With this week’s Ryan Gosling-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live, Mikey Day officially became the 10th longest-serving cast member in SNL history. At 194 episodes, Day has surpassed Bobby Moynihan and now sits just behind Aidy Bryant, who appeared in 197 episodes during her decade on the show from 2012 to 2022.
Day’s journey at SNL began behind the scenes in 2013 as a writer before he stepped into the spotlight as a featured player in 2016. He was promoted to repertory player in 2018.
Collaborating with writing partner Streeter Seidell, he’s also helped pen some of the most memorable sketches of the past decade, including “Haunted Elevator” (a.k.a. David S. Pumpkins), “Washington’s Dream,” and the viral “Beavis and Butt-Head” sketch with Ryan Gosling.
Outside of Studio 8H, Day hosts Netflix’s hit show Is It Cake? and has appeared in films like Unfrosted, Good Burger 2, and Home Sweet Home Alone, which he co-wrote. Alongside Seidell, he’s also developing new takes on Rugrats and Inspector Gadget for Disney.
According to LateNighter’s podcast partner The Saturday Night Network, whose team tracks SNL appearance statistics, the ten longest-serving cast members in SNL history by episode appearances are:
Kenan Thompson — 456
Darrell Hammond — 267
Seth Meyers — 253
Colin Jost — 243
Michael Che — 236
Fred Armisen — 220
Kate McKinnon — 204
Cecily Strong — 202
Aidy Bryant — 197
Mikey Day — 194
Day has said he has no plans to leave the show. “I want to work there for as long as I can,” he told Variety’s Brian Steinberg in an article published last summer. “I want to work there until it’s sad.” All of which is to say: don’t be surprised if we see Day crack the show’s all-time top six within the next two years.
