--- description: Find out why Lorne Michaels is one of the 100 most influential people of 2025. title: Lorne Michaels: The 100 Most Influential People of 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta21c0902beda83db/6998c5bf07a30d889177ce9c/time100-2025-lorne-michaels.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 16, 2025 # Lorne Michaels by Will Ferrell  Creator and Executive Producer of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels, is seen inside Studio 8H in New York, NY on November 16, 2021\. Michaels will be awarded a Kennedy Center Honor later this year as SNL is in its 47th Season. Creator and Executive Producer of Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels, is seen inside Studio 8H in New York, NY on November 16, 2021\. Michaels will be awarded a Kennedy Center Honor later this year as SNL is in its 47th Season.Jesse Dittmar—Redux It’s still hard for me to believe I know Lorne Michaels. It is also still hard for me to comprehend that I ever got picked by Lorne to be on the show. I remember before my first episode of _Saturday Night Live,_ there was a party where the cast got our photos taken for the opening credits. We were all very nervous, and Lorne came up to me and told me how funny he thought I was. How I reminded him of Chevy Chase and he thought I would do well. Well, guess what? I believed him. In one moment, Lorne filled me with confidence that allowed me to think I could be on national television—as part of the show I had always dreamed about, the show that has defined American comedy for [50 years](https://time.com/7026696/saturday-night-true-story-snl/ "undefined"). Lorne has seen something special in every one of us who’ve had the thrill of saying, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” He cultivates new talent and gives us the ability to express ourselves in ways we didn’t know were possible. It’s that ability, paired with his format, that makes us all come back again and again to watch on Saturday night. And yes, it is live. Still. _Ferrell is a comedian, actor, and_ _Emmy-winning producer_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273806/lorne-michaels/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273806/lorne-michaels/"},"headline":"Lorne Michaels","datePublished":"2025-04-16T10:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T02:29:00.880Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273806/lorne-michaels/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","T100Titans2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta21c0902beda83db/6998c5bf07a30d889177ce9c/time100-2025-lorne-michaels.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/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta21c0902beda83db/6998c5bf07a30d889177ce9c/time100-2025-lorne-michaels.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"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":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273806/lorne-michaels/","name":"Lorne Michaels"}}]}] ```