'Saturday Night Live' Drops Chloe Troast After 1 Season, Adds Three New Featured Players
'Saturday Night Live' Drops Chloe Troast After 1 Season, Adds Three New Featured Players
Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim and Jane Wickline join the NBC sketch comedy series ahead of its milestone 50th season
Heading into its milestone 50th season, NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live is net neutral on its cast changes. Ashley Padilla, Emil Wakim, and Jane Wickline have boarded as featured players, but Chloe Troast has departed after her rookie season.
Troast is the third cast member to depart this summer, following four-season veteran Punkie Johnson and featured player Molly Kearney, who departed after two seasons. She posted to her Instagram stories that she did not leave on her own accord, lamenting that Deadline beat her to her announcement, writing "Hey all, I was going to post but…unfortunately I was not asked back to SNL this season. I wish I was going back to be with all the amazing friends I made there, it truly felt like home. But it wasn’t in the cards. I wanna thank everyone who supported me…and had such wonderful things to say. You mean everything to me. I hope I was able to spread joy and laughter, all love. Onwards and Upwards 🫶". With Troast’s departure, this makes the just-hired trio the only featured players this season, as Marcello Hernandez, Devon Walker, and Michael Longfellow head into their third seasons with the customary promotion to repertory players, main cast.
Now let’s check out who these rookies are. Padilla comes from The Groundlings, as a member of the Main Company since 2021. She apparently began acting with minor roles on the Fox comedy Son of Zorn, but has picked up again, recently guest starring on the most recent seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm (its last) and Night Court. Wakim is a Lebanese-American comedian who made his late-night TV debut in 2022 on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. That same year, he was selected as a New Face of Comedy at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival. He has served as the opening act for Roy Wood Jr., Nikki Glaser and Hasan Minhaj. Wickline has built a strong TikTok following as she stars on the live show Stapleview, while her own comedy bits garner 45 million+ likes and provide touring material. Her acting credits include the 2024 Mubi movie My First Film. Wakim’s Tonight Show appearance can be watched below, probably the most accessible sample.
In her sole season, Troast ranked 16th out of 17 cast members in the Saturday Night Network power rankings with an 32.3 score. Her 47 appearances were 12th, with 44 minutes and 25 seconds of total screentime. This means she was averaging 2 minutes and 13 seconds of screentime and 2.35 appearances per episode. She was completely shut out of the Dua Lipa episode. She had no Weekend Update pieces. When she was utilized, she was able to use her singing voice in standout sketches with Timothee Chalamet, Emma Stone, and Ryan Gosling. Despite the seemingly low numbers, they were considered pretty good for a rookie.
Bowen Yang, who is heading into his sixth season as cast member, posted in an Instagram story “I will miss [Troast] very very much. She is a fantastic performer and the horizon for what is next is so expansive! I feel very lucky that I got to share a comedy job with her.” Two members of Please Don’t Destroy, the comedy troupe heading into its fourth season as not-quite-castmembers in a Jorma Taccone and Akiva Shaffer Lonely Island (but without an Andy equivalent) presence that Troast collaborated with before she herself joined SNL also chimed in. John Higgins said Chloe “is and always be a ⭐️”, while Ben Marshall, who plugged “Get That Boy Back”, calling it “One of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on” calling Troast “one of my all time favorite people”, with a sprinkle of platonic love.
Saturday Night Live begins its 50th season on September 28 on NBC. Its 50th anniversary special is set to air on February 16, 2025.
Source: Deadline, Bowen Yang, John Higgins, Ben Marshall, Saturday Night Network