Maya Rudolph will return to Saturday Night Live to play Kamala Harris during the forthcoming season of the longrunning comedy program.
According to Deadline, the former cast member has cleared her schedule to ensure availability for upcoming episodes with the 50th season of the show premiering on 28 September. Pre-production on Rudolph’s Apple comedy series Loot has reportedly been put on pause.
Rudolph won an Emmy for playing the vice-president-turned-presumptive presidential-candidate during her 2020 run as Harris. She has called playing a major political character “a rite of passage” at the show.
In 2022, Rudolph revealed that she had met Harris for dinner after being part of a fundraiser alongside her, Amy Poehler and Hillary Clinton. She told Jimmy Fallon that Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, was “pretty excited that there were two Kamalas”.
Since Joe Biden dropped out of the upcoming race, there have been widespread calls for Rudolph to return, including from actor Amy Sedaris.
She first played the character in 2019 during a DNC town hall sketch alongside Woody Harrelson’s Biden. At the time, Harris posted that she intended to keep Rudolph “in work for the next 8 years”.
Rudolph follows on from Tina Fey’s much-loved portrayal of Sarah Palin in the lead-up to the 2008 election. “I watched with the volume all the way down and I thought it was hilarious,” Palin said of the impression. “I didn’t hear a word she said, but the visual was spot on.”
While Alec Baldwin had previously played the character of Donald Trump, cast member James Austin Johnson has taken over. It’s unconfirmed as to whether he will continue to play him for the upcoming season.
Rudolph was a cast member on Saturday Night Live between 2000 and 2007 and has since had roles in films such as Bridesmaids, Sisters and Wine Country.
