Meet The Comics From The Inaugural Cast Of 'Saturday Night Live U.K.' Keegan KellyFebruary 6, 2026 at 12:30 PM 0 Over 50 years after Lorne Michaels launched the longestrunning sketch show in American TV history, Saturday Night Live is coming to the United Kingdom to show them how a Canadian does comedy. Saturday Night Live's unparalleled success on American television has been hard to replicate in international markets, but it's not for lack of trying.
- - Meet The Comics From The Inaugural Cast Of 'Saturday Night Live U.K.'
Keegan KellyFebruary 6, 2026 at 12:30 PM
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Over 50 years after Lorne Michaels launched the longest-running sketch show in American TV history, Saturday Night Live is coming to the United Kingdom to show them how a Canadian does comedy.
Saturday Night Live's unparalleled success on American television has been hard to replicate in international markets, but it's not for lack of trying. Countries like Germany, Poland, Russia, France, Italy, Japan and China have all made their attempts to capture local audiences with the magnetic energy of live, late-night sketch comedy, but, thus far, only South Korea has seen sustained success with their own version of SNL, having produced 16 seasons and counting of bespoke satire.
On March 21st, the U.K. broadcaster Sky will debut the Michaels-produced Saturday Night Live U.K., the country's second try at localizing SNL after a disjointed four-season attempt back in the late 1980s.
This week, Sky released the inaugural cast list for the new Saturday Night Live U.K., having identified the up-and-comers from the British comedy scene that have a chance become the Dan Ayrkoyds, the Jane Curtins and the John Belushis of a new generation in international sketch comedy, though we obviously hope that SNL U.K. will just skip past the decades of drug culture that plagued the original project.
Here are all the young comedians set to kickoff the six-episode first series of SNL U.K., starting with…
Emma Sidi
A stand-up comedian who was fittingly born in the United States to English parents, Sidi is perhaps best known for her strong performance as "a woman" in Taskmaster Series 18:
Ania Magliano
The stand-up wunderkind already has a respectably stocked trophy case from her dominating performances at various comedy festivals, proving that there's no limit to how many times one comic can have a "breakthrough" show.
Paddy Young
A TikTok darling and social media star, Paddy Young hails from Scarborough in Northern England, where the highest aspiration for a performer is to star in a film as "the only person in a Northern town who isn't thick."
Hammed Animashaun
American TV-watchers may recognize Animashaun from his role in the Amazon Prime Video series The Wheel of Time -- though, come to think of it, probably not, given how he likely won't be in his Ogier makeup on SNL U.K.
Ayoade Bamgboye
The London-born, Lagos-raised comic recently listed Jack Black, Maya Rudolph and Chris Morris as her three biggest comedic influences, which is the perfect combo for a SNL U.K. cast member, given how well the first two names perform in Studio 8H and the fact that the last guy is British – please don't come for me Chris Morris stans, I loved Four Lions.
Celeste Dring
A veteran of U.K. TV, Dring has ample experience with sketch comedy that appeals to British humor sensibilities, especially when it comes to the French.
Annabel Marlow
The 24-year-old actor, comedian and musician recently revealed to The Late Nighter that she once ran a SNL stan account on social media, and she considers Kristen Wiig to be her comedy hero – but Marlow probably needs to develop some less intelligible and more unpracticed songs if she really wants to emulate her icon.
Jack Shep
Another Zoomer from the TikTok comedy scene, Shep's sense of humor tends towards the expressive and the absurd, which makes us hopeful that he can bring the Tim Robinson-style edge to the new SNL that the old one failed to utilize correctly.
Larry Dean
The work of the seasoned Glaswegian stand-up reminds us American comedy fans that, ultimately, Saturday Night Live U.K. won't be about pleasing the original SNL audience back in the colonies, so certain heavily accented performers will be best enjoyed with the subtitles on.
George Fouracres
Boasting easily the most comically English surname on the SNL U.K. cast list, George Fouracres is an accomplished thespian with numerous credits at the world-renowned Shakespeare's Globe theater on the bank of the River Thames. It's as if the Union Jack was a person.
Al Nash
A self-described "gargantuan comedian," Nash's sketch comedy already has a devoted following on his social media accounts. If SNL U.K. plans on featuring regular Digital Shorts like the American version, they can pretty much just pick anything they like from Nash's Instagram:
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Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: February 06, 2026 at 07:45PM on Source: RED MAG
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