‘SNL’ elevates Please Don’t Destroy’s Ben Marshall to cast, hires four more

After news broke that Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker and Emil Wakim would not be part of the upcoming season of SNL, we’ve now learned that the show had added five(ish?) new cast members to replace them.

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The OmnicosmBill Kuchman

Ben Marshall, one of the three members of Please Don’t Destroy, has been elevated to SNL’s cast. He’ll be joined by Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska.

Here’s the official word on the new cast:

Tommy Brennan
Tommy Brennan joins the cast of Saturday Night Live for his first season. Brennan was selected as a Just for Laughs New Face of Comedy in 2023 and has performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Brennan is from Saint Paul, Minn., and his birthday is June 1.

Jeremy Culhane
Jeremy Culhane joins the cast of Saturday Night Live for his first season. Culhane is known for his viral TikTok and online videos and is a regular on Dropout TV. He also performs with the Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. Culhane is from Altadena, Calif., and his birthday is Feb. 17.

Ben Marshall