Saturday Night Live 2013 Season: Kenan Thompson Says Lack of Black Comediennes is Due to Poor Acting Quality
Funny guy and Saturday Night Live vet Kenan Thompson has refused to cross-dress on SNL again until a black woman is hired on the improv show, according to TV Guide. He addressed SNL's diversity issues with TV Guide in an interview.
Kenan said there was a lack of quality black female comedians.
"It's just a tough part of the business. Like in auditions, they just never find ones that are ready," the told TV Guide in an October 14 interview.
The show's six newest cast members made their debut on the 39th season premiere on Sept. 28. USA Today reported that all of the new cast are White--five male and one female; making it the sixth year the show would not have a black woman in the lineup after Maya Rudolph left the show as a regular in 2007. While Thompson is known for his past portrayals of iconic, African American women like Jennifer Hudson, Maya Angelou and Mo'Nique, he says he's throwing in the towel
When TV Guide asked him what SNL plans to do when they need to spoof a black female character, Thompson's response was, "I don't know. We just haven't done them. That's what I'm saying. Maybe [Jay Pharaoh] will do it or something, but even he doesn't really want to do it."
Out of the show's 16 cast members, Thompson is currently one of three of color along with Jay Pharaoh who's also African American and Nasim Pedrad who is Iranian.
In an interview with TheGrio, Pharaoh said black women are out there. In fact, he had a particular actress in mind.
"Her name is Darmirra Brunson...Why do I think she should be on the show? Because she's Black first of all, and she's really talented. She's amazing. She really needs to be on SNL. I said it. And I believe they need to follow up with it like they said they were going to do last year."
Brunson currently has a role on Tyler Perry's Love They Neighbor on OWN.
But Thompson said it's not all bad when it comes to the new cast members.
"They're all contributing in different ways I think. They've been doing [a] great job so far. They're all very, very smart and talented, so that's how it is. That's the kind of people I guess get the job."
