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The Undisputed Ranking of Every Black ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Member
There may be only 20 of them in the show’s 45-year history, but all deserve their flowers
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
“I felt robbed.” That’s how Garrett Morris summed up his tenure as a Saturday Night Live performer. When the sketch comedy show first hit the airwaves in 1975, critics and audiences heralded it as a counterculture breakthrough — but as Morris admitted in the 2017 documentary Live From New York!, he struggled to fit in with the majority-White cast and felt like he was denied opportunities to shine.
While cast members like John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and Chevy Chase enjoyed the spotlight in many sketches, Morris found himself typecast in flagrantly stereotypical roles, or left out altogether. “Anything for Garrett?” SNL creator and boss Lorne Michaels would ask during routine 3 a.m. phone calls to the writer’s room. The answer, too often, was no.
For Black cast members, life on SNL in many ways parallels the Black American experience: While many others enjoy long, mediocre careers, our triumphs arise from a combination of defiance and sheer genius. You already know some the names of the Black…
