'Saturday Night Live' Cast Adds Four and Loses One More – NYTimes.com

“Saturday Night Live” has finalized its cast for the coming 36th season of the NBC late-night sketch series, hiring four new featured players while dropping a performer who was added to its ensemble last year. The information was provided by a person with firsthand knowledge of planning at “Saturday Night Live” but who was not given permission by NBC to speak on the matter.

Jenny Slate, who finished her freshman year at “Saturday Night Live” in the spring, will not have her contract picked up for a second season, the source said. Ms. Slate, a veteran of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, had a bit of a trial by fire at “S.N.L.” when she accidentally used an obscene word during the first episode of the 2009 season. But after settling in at the show, Ms. Slate went on to portray quirky characters like the television pitchwoman Tina-Tina Chaneuse. She also appears in the HBO comedy “Bored to Death,” and recently had a hit viral video with “Marcel the Shell with Shoes on,” a stop-motion animated short that she wrote with its director, Dean Fleischer-Camp, and for which she provided the voice of the title character.

Will Forte, who performed on and wrote for “Saturday Night Live” for eight seasons, recently announced that he was departing the show.

The new featured performers at “Saturday Night Live” this season, the source said, will be Taran Killam, an actor and comedian who has appeared on the sketch shows “Mad TV” and “Nick Cannon Presents Wild ‘N Out” and the comedies “Scrubs” and “How I Met your Mother”; Paul Brittain, a performer from the iO Improv Theater in Chicago; Vanessa Bayer, also of iO in Chicago; and Jay Pharoah, a comedian and impressionist.

Though mr. Pharoah’s arsenal of celebrity impressions includes President Obama, the source said he will not be taking over this role at “S.N.L.” from Fred Armisen, a veteran performer at the show who customarily plays mr. Obama in its skits.

“Saturday Night Live” will have its season premiere on Sept. 25. Amy Poehler, the “S.N.L.” alumna and “Parks and Recreation” star, will be the host, and Katy Perry will be the musical guest. The Oct. 2 episode will be hosted by Bryan Cranston of “Breaking bad,” and the Oct. 9 episode will be hosted by Jane Lynch of “Glee.”

'Saturday Night Live' Cast Adds Four and Loses One More – NYTimes.com