'Saturday Night Live' Black Women Problem: Casting Holds Auditions for African-American Female to Debut in January [VIDEO]
Saturday Night Live is adding a black female cast member who will begin her tenure on the show in January 2014.
After increased media pressure over not featuring a black female in the cast, SNL showrunner Lorne Michaels is holding auditions for black actresses and comedians. The plan for the legendary sketch comedy series is to add the woman they choose by as early as January.
Deadline has reported on several actresses who are rumored to be auditioning for SNL: Tanisha Long of MTV's Girl Code, Gabrielle Dennis, who played a recurring role on BET's The Game, TV actress Bresha Webb, actress-comedian Leslie Jones, Groundlings member Misty Monroe and Boom Chicago member Amber Ruffin.
Other actresses rumored to be auditioning include Upright Citizen's Brigade performers Sasheer Zamata and Natasha Rothwell in addition to Briana KC.
SNL's diversity issue was addressed in the Kerry Washington-hosted episode on Nov. 2. In the opening sketch, Washington had to play several black celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama, acknowledging the lack of a black female in the cast. It was also addressed that the show had hired five new white men and one white girl.
Currently, the only black cast members are Jay Pharaoh and Kenan Thompson, while Nasim Pedrad is Iranian-American. All other cast members are Caucasian.
Michaels told The New York Times that they will be casting at least one black female, with the possibility of two.
Saturday Night Live season 39 airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. on NBC.
Watch the opening sketch from Washington's episode here:
