Top 10 Best Saturday Night Live Actors
Live from your screen, it's a completely biased, highly debatable, and unnecessarily passionate argument about who crushed it the hardest on SNL. You've laughed. You've cringed. You've watched someone forget their lines and try to cover it with jazz hands. Now it's time to weigh in.Some of these cast members were human Swiss Army knives. They did impressions, accents, wore wigs, and committed fully to fake mustaches held on by hopes and prayers. Others got by on pure chaos energy, flinging themselves into sketches like human cartoon characters with zero concern for personal injury or career longevity.
This list is your chance to give credit to those who made Saturday nights worth staying in for. Or at least gave you something to quote until your friends begged you to stop.
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, voice actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. This guy was always funny, no matter the character. That's why they knew to use him in a lot of the skits.
John William "Will" Ferrell is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American comedian, actor, writer, singer, and producer. Murphy was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1980 to 1984.
Christopher Crosby Farley was an American actor and comedian, known for his loud, energetic comedic style.He rose to prominence in the early 1990s as a cast member on Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1990 to 1995.
Farley also had a brief film career, starring in Tommy Boy, Black Sheep,... read more
This guy was better than the whole original cast. There, I said it.
"Living in a van down by the river!" He was just hilarious!
Dana Thomas Carvey is an American actor and stand-up comedian known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for playing the role of Garth Algar in the Wayne's World films. All of his impersonations were spot-on and pure genius. Phil Hartman was very very good also and personally my favorite, but my vote has to go to Carvey because of his amazingly funny Jimmy Stewart, Ross Perot, Tim McLaughlin, etc. mimics.
Definitely Dana Carvey. Have you seen his Jimmy Stewart impersonations?
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and singer. Belushi is best known for his "intense energy and raucous attitude" which he displayed as one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, musician, businessman and filmmaker. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on Saturday Night Live.
Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. She is best known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live. There's ain't no party like a Liz Lemon party.
Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, and film producer, who also holds British and American citizenship. Wayne's World was awesome. He is so funny on it. He was the best.
Kathryn McKinnon Berthold, commonly known as Kate McKinnon, is an American actress, voice actress, and comedian.
The Newcomers
Kevin Nealon (born November 18, 1953) is an American comedian and actor. He has earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations... read more
William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He first gained exposure on Saturday Night Live, for which he earned his first Emmy Award and later went on to star in comedy films, including Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, Tootsie, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Scrooged, What... read more I never got this guy's humor until he did his Lounge Lizard character singing the Star Wars theme. Simply brilliant and a wry twist on an often over-portrayed icon of comedy. Bill Murray has also turned out to be a damn good screen actor as well.
Todd and the Lounge Singer are hard to beat.
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer. After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in many Hollywood feature films that combined have grossed over $2 billion at the box office.
Kenan Thompson is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his work as a cast member of NBC's Saturday Night Live. He's hilarious as that Boston Red Sox player. I forgot the name of.
"He gave me a small box, and I opened it up and found..."
"BIG LUNCH"
I've never not laughed when Kenan Thompson was on stage. Enough said.
Amy Poehler is an American actress, comedian, director, producer, and writer. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, she became part of the Chicago-based improvisational comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade.
Gilda Susan Radner was an American comedian and actress. She was best remembered as an original cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, for which she won an Emmy Award in 1978. I'm surprised Gilda isn't higher on this list. She really set the tone for not only future SNL cast members, but also for female comics in general. I think that before she came around, women were not seen as capable of succeeding in comedy.
They either played straight roles next to male actors, who were usually the ones doing all the physical comedy, or they played stereotypical "dumb girl" characters. But when Gilda came around, she dismissed all these previous stereotypes and just did her own thing. She really brought something very fresh, unique, and interesting to the table. She is the reason why we have comedians like Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon today.
She was just fearless on stage! Unfortunately, she passed away at a young age but she still managed to leave such a huge impact. I was not alive when she was performing on SNL but she still became a huge influence in my life.
William Thomas "Bill" Hader Jr. is an American actor, comedian, producer and writer. He is known for his work on Saturday Night Live, for which he has received four Emmy nominations, South Park, and his parody series Documentary Now!. He is such a talented and exceptional performer, completely dedicated to every sketch. The fact that he was very anxious before the live shows but still nailed every single performance is so inspiring.
Even withstanding the fact that Stefon is the most overrated SNL character of all time, Bill Hader is the most talented, unique, and inspiring cast member ever. He arguably rivals Phil Hartman, Will Ferrell, Chris Farley, Amy Poehler, and Tina Fey.
Bill Hader is the funniest of all the cast. He has a gift of making a simple puppet hilarious.
Norman Gene Macdonald[ (October 17, 1959 – September 14, 2021) was a Canadian stand-up comedian, writer, and actor known for his deadpan style.Early in his career, he wrote for the sitcom Roseanne and made guest appearances on shows such as The Drew Carey Show and NewsRadio. Macdonald was... read more
"Always remember, laughter is the best medicine... well, that is unless you're diabetic... then insulin is probably the best medicine!" Rest in peace, Norm, we love and miss you! Thank you for all the laughs!
Kristen Carroll Wiig is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She is known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, and films such as Bridesmaids, The Martian, and Ghostbusters.
James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon is an American comedian, television host, actor, singer, writer, and producer.
Maya Khabira Rudolph is an American actress, comedian, and musician. She rose to prominence on the NBC television show Saturday Night Live, where she was a cast member from 2000 to 2007. She has also starred in films such as Idiocracy, Away We Go, Grown Ups, Bridesmaids, Grown Ups 2, and Sisters.
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, talk show host, political commentator, sports commentator, actor, television personality, and radio personality.
Andy Samberg is an American actor and comedian. He is a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island, he portrays the childish but charming Detective Jake Peralta on the police sitcom Brooklyn Nine-nine, and was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, where he and his fellow group members have been credited... read more