“Saturday Night Live” will add a Black woman to the cast by January, according to sources for The Hollywood Reporter.
The show, responding to criticism about a lack of diversity in their cast, hosted special audition showcase for African-American women in Los Angeles and New York.
The show has faced mounting pressure from critics about the lack of a Black female cast member, a topic that the show skewered on a recent, Kerry Washington-hosted episode. With cast member Seth Meyers exiting in 2014 to anchor “Late Night,” there’s an opening for a player.
In early December, the sketch show gathered an array of Black comediennes and actresses to audition for the show, according to “Love That Girl!” actress Bresha Webb.
“The audition came about from an inside source from SNL,” Webb told theJasmineBrand.com. “I don’t think any of us had a clue about the showcase until two days prior … I found out that I was on a list of funny women in the industry and there was an opportunity for me to (audition for) SNL last summer, but I was filming ‘Love That Girl!’ And now the opportunity has re-presented itself.”
According to Webb, the audition happened at the Groundlings Theater in LA and included an array of women performers. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed her statements, noting that a similar showcase was held in New York and attended by SNL impresario Lorne Michaels himself.
“We were all very supportive of each other and there was no sense of competition or pettiness,” she said. “We were just happy that some new Black women were being considered and given a shot. We even held hands and prayed after the showcase. It was refreshing.”
Other women at the audition included Tiffany Haddish, Darmirra Brunson and Simonne Shepherd.
Source: NYdailynews.com
