{"id":407930,"date":"2026-02-04T19:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/407930\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T19:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:17:07","slug":"saturday-night-live-uk-cast-unveiled-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/407930\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Saturday Night Live UK’ Cast Unveiled (EXCLUSIVE)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Saturday Night Live UK<\/a>, the first ever British incarnation of NBC\u2019s legendary late-night series, has found its inaugural cast of 11.<\/p>\n

\n\tCast members include Hammed Animashaun<\/a>, Ayoade Bamgboye<\/a>, Larry Dean<\/a>, Celeste Dring<\/a>, George Fouracres<\/a>, Ania Magliano<\/a>, Annabel Marlow<\/a>, Al Nash<\/a>, Jack Shep<\/a>, Emma Sidi<\/a>, and Paddy Young<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tPlans for a British version of SNL were officially confirmed last April, with the six-episode first installment to premiere on Sky on March 21. The show will be available for streaming on the UK service NOW.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show will be produced by Universal Television Alternative Studio\u2019s UK production team, as well as Lorne Michael\u2019s Broadway Video. Michaels is exec producing, with James Longman serving as Lead Producer, Liz Clare as Director, and Daran Jonno Johnson taking on the role of Head Writer.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement this morning, lead producer Longman said, \u201cThe UK is absolutely packed with incredible comedy talent right now and this cast represents the freshest voices we have, they\u2019re bold, exciting and of course, incredibly funny. The chemistry between them is something special and we can\u2019t wait to share this funny group of people with the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded Sky\u2019s Executive Director of Unscripted Originals, Phil Edgar-Jones OBE, \u201cWe all need a laugh like never before, so we\u2019re beyond excited to bring Saturday Night Live to the UK, only 50 short years after it first launched in the US. The show\u2019s long-standing legacy of discovering and nurturing outstanding comedy talent speaks for itself, and this UK version will build on that legacy with the support of Lorne Michaels, a brilliant local production team, and an exciting new generation of voices. Saturday nights are looking bright!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSNL UK was commissioned by Edgar-Jones, Sky Commissioning Executive Lisa Clark, and Cecile Frot-Coutaz, who serves as CEO of Sky Studios & Chief Content Officer for Sky. Universal Television Alternative Studio\u2019s UK Productions is overseen by Managing Director Helen Kruger Bratt. Shanna Baynard will serve as Executive in Charge of Production, with Andy Charles Smith as the Lead Producer for UTAS UK Productions, alongside Sam Salter as Production Executive.<\/p>\n

\n\tLearn more about Saturday Night Live UK\u2018s cast below.<\/p>\n

\n\tHammed Animashaun
Hometown:\u00a0East London
Credits:\u00a0Black Ops\u00a0(BBC),\u00a0A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u00a0(Bridge Theatre)
Comedy heroes:\u00a0Lenny Henry, Gina Yashere, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s the prestige of\u00a0Saturday Night Live, to be part of something so popular and historic is a privilege. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s another show like it that\u2019s been running as long. It would\u2019ve been weird to have said no!<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is your background in live performance or sketch comedy?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI think of myself as an actor first and foremost. I\u2019ve done a lot of theatre. That\u2019s 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\u2019m really excited for.<\/p>\n

\n\tAyoade Bamgboye\u00a0
Hometown:\u00a0London and Lagos\u00a0
Credits:\u00a0Swings and Roundabouts\u00a0(Edinburgh Fringe),\u00a0Rise and Shine with Channel 9\u00a0(Channel 4)\u00a0
Comedy heroes:\u00a0Julio Torres, Jamali Maddix, Patti Harrison, Kristen Wiig, Chris Morris and\u00a0Zainab Johnson.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s no better training ground. I\u2019m maybe three, four years into comedy, and it just feels like the perfect place to accelerate my learning. Having a steep learning curve like this gives me so much bandwidth to try many different things in a short space of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI was in advertising, and I decided to quit my job and try comedy for a year. My journey in comedy since then has been such a series of blessings and serendipitous moments, it\u2019s been a domino effect of doing lots of different comedy nights and meeting different comedians. I\u2019ve felt so empowered watching them, it\u2019s made me try lots of different things. I went to Edinburgh Fringe for the first time and won Best Newcomer, it snowballed from there and now I\u2019m on\u00a0Saturday Night Live.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLarry Dean
Hometown:\u00a0Glasgow\u00a0\u00a0
Credits:\u00a0The Royal Variety Performance 2024\u00a0(ITV), Live at the Apollo\u00a0(BBC)
Comedy heroes:\u00a0Richard Pryor, Jim Carrey
Why did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tI just love sketch comedy. There have been so many people who have appeared on\u00a0Saturday Night Live, either as hosts or part of the cast that are my comedy heroes like Jim Carrey, Richard Pryor, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey. It\u2019s always been my dream to do acting and stand-up, so this is exactly what I want to be doing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI did a couple of series of\u00a0The Stand Up Sketch Show (ITV),\u00a0which was a bit different to the usual format as you\u2019re miming other comedians\u2019 stand-up routines. But my background is really in stand-up which I love, performing all over and releasing a few specials.<\/p>\n

