Meet Saturday Night Live’s 3 New Cast Members for Season 42

Mikey Day, Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor are all set to join the iconic sketch series as featured player, beginning Oct. 1

By Tierney Bricker Sep 12, 2016 5:23 PMTags
Watch: "SNL's" Pete Davidson Talks Recent Cast Shakeups

Out with the old and in with the new.

After the departures of longtime stars Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah, Saturday Night Live has added three new cast members, NBC announced on Monday.

The three newbies are Mikey Day, Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor, who are joining the show as featured players and will make their debuts in the Oct. 1 premiere episode.

Day, who recurred on Maya & Marty this summer, has been a writer on the iconic late night sketch series since 2013, while Villaseñor was a Top 16 finalist on America's Got Talent's sixth season.

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14 Stars Who Got Their Start on Saturday Night Live
NBC/Getty Images/USA

SNL fans were shocked this summer when it was announced Killam and Pharoah would both not be returning for the upcoming season after being released from their contacts a year early. "It sucks," SNL star Pete Davidson told us of their exits. "We're going to miss them, but they'll be fine no matter what they do. They're hilarious."  

Shortly after the news broke, it was revealed that both stars were cast in the lead roles in their own Showtime pilots, set to debut in 2017. Pharoah will star in White Famous, which is a half-hour comedy based on an idea by Jamie Foxx about a young black comedian "whose star is rising, forcing him to navigate the treacherous waters of maintaining his credibility as he begins to cross-over towards becoming 'white famous.'" 

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Saturday Night Live Alumni

Killam, meanwhile, will star in Mating, a half-hour anthology comedy pilot from Jason Katims (Parenthood, Friday Night Lights) and Stu Zicherman (The Americans, The Affair).

Also not returning for season 42 is freshman Jon Rudnitsky.

Season 42 of Saturday Night Live premieres Saturday, October 1 at 11:30 p.m. on NBC. 

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBC Universal family.)