THAT’S A WRAP

‘SNL’ Dealt Huge Blow as Major Cast Member Quits After 7 Seasons

The star made the announcement in an Instagram post on Thursday.

Saturday Night Live lost another veteran on Thursday when Chloe Fineman announced on Instagram that she is leaving the show after seven seasons.

“I have decided it’s time for my next chapter,” she wrote in the post. “It’s cliché to say this, but working at SNL has been the greatest privilege of my life. I still can’t really believe I got to be a part of it.”

Her departure follows the voluntary exit of eight-season star Ego Nwodim and the sudden axing of eight-seasoner Heidi Gardner last summer. Bowen Yang also left the show after seven seasons in December 2025.

“It’s really hard to leave SNL, but it does feel like the right time,” Fineman also wrote on Thursday.

The star was open about being “heartbroken” and “a little sad” following the mass exodus of several SNL stars after Season 50. Fineman called the axings, which included those of Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker, who had each been on the show for three seasons, “shocking stuff.” Nwodim announced her exit soon after the firings were public.

Fineman said the shakeup was “pretty wild,” despite being used to the show’s “turnovers.”

Her time on the show will be remembered for her celebrity impressions, both male and female, as she consistently celebrated for her accuracy while portraying Timothée Chalamet, Drew Barrymore, Justin Bieber, and Britney Spears.

While most SNL stars are tight-lipped about difficult celebrity hosts, Fineman outed Tesla billionaire Elon Musk for his behavior while hosting the show in 2021, two years after she joined the cast in 2019. Yang revealed that a host had made one of the cast members cry—and Fineman named who it was.

“You know what? I’m gonna come out and say at long last that I’m the cast member that he made cry. And he’s the host that made someone cry,” Fineman said in the video, which she then swiftly deleted. “If you’re gonna go on your platform and be rude, guess what? You made I, Chloe Fineman, burst into tears because I stayed up late writing a sketch. I was so excited, I came in, I asked if you had any questions, and you stared at me like you were firing me from Tesla and were like, ‘It’s not funny.’”

Despite deleting the video, Fineman later said she had no regrets about coming clean, after Musk made a hand gesture critics believe was a Nazi salute at Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration. “Remember when I got in trouble for calling out mr nazi salute? ya no regrets,” Fineman wrote in an Instagram Stories post soon after the gesture was made.

The star has several upcoming projects in the works. Fineman is in talks to star in the drama adaptation of Harlan Coben’s thriller book series Myron Bolitar for Netflix and will also appear in the romantic comedy Red, White & Royal Wedding for Prime Video.

Those roles will follow several others, including her appearance in the Freakier Friday sequel alongside Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan, and voice acting roles on Netflix’s Big Mouth and Despicable Me.

Fineman wrote in her latest Instagram post that she will miss SNL “a lot,” adding, “the people who work there are my family, and that place is my home, and I know I’ll never be too far away.”

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Eboni Boykin-PattersonEntertainment Reporter

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