she's made her way up the industry ladder through gigs on Starstruck, Pls Like, Stath Lets Flats, as well as a 2024 appearance on Taskmaster. But with SNL, we'll get to see Sidi in the environment she thrives in – constant gags, in front of a live audience. “There’s nothing like the thrill that comes from live comedy, and it’s where I have met my best friends,” she says. Her most recent live show, Emma Sidi Is Sue Gray, saw her play a former civil servant. “That show was a real manifesto of my taste. A bit left-field and very cheeky.” Let's hope to see more of that on the SNL soundstage.
Glaswegian Larry Dean is a stand-up stalwart, having performed on Live at the Apollo and at the 2024 The Royal Variety Performance. And now, he's following in the footsteps of all the comedians who've inspired him with his SNL gig. “There have been so many people who have appeared on Saturday Night Live, either as hosts or part of the cast, that are my comedy heroes, like Jim Carrey, Richard Pryor, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey,” he says. “It’s always been my dream to do acting and stand-up, so this is exactly what I want to be doing.”
Dean will never forget the moment when he found out that he'd been cast – although some of the specific details are a bit foggy. Speaking to GQ, he recalled how he had to keep his excitement bottled in while he took the call in a toilet. "I couldn’t shout. I mean, imagine hearing someone whooping from the cubicle.”
Recognise this face? That's probably from This Country, Lazy Susan or The Windsors, where Celeste Dring parodied Princess Eugenie. We'll likely be seeing more of Dring's skills as an impressionist on SNL as the series goes on, alongside original characters that lean into her Kristen Wiig-inspired brand of humour.
But while joining the cast as a “no-brainer”, comedy hasn't always been Dring's go-to. “I'd done a lot of more serious plays at uni but I was always a lover of comedy and decided to give it a crack after I left,” she explains. Now, she's just excited to collaborate with the rest of the cast and the show's hosts each week. “I just love the idea of being creative with a group of brilliantly talented and funny people and the chance to do something new.”
Last but certainly not least, Al Nash is the face you're probably more used to seeing on your phone screen than on TV. Known for his Instagram and TikTok skits, the Buckinghamshire-based actor has a thoroughly modern sense of humour, one based in a deep knowledge of internet humour. But that doesn't mean his SNL sketches will be all meme-y in-jokes. He's more than accustomed to performing in sketch groups from his days at the University of Sussex.
“As someone who is sketch comedy obsessed, I’m just so happy to be a part of the cast,” he said ahead of joining the show. “It’s a really exciting opportunity for the UK comedy industry in general. For it to be a new sketch format in the UK, but also one of the biggest sketch comedy formats in the world, it’s got so much potential.”
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