Aristotle Athari, Sarah Sherman, and James Austin Johnson join the cast of Saturday Night Live. Image Source: Entertainment Weekly Saturday Night Live, the longest-running NBC sketch show, is returning for its 47th season, and just before the opening episode on October 2nd, 2021, the show's creators announced three new cast members who will join the cast for the following season. Aristotle Athari of Plano, Texas, Sarah Sherman of Chicago, and James Austin Johnson of Nashville are among the new cast members.
The 47th season of Saturday Night Live will feature Aristotle Athari, Sarah Sherman, and James Austin Johnson, as well as Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Heidi Gardner, Kate McKinnon, Ego Nwodim, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Melissa Villasenor, Bowen Yang, and others.
Beck Bennette, who joined Saturday Night Live in 2013, and Lauren Hold, who joined the show last season, have both announced their departures. Beck expressed his gratitude to the show on social media, calling his time on the show "an incredible experience that completely changed my life."
Let us know a little about Aristotle Athari before he takes the stage.
Aristotle Athari is an actor, writer, cinematographer, media personality, comedian, and director who got his start in the sketch comedy ensemble "Goatface" with Hasan Minhaj, which aired on Comedy Central in 2018. The comic has spent the last 10 years working in the comedy industry in a variety of positions and is thrilled to be joining the cast of Saturday Night Live for its 47th season.
Aristotle is mentioned in an interview as a student who teachers wished would wind up in someone else's class because he would never shut up! He recalls one of his teachers telling him that he reminded her of Robin Williams from the TV program "Mork and Mindy," in which he played a hyperactive extraterrestrial with strange voices. He'd go to his mother's alterations store after school. “In the fitting rooms, with all the mirrors and a TV, I’d rehearse voices,” he adds.
The actor-comedian got his first break when he was 17-years-old and was on his regular Dallas strip club job. He explained that he had no idea that comics could just walk on the stage and improvise their act. “So I went up there and tried to do that. The first joke was good. After that, it went downhill", Athari said. Even though deep down he knew he had been horrible, Athari was hooked. For several months – until the club found out he was underage – he came back for short sets.
In addition, the actor played Gabe, the humorous counterpart to Kumail Nanjiani's Dinesh Chugtai, in five episodes of Silicon Valley. In the film ‘The Coop,' the comic also portrayed the starring character of Derrick. Surprisingly, Aristotle's flexibility extends beyond sketch comedy to include stand-up comedy.
Aristotle, an actor, writer, comedian, and occasionally director, has had the opportunity to perform a routine on his fear of his mother on Comedy Central. He also performed as a solo sketch performer at the Just For Chuckles comedy festival, where he garnered a lot of applause (or, in his case, laughs) from the crowd.
In June 2021, Aristotle launched his podcast, 'This is American Live,' which he co-hosts with fellow comedian Andy Harris. The program is available on iHeartRadio and the Big Money Players podcast network, which is run by Will Ferrell.
“Join improv comedians Aristotle Athari and Andy Harris on This Is Americans Live, an improvised comedy podcast in the style of a particular public radio station's favorite storytelling show. Each week, presenter Ari, producer Andy, and a special guest contributor improvise fake real stories packed with fake real people, in three acts, using suggestions from a random sentence generator,” according to the show's description.
Before entering the stage at Saturday Night Live, the comedian shared a few photos from his wedding to Maura Grace, a photographer, on Instagram. He gushed over his wife and expressed his gratitude for two of the most important and life-changing events in his life.
With a series of pictures from his wedding, Aristole wrote, “Today I get to celebrate the two greatest things to ever happen to me. Marrying the woman of my dreams [Maura Grace] and getting the job of my dreams [at SNL] I’ve been pinching myself a record number of times.”
Pilot season, Drew Lynch: Concussed, IanTalk: Ideas Not Worth Spreading, How to Be Broke, Dancing for Help, and others are among the series and television specials directed by Aristotle.
Owen Wilson hosted the premiere edition of Saturday Night Live, broadcasted on October 2nd, 2021, with musical guest Kacey Musgraves. Kim Kardashian and former SNL cast member Jason Sudeikis will also host for the first time in the 47th season of SNL.
In his opening monologue on the show, Owen Wilson explained, "A lot has changed since last season. The vaccine came out everywhere except Florida, and the rest of the country went back to normal for about a week and a half.”
He also opened up about his career as an actor and said, "To be honest, I probably have been guilty at times of coasting a little, taking my foot off the pedal. But I'll tell you what, when Daniel Day-Lewis retired and all of that pressure landed on my shoulders, everything changed. That's when I knew I had to do 'Cars 3'."
