Three black comediennes will take the Saturday Night Live stage at some point today to fight for a cast member position opening up this January – and one of them is a noted critic of the show.
SNL creator Lorne Michaels decided to break tradition and hire new talent midseason after facing criticism that the sketch-comedy show lacked diversity in its sixth year without a black female cast member.
A source at the show revelealed to the New York Daily News that NBC Universal Diversity Scholarship winner Natasha Rothwell, stand-up comic Sasheer Zamata and sketch comic Kerry Coddett were the three women who made the cut for today’s auditions. All three women are alumnae of the Upright Citizens Brigade – an improv troupe founded by SNL alum Amy Poehler. They made the cut after performing in a showcase in New York on December 2.
