Devon Walker leaves 'Saturday Night Live' after 3 seasons, calls it 'really cool' and 'toxic as hell.' Who else is leaving?
- - Devon Walker leaves 'Saturday Night Live' after 3 seasons, calls it 'really cool' and 'toxic as hell.' Who else is leaving?
Katie MatherAugust 27, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Devon Walker at "SNL50: The Anniversary Special" in February. (John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images)
Saturday Night Live cast member Devon Walker announced he is leaving the comedy series after three years, ahead of the popular NBC sketch show’s fifty-first season.
“Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool. Sometimes it was toxic as hell,” Walker wrote in an Instagram post on Aug. 25. “But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all the dysfunction.”
Walker, whose background is in standup comedy, joined SNL in 2022, along with Marcello Hernandez, Michael Longfellow and Molly Kearney. He became known on the show for his celebrity impressions, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams, former NFL player and ABC host Michael Strahan and Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green.
Devon Walker impersonating Michael Strahan in the "$100,000 Pyramid" sketch that aired on Sept. 28, 2024. (Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images)
In an Instagram Story posted alongside his announcement, Walker added, “Just to be clear, this is good news!! It was just time for me to do something different.”
Walker is the latest SNL cast member to announce his departure from the weekly variety show ahead of the next season, which premieres on Oct. 4 — and he likely won’t be the last.
SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels gave a rare interview with Puck on Aug. 22, in which he indicated that several current cast members would be leaving the show before the next season starts. Michaels only confirmed that James Austin Johnson would be returning and continuing to play President Trump.
Cast shakeups are not uncommon between seasons of SNL. Ahead of last season’s Sept. 28, 2024, premiere, NBC announced that Kearney, Punkie Johnson and Chloe Troast would not be returning to the show, while Jane Wickline, Ashley Padilla and Emil Wakim would be joining the cast.
Other ‘Saturday Night Live’ departures ahead of Season 51
Two SNL writers have also recently announced they are leaving the show.
Comedian Rosebud Baker, who has worked on the show’s “Weekend Update” team since February 2022, confirmed this week that she won’t be returning for the next season in an interview with LateNighter contributor Jon Schneider.
Prior to the announcement, Baker talked about how stressful it was to write for “Weekend Update” in the Aug. 11 episode of David Spade and Dana Carvey’s podcast, Fly on the Wall. Spade and Carvey are former SNL cast members who overlapped for three seasons in the ‘90s.
“It’s like training yourself to be a sociopath or a psychopath,” Baker said. “You just read these horrible, horrific headlines and you’re like, what’s funny [or] hilarious about this?”
Writer Celeste Yim also announced on Aug. 24 that they’ll be departing SNL after five seasons.
“Lorne hired me over the phone when I was 23 and the job literally made all my dreams come true BUT it was also grueling and I slept in my office every week,” Yim wrote on Instagram. “I hate when other people say this, but it’s true that I was the first ever out trans person to be a writer for SNL. I always felt honored to be working within the long tradition of queer writing at the show.”
Yim also thanked fellow cast member Bowen Yang for “changing my life and for making me feel normal.” Yang joined the writing staff in 2018 and became a cast member the following season.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