\n\tCeleste Dring
Hometown:\u00a0Wolverhampton\u00a0\u00a0
Credits:\u00a0Lazy Susan\u00a0(BBC), This Country\u00a0(BBC)
Comedy heroes:\u00a0Kristen Wiig, Julia Davis, and everyone from\u00a0Smack the Pony\u00a0and\u00a0Big Train.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a no-brainer really. I just love the idea of being creative with a group of brilliantly talented and funny people and the chance to do something new.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019d 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. Freya Parker and I started performing as a double act,\u00a0Lazy Susan, going to Edinburgh Fringe and doing shows there. And from there we got our own radio show and eventually sketch comedy show on TV.<\/p>\n

\n\tGeorge Fouracres
Hometown:\u00a0Willenhall, Wolverhampton
Credits:\u00a0Hamlet\u00a0(Shakespeare\u2019s Globe),\u00a0Steve\u00a0(Netflix)
Comedy hero:\u00a0Martin Short, Roberto Benigni, Steve Carrell<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve been in love with\u00a0Saturday Night Live\u00a0since forever. It was my dream job when I was younger because my favourite thing is playing lots of very intense, insane characters, and I love the glamour of late night live TV. Seeing clips of\u00a0SNL\u00a0in the US I always thought \u201cI wish we had that. Why don\u2019t we have something like that?\u201d So the fact that we do now, and I get to be part of it, blows my tiny mind.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tMy career has mainly been performing at Shakespeare\u2019s Globe in London where I\u2019m an Associate Artist (last year I did my seventh show there), but I started in the industry acting and writing in a sketch group called\u00a0Daphne\u00a0with my friends Jason Forbes and Phil Wang. We gigged together for four years and wrote three Edinburgh Fringe shows and two series of a BBC Radio 4 show. In 2019 I did my first (and only!) solo stand-up show,\u00a0Gentlemon. Most recently in the comedy world I performed in Flo & Joan\u2019s award-winning show\u00a0One Man Musical\u00a0in the UK and Australia. These days I also occasionally co-host the podcast\u00a0Budpod\u00a0with my best friend Pierre Novellie.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnia Magliano\u00a0
Hometown:\u00a0Buckinghamshire\u00a0
Credits:\u00a0Taskmaster\u00a0(Channel 4), Live at the Apollo\u00a0(BBC)
Comedy hero:\u00a0Ross from\u00a0Friends<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tI love performing stand-up, but the chance to work collaboratively with other amazing comedians was a huge draw for me. And honestly, being part of\u00a0SNL UK\u00a0is just incredibly cool.\u00a0SNL\u00a0is a major comedy institution that I never expected to be a part of, so the idea that I get to go live on Saturday nights is mad \u2013 I can\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI did my first gig when I was 18, so it\u2019s pretty surreal that it\u2019s been nearly 10 years now. Since then, I\u2019ve performed sold out tours, filmed a stand-up special, and taken shows to Edinburgh. It\u2019s through stand-up that I really found my voice. I feel very lucky to have performed for audiences who genuinely want to see me, and I\u2019m excited to bring that background into sketch comedy. Some of my favourite comedy moments are sketch so I\u2019m looking forward to getting stuck into it!<\/p>\n

