Last week, Saturday Night Live (SNL) announced its newest cast members and one young comedian in particular made us intentional about this post, Ego Nwodim.
Born and bred in Baltimore, the comedian/actress of Nigerian descent began honing her comedic chops as a regular at the improvisational theatre and training center the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (UCB) in Los Angeles, where she created the highly relatable one-woman show “Great Black Women…and Then There’s Me.” Meanwhile she pushed aside her degree in Biology to pursue a career in comedy.
Nwodim is one of a small number of black women to be cast on the long running series. She is preceded by Maya Rudolph, Yvonne Hudson, Ellen Cleghorne, Danitra Vance, Sasheer Zamata, and current cast member Leslie Jones.
SNL has encountered many critiques over the years, including from former cast members, for its erasure of the few Black women and Asian Americans it features. Essence identified Nwodim as only the seventh Black woman to join the SNL cast since its inception in 1975.
Get acquainted with the brilliant comedian with some of her skits: