'SNL' Holds Auditions for Black Female Cast Member

What's This?

By Brian Anthony Hernandez2013-12-13 00:22:30 UTC

NBC has been embroiled in a season-long controversy over the lack of diversity of Saturday Night Live 's cast, but now the network appears to be taking steps to remedy the backlash.

Producers held auditions this week to hire a black female cast member who would join the show's lineup in January, an SNL spokesperson confirmed to Mashable. SNL hasn't had a black female comedian since Maya Rudolph left the show in 2007.

"All told we’ve seen about 25 people," Lorne Michaels told The New York Times . "A lot of the people we saw are really good. Hopefully we’ll come out of the process well."

Gabrielle Dennis from BET series The Game posted a Twitter photo, below, featuring the women who SNL invited to audition. Simone Shepherd, another actress at the auditions, also posted the same photo on Instagram, later tweeting it with the message, "The hilarious BLACK women who just rock the SNL audition. #WeJustMadeHistory":

The diversity issue resurfaced at the start of the season when the show introduced six new cast members, all of whom are white. The conversation intensified when SNL's Kenan Thompson said the lack of diversity stems, in part, from the shortage of black female comedians who are "ready" to enter the show's lineup.

During the Nov. 2 episode, host Kerry Washington (of Scandal) mocked the diversity issue, playing first lady Michelle Obama and media mogul Oprah Winfrey in the same skit. She had to make a quick outfit and hairdo change in order to play Obama and Winfrey back to back. Then, she ran offscreen to assume the role of pop star Beyonce.

Tackling the diversity drama head on, SNL ran these words during the skit:

Kerry Washington Cold Open 1 Kerry Washington Cold Open 2 Kerry Washington Cold Open 3 Image: nbcsnl.tumblr.com