\n\tAnnabel Marlow\u00a0
Hometown:\u00a0Henley- on-Thames
Credits:\u00a0Six The Musical\u00a0(Edinburgh Fringe), Muriel\u2019s Wedding\u00a0(Leicester Curve)
Comedy hero:\u00a0Kristen Wiig<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m a huge fan of the show, I actually have an old fan account from 2016 I used to run on social media that was dedicated to being obsessed with\u00a0Saturday Night Live.\u00a0SNL\u00a0combines everything I love. I\u2019m excited to create characters and hopefully write some music as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI wrote and performed a one woman show at Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 called\u00a0Is This Okay??,\u00a0that was an hour of comedy songs and pop songs, with bits of stand-up. My background is stand-up and musical comedy, and all my acting jobs have been musical theatre.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAl Nash\u00a0
Hometown:\u00a0Buckinghamshire\u00a0
Credits:\u00a0\u00a0Michael McIntyre\u2019s Big Show\u00a0(BBC), Instagram heartthrob\u00a0
Comedy hero:\u00a0John Candy\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tI think it\u2019s 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\u2019s got so much potential. As someone who is sketch comedy obsessed, I\u2019m just so happy to be a part of the cast.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI started the comedy society at the University of Sussex, which birthed a sketch group that I wrote and directed multiple Edinburgh Fringe shows for. I then started performing live myself in 2018, and have made online sketches since 2020.<\/p>\n

\n\tJack Shep
Hometown:\u00a0Bedfordshire
Credits:\u00a0Wanting To Be Cool, Having To Be Funny\u00a0(Comedy Night),\u00a0Big Boys\u00a0(Channel 4)
Comedy heroes:\u00a0Tim Robinson and Patti Harrison\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s just a completely unique show. To make a finished show in a week and then start all over again the next week is amazing. Being able to be in a room full of comedians being stupid and funny like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019d describe myself as a comic rather than a stand-up comedian. I do a bit of acting and writing too but basically, I\u2019m always doing stupid shit which I think makes me primed for\u00a0SNL.<\/p>\n

\n\tEmma Sidi\u00a0
Hometown:\u00a0Woking\u00a0
Credits:\u00a0Starstruck\u00a0(BBC),\u00a0Alan Partridge Live: Stratagem\u00a0(Amazon)
Comedy heroes:\u00a0Maria Bamford, Victoria Wood, French & Saunders, the cast of Seinfeld<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?
I love comedy and character comedy especially, and I think there isn\u2019t that much character comedy on TV in the UK right now. My favourite comedies to watch growing up were\u00a0French & Saunders,
The Fast Show,\u00a0Reeves and Mortimer, all those pioneering shows from the alt comedy scene.\u00a0Saturday Night\u00a0Live\u00a0is a huge opportunity to get that kind of comedy back on TV and online.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat\u2019s your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve been doing sketch, character comedy and improv since university. There\u2019s nothing like the thrill that comes from live comedy, and it\u2019s where I have met my best friends.\u00a0I\u2019ve found that I\u2019ve specialised in character comedy, and have done the Edinburgh Fringe multiple times, and toured the UK, Melbourne and New York. I loved touring my recent show,\u00a0Emma Sidi Is Sue Gray, in which I played the former civil servant Sue Gray \u2013 because\u00a0someone\u00a0had to do it. That show was a real manifesto of my taste. A bit left-field and very cheeky.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPaddy Young
Hometown:\u00a0Scarborough
Credits:\u00a0Everyone Else Burns\u00a0(Channel 4)\u00a0Mitchell & Webb Are Not Helping\u00a0(Channel 4)
Comedy hero:\u00a0Vic & Bob, Norm Macdonald, Viz<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you want to be part of the SNL UK cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt feels like the most exciting thing that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat is your background in live performance or sketch comedy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI was very lucky because Scarborough had an amazing theatre \u2013 the Stephen Joseph Theatre \u2013\u00a0 which I practically grew up in. I was completely obsessed with comedy but had no idea how to do it. By the time I went to drama school in Manchester I found myself constantly sneaking away to watch stand-up, though it took me a long time to actually do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Saturday Night Live UK, the first ever British incarnation of NBC\u2019s legendary late-night series, has found its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[151796,151797,151798,151799,151800,151801,151802,151803,49,151804,151805,50,151806,151807,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-407930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-al-nash","9":"tag-ania-magliano","10":"tag-annabel-marlow","11":"tag-ayoade-bamgboye","12":"tag-celeste-dring","13":"tag-emma-sidi","14":"tag-george-fouracres","15":"tag-hammed-animashaun","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-jack-shep","18":"tag-larry-dean","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-paddy-young","21":"tag-saturday-night-live-uk","22":"tag-top-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topnews","25":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}