Saturday Night Live has been around for 50 legendary years, and yet it is still probably surprising to hear that there have been 161 cast members in the show's history. That includes George Coe.
With that many cast members it is definitely easy for some to not get the full recognition they deserve, but quite a few former cast members have been far too underrated. This list intends to focus on the ones who don't get nearly enough credit for being great on the show.
For the nerds demanding to know what went into making this list, we first considered key attributes of a great SNL performer, such as humor, recurring characters, singing or impressions, versatility, the ability to save or anchor sketches, and more We also factored in their popularity on the show and their placement on several "Greatest SNL Cast Members" lists. Rolling Stone’s all-over-the-place ranking of every cast member from a decade ago heavily influenced this piece.
Things to note:
We do recognize that tiers are more accurate than rankings. For instance, there are truly more than 25 people who theoretically should be in the top 25. So a ranking can't be true enough. So, if a publication listed someone at 26 when we think they should be 22, that isn't incorrect enough to raise a stink, but some of these lists we found really whiffed it.
There is a difference between underrated and under-utilized. It's possible Chloe Troast and Sarah Silverman were under-utilized. Sarah Silverman never found her footing. We didn't get to see enough of Jenny Slate on the show, but that doesn't mean she was underrated. Being underrated has more to do with regularly being quite good on the show, but underappreciated. So you won't see those names listed, as brilliant as all of them are.
Also, since current cast members are still claiming their stake we haven't named any of them. But it sure feels like people don't talk enough about how clutch Mikey Day is or how unique Andrew Dismukes is. Also, Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim aren't listed as all-time greats we will be adding them to the list of being underrated.
Some people missed the cut. There may be a couple of people you think should be mentioned, but if they didn't have over 50% of the attributes we think make for a great SNL cast member then we didn't include them.
Before naming the most underrated cast members, let's address some...
Honorable Mentions
Kenan Thompson
Yes, Kenan gets love these days, but some of us are old enough to remember when he was mocked for "still being on the show" after 8 or 9 seasons. We haven't forgotten you cowards who slept on him for far too long! It took <Kenan Thompson voice> too dayum long for people to give him his due credit. He didn't get an Emmy nomination for lead actor until 2018. He's been on the show 22 years and it wasn't until year 15, a record-setting length, that he got his first nomination?! So, while he isn't underrated anymore we have to mention how long it took for people to recognize how great he always was.
(Lil' Baby) Aidy Bryant
A very popular cast member in her day who appeared so frequently she must have been a go to for the writers. Why is she on this list then? Because she is most definitely a top tier SNL cast member given her versatility, various characters, countless clutch moments, tone-setting ability, and making everything funnier and work better. If you aren't saying she's top tier and instead are relegating her to an 81-96 ranking (like Rolling Stone did!) then you are egregiously underestimating her showcase of talent on the show.
Rachel Dratch
Dratch was a known cast member who had a few characters that were culturally noteworthy. She's getting on "Best Of" lists nowadays, but just a couple of years ago she only made one list that we found and it was Rolling Stone's ranking. Her placement on that list was one of the only ones they got spot on, placing her at number 16. The rest of the world really messed up until this year when SNL 50 content kicked into high gear. She should have been on every list and deserves that much love for her work on the show. She's technically not underrated anymore and was a popular enough cast member at the time.
Ana Gasteyer
Gastayer is a multi-talented performer who had a slew of impressions she nailed, singing chops, many recurring characters, classic sketches and not enough respect. She did make a couple of "best all-time" lists and was ranked fairly high, so it's maybe not accurate to say she is underrated. But she was a solid cast member who also should be more recognized for having been so great on the show.
Bobby Moynihan
Yes, viewers were pretty happy to see him when he rolled up to the Update Desk as Drunk Uncle or whenever he appeared on the screen for that matter. It still just feels like he had so many great moments and characters while also being a very solid player, yet was placed at an offensively low 102 on Rolling Stone's ranking along with some serious disrespect. Did the person who wrote that piece break into Drunk Uncle's stash before writing it? Bobby gets love from lists that came out in 2025, but where was the proper love 5 years ago? Must be at the bottom of Drunk Uncle's bottle. I'm saying they were all drunk.
Chris Kattan
"Wait...what?" you said after seeing his name. "But Kattan was HUGE on the show." Yes, he even had a movie with Will Ferrell based on their Roxbury Guys characters. He had so many famous recurring characters and was a go to cast member who always delivered and became a household name. He's getting this mention because people have forgotten all of that, apparently. Rolling Stone ranked him at 98th and only one other list we could find listed him at all. The level of disrespect to an all-time top 30 cast member is too much to overlook.
Now on to the...
Most Underrated SNL Cast Members of All-Time
Beck Bennett - Seasons 39-46
Beck Bennett has so many of the tangible qualities of our great cast member criteria: noteworthy performance as a public figure (he has TWO in Pence and Putin), elevated sketches, had a unique comedic voice, versatile, and funny. He also had intangible traits like being a glue person. So why aren't more people talking about him like he did all the great things that he did? Because they're underrating him, that's why.
Mary Gross - Seasons 7-10
The Lorne-less era of SNL was dominated by Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. People rightly, albeit retroactively, gave their fellow cast member Julia Louis-Dreyfuss her fair acknowledgement since she was great on the show, but where is the love for Mary Gross? Gross was funny, had multiple characters, came through in the clutch to help make a sketch work better, has a very unique comedic voice, and she shot Buckwheat. In an era where it was easy to be overshadowed by arguably the greatest talent to be on the show, she held her own. It needs to be said.
Jerry Minor - Season 26
Jerry Minor deserves flowers! He was always clutch when appearing alongside heavy-hitters like Kenan Thompson on a regular basis. He was pure, funny, and exhibited the tangibles a solid SNL cast member has to have. He was solid on the show the way people who do get love like Rachel Dratch and Tim Meadows. There are several former cast members who had a lot of talent but never got to shine on the show. Jerry Minor shined consistently and held it down. He showed up frequently enough that you would have thought he was on longer than one season.
Ellen Cleghorne - Seasons 17-20
While Cleghorne may not have had recurring characters you remember offhand, her comedic sensibilities certainly were the original kind of voice Lorne Michaels looks for in cast members. She was incredibly unique which made every sketch she was in better simply by having her comedic approach in it. Wherever people think she should land on any SNL cast member list, she should probably be a little higher.
Chris Redd - Seasons 43-47
Chris Redd quickly became a cast member the show could count on for sketches that needed to work. He even took on the beast of playing a public figure, particularly polarizing ones, and making them funny. That's not easy to do. He also excelled at making song sketches in a post-Lonely Island era. The gap between his exhibited talent on the show and how much recognition he gets is one of the widest on this entire list.
Nasim Pedrad - Seasons 35-39
She had everything you need to be great on SNL. Consistently funny, a clutch player who could do anything, had fun and unique original characters, strong acting chops, famously played public figures. All of this and more, yet only made Rolling Stone's list. Yes, at 50, but not only is that too low, there is no logical reason for her to only be on one list. She was fantastic and the most underrated cast member in the history of SNL.
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