Kenan Thompson Reveals His Hopes for His Future on ‘SNL’

Thompson joined SNL in 2003 and remains the longest-tenured cast member in the show’s history.

April 4, 2025, 5:56pm

Pictured: Kenan Thompson as Mark Robinson during the “$100,000 Pyramid” sketch on Saturday, September 28, 2024 — (Photo by: Will Heath/NBC)

As Saturday Night Live’s 50^th season continues, Kenan Thompson is weighing in on his future on the show.

Thompson is SNL’s longest-tenured cast member ever, with 22 seasons under his belt. And he told Entertainment Weekly he doesn’t plan on leaving any time soon.

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“It would be cool if I never left the show. That’d be crazy,” the former Nickelodeon star said. “I guess the only other milestone would be just to be the forever cast member. Just never leave the show. I don’t really know. 30 [seasons] is like, okay, that’s just another number kind of thing. 20 was just such a thing that nobody had ever done. People had gotten into their teens before, but nobody had gotten all the way up to 20. And then I was close to doing it. Once I started getting into 17, I was like, well, if I can, I would love to stick around till 20. And now here we are at 22, so I don’t know.”

Kenan Thompson in-character as Steve Harvey for a sketch during the Oct. 12, 2024, episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’ (Credit: NBC)

Thompson joined SNL in 2003 as a featured player for Season 29 before being upped to repertory player for Season 32. Once he hit his 15^th season, he became the longest-tenured cast member in the show’s history, surpassing Darrell Hammond, who was in 14 seasons. He became the most-senior cast member during the second half of Season 39 when Seth Meyers left. In 2022, Thompson addressed his future on the series on the heels of multiple cast exits, saying at the time he didn’t know “exactly how long I can do it.”

Considering Thompson is only 46, it’s crazy to think that he’s been doing sketch comedy for most of his life. Prior to SNL, he was an original cast member on Nickelodeon’s own sketch comedy series All That for the first five seasons from 1994 to 1999. He guest starred in Seasons 7 and 10. In 2019 and 2020, he served as an executive producer on the 11^th season revival, also appearing alongside some former co-stars.

As for now, it seems like Kenan Thompson will remain on Saturday Night Live for as long as possible. Although the series always goes through casting changes, and it’s never easy saying goodbye to a beloved and long-running member, it will be even harder when and if Thompson ever says goodbye to Studio 8H. But luckily, fans won’t have to worry about that for at least a while.