Chloe Fineman exits Saturday Night Live after seven seasons
The actor-comedian announced her departure in an Instagram post, calling SNL her home and saying the timing felt right.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
2 min read
Chloe Fineman is saying goodbye to Saturday Night Live after seven seasons on the NBC sketch institution.
The actor-comedian, widely known for her impressions, announced the move in an Instagram post, writing that she had decided it was time for her “next chapter.” Variety reported the departure on Thursday.
Fineman called her run at SNL the “greatest privilege” of her life and said she still struggled to believe she had been part of the show. In her message, she said she connected with the place immediately after arriving and addressed longtime SNL boss Lorne Michaels directly, joking about him reading the post from a burner account while saying she would remain indebted to him.
Her post was part farewell note, part love letter to the chaos of making live sketch comedy. Fineman described watching colleagues pull off the kind of last-minute work that defines the show, from building a JoJo Siwa costume in 10 hours to writing a cold open on a Saturday afternoon to completing visual effects just minutes before dress rehearsal.
She also reflected on the emotional whiplash of working inside the SNL machine, where performers and writers can become fiercely attached to ideas that may or may not make it to air.
Fineman wrote that people at the show could end up devastated when a sketch was cut, only to look back years later and realize the piece in question had a ridiculous title. The example she used: “lipstick for thicc dogs.”
That joke became a running thread in the goodbye. Fineman said the absurdity was part of the point, because the show’s staff takes the work seriously even when the premise is silly. She wrote that the investment makes the wins feel thrilling and the losses feel painful in the moment.
The comedian said leaving was difficult, but she believed it was the right time. She added that she would miss the show and described the people who work there as family, with the studio itself feeling like home.
Fineman did not announce her next project in the post. She closed by returning to the canine cosmetics bit, writing that one day, somewhere in the future, “they WILL make lipstick for thicc dogs.”
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.