Who Was the Longest-Serving Cast Member on 'Saturday Night Live' Before Kenan Thompson?

Kenan Thompson is the longest-tenured cast member on Saturday Night Live, having been with the show for 19 seasons. Fans may recall him as a teen on All That, Kenan & Kel, and D2: The Mighty Ducks.

Thompson is currently the show's oldest cast member. But the 43-year-old has no plans to leave, despite the fact that he is working on a number of other projects outside of SNL, including his NBC sitcom, Kenan.

Kenan Thompson has been a member of the Saturday Night Live cast for 19 years.

The audience expects a high turnover of cast members on a show like Saturday Night Live. This is because the show is frequently a watershed moment in a comedian's career. Once they've established themselves on the late-night sketch show, they frequently have to decide whether to stay or leave for film and television projects.

Thompson, according to Rolling Stone, has decided not to make that decision. The Emmy-nominated comedian has been a fixture on Saturday Night Live for the past 19 years. Despite the fact that he co-created the sitcom Kenan with fellow SNL cast member Chris Redd, he has no plans to leave. "That's the forever plan to never have to leave that show," he told the Washington Post.

It's not just Thompson's tenure on the show. But everything he's accomplished on the show. Thompson's 1500th sketch aired on the March 5, 2022 episode of Saturday Night Live. He is well-known for portraying celebrities such as Charles Barkley, O.J. Simpson, Whoopi Goldberg, Al Sharpton, and Steve Harvey. Thompson now holds the record for the most celebrity impressions on SNL, which currently stands at 139. Thompson, who has no plans to leave the show, can easily add to these numbers in the coming years.

Darrell Hammond held the previous record with 14 years as a 'SNL' cast member before Thompson.

Before Thompson broke the record, the longest-running Saturday Night Live cast member was Darrell Hammond. Hammond was a cast member for 14 years and did 107 different impressions on the show. Political figures Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Donald Trump are among his most famous characters, as are TV show hosts Phil Donahue, Phil McGraw, and Dan Rather, and celebrities Sean Connery and John Travolta.

When Don Pardo, the original SNL announcer, died in 2014, Hammond took over as the new show announcer. He had previously acted in the role on occasion. Despite the fact that he wasn't a cast member, he'd been brought back to the show to play Trump during the 2016 presidential election. Alec Baldwin eventually took over the role.

Kenan Thompson is also the longest-serving member of the Black cast.

Thompson not only has a fantastic run on the show, but he also brings with him the representation of comedians of color. He is the longest-serving member of the Black cast. Tim Meadows, who had been on the show for ten seasons before Thompson, was the first to receive this honor.

Thompson was instrumental in the inclusion of more Black female comedians on the show. When it was pointed out that there were few black female cast members, Thompson made some remarks that, while controversial, led to SNL holding special auditions.

Those auditions were for Leslie Jones and Sasheer Zamata, both of whom were hired quickly. Thompson has made it a point, both on the show and in other projects, to elevate voices that may not otherwise be heard, particularly in the comedy world.