--- title: Melissa Villasenor Joins SNL as First Latina Cast Member description: Saturday Night Live just added its first Latina cast member, Melissa Villaseñor, in the show's forty-one season history. canonical: https://time.com/4489625/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-13T17:37:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:22.032Z og:title: 'Saturday Night Live' Adds Its First Latina Cast Member og:description: Melissa Villaseñor is the first Latina in the show's 41-season history og:url: https://time.com/4489625/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e715c0f2ab3a4e7/6988a5d2cd1bba25547024c2/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: First Impressions - Season 1 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Saturday Night Live' Adds Its First Latina Cast Member twitter:description: Melissa Villaseñor is the first Latina in the show's 41-season history twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e715c0f2ab3a4e7/6988a5d2cd1bba25547024c2/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Saturday Night Live_ Adds Its First Latina Cast Member > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Each week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published weekly. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=c74cd75f-27ea-4282-b62c-9547acf09638&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 13, 2016 5:37 PM UTC  FIRST IMPRESSIONS -- Season:1 -- Pictured: Melissa Villasenor -- (Photo by: Joseph Viles/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) FIRST IMPRESSIONS -- Season:1 -- Pictured: Melissa Villasenor -- (Photo by: Joseph Viles/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) Joseph Viles—NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Sep 13, 2016 5:37 PM UTC Live from New York, it’s a more diverse [_Saturday Night Live_](http://time.com/4488190/snl-new-cast-members-bio/)_!_ The show just added its first Latina cast member, Melissa Villaseñor, in the show’s forty-one season history. Villaseñor will be joined by other new cast members Mikey Day and Alex Moffat; Jay Pharoah and Taran Killam [announced](http://time.com/4444651/taran-killam-jay-pharoah-saturday-night-live/) their departures in August. Villaseñor is [best known](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/13/melissa-villasenor-becomes-snls-first-latina-cast-member/) for her voice impressions—including [Owen Wilson—](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNbkXOg7eg8)which helped catapult her to fame on _America’s Got Talent,_ where she was a finalist. She has numerous YouTube videos as well, with over 50,000 subscribers and 5 million views total. Although _Saturday Night Live_ had cast two Latino cast members—Fred Armisen and Horatio Sanz—Villaseñor’s addition to the show injects diversity and opens doors for Latina comedians. In 2013, the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts sent _Saturday Night Live_ creator Lorne Michaels [a letter](http://d1o2xrel38nv1n.cloudfront.net/files/2013/11/Letter-to-Mr.-Lorne-Michaels-1.jpg), scolding him for the lack of diversity: “The lack of Latino representation in the entertainment industry has historic roots; perpetuating this marginalization and isolation is frankly segregation in the digital age.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4489625/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4489625/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina/"},"headline":"Saturday Night Live Adds Its First Latina Cast Member","datePublished":"2016-09-13T17:37:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:22.032Z","description":"Melissa Villaseñor is the first Latina in the show's 41-season history","url":"https://time.com/4489625/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e715c0f2ab3a4e7/6988a5d2cd1bba25547024c2/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3e715c0f2ab3a4e7/6988a5d2cd1bba25547024c2/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"First Impressions - Season 1","caption":"First Impressions - Season 1","creditText":"Joseph Viles—NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4489625/melissa-villasenor-saturday-night-live-latina/","name":"Saturday Night Live Adds Its First Latina Cast Member"}}]}] ```