'SNL' Holds Auditions for Black Female Cast Member

NBC has been embroiled in a season-long controversy over the lack of diversity of Saturday Night Live's cast, but now the network appears to be taking steps to remedy the backlash

Producers held auditions this week to hire a black female cast member who would join the show's lineup in January, an SNL spokesperson confirmed to MashableSNL hasn't had a black female comedian since Maya Rudolph left the show in 2007.

"All told we’ve seen about 25 people," Lorne Michaels told The New York Times. "A lot of the people we saw are really good. Hopefully we’ll come out of the process well."

Gabrielle Dennis from BET series The Game posted a Twitter photo, below, featuring the women who SNL invited to audition. Simone Shepherd, another actress at the auditions, also posted the same photo on Instagram, later tweeting it with the message, "The hilarious BLACK women who just rock the SNL audition. #WeJustMadeHistory": Read more...