Sasheer Zamata knew she was the perfect person to play MCU sorceress Jennifer Kale before Marvel did. In 2022, the actress and comedian recorded a stand-up special about how women have been mistreated in society over centuries, from gender bias in healthcare to abysmal sex education to the negative stereotype of the witch. She released the special the following year under the title The First Woman, but, initially, it was to be named The Witching Hour. As the planetary alignments would have it, in the interim she landed a role in another witchy project: Disney's WandaVision spinoff, Agatha All Along, about the fan-favorite witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn).
“Once they hired me, I emailed the creator [Jac Schaeffer] and the producer and I was like, ‘Did you know you hired a witch?’” Zamata tells Marie Claire. “It does feel like a dream. I've been a fan of Marvel for so long, and I was already doing so much research on witches for my own standup and my material. To be able to enter the MCU on a show like this… I couldn't have created a better idea.”
The Saturday Night Live and Home Economics alum plays Jennifer Kale, a centuries-old potions witch, midwife, and root worker who joins Harkness’s makeshift coven to walk the Witches’ Road, alongside other spellcasters played by Aubrey Plaza, Joe Locke, Ali Ahn, and Patti Lupone. Jennifer’s powers are bound (or non-operative) throughout the series, and she has been a loner within the witch community for quite some time. Zamata’s comedy chops, sparkling wit, and spooky sensibilities animate the character so perfectly that it’s hard not to support Jen, even though she’s also facing jail time after her popular beauty products gave hundreds of customers superficial burns.
