Breaking: Maya Rudolph Will Return as SNL’s Kamala Harris

Lots of Saturday Night Live fans will be very happy to hear this news: Maya Rudolph has been added to the cast ticket for Season 50.

Deadline is reporting that Rudolph has signed on to reprise her Kamala Harris impression on SNL for its upcoming season.

Ever since Joe Biden dropped out of the race earlier this month and endorsed Harris, his vice president, as the Dems’ new presidential nominee, fans have been clamoring for Rudolph to return to the show—or just simply assumed that the comedian was already in talks with Lorne Michaels to return to Studio 8H.

If the behind-the-scenes movements on Rudolph’s current project are any indication, it seems like the actress moved heaven and Earth to make this SNL return happen.

According to Deadline, Rudolph’s Apple TV+ series Loot was slated to begin production for its third season on August 26. Earlier this week, however, that date was pushed to January 2025 “for scheduling reasons.” Rudolph stars in and executive produces the show, and was recently nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy for her role in the series. She’ll also compete in the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series category for hosting SNL earlier this year—and will face off against former SNL castmate/close friend/frequent collaborator Kristen Wiig in both categories.

Rudolph has played Harris 10 times on Saturday Night Live, appearing regularly during Harris’ presidential campaign between 2019 and 2020. She most recently reprised the role in 2021. (Martin Short appeared in that same sketch as Harris’ husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.)

While all of Rudolph’s other appearances as Harris were surprise cameos, SNL has gone to the guest star well before for presidential figures. From 2016 to 2020, SNL signed Alec Baldwin as a frequent guest star to play Donald Trump. In 2020, the show enlisted Jim Carrey to recur as Joe Biden for six episodes. 

The only other person to play Harris on SNL has been current cast member Punkie Johnson, though her turn as the VP was a non-speaking role during a State of the Union sketch.

Harris praised Rudolph’s impression of her early on, saying, “I fully intend to make sure [Rudolph] has a good eight years of work on SNL.

Back in 2020, the news that Biden had selected Harris as his running mate broke while Rudolph was in the middle of a Zoom interview with Entertainment Weekly. At the time, Rudolph expressed a clear interest in returning to the show.

SNL will return on September 28 to kick off its 50th season, which will include a February primetime special that will surely bring back a murderer’s row of even more SNL hall-of-famers.

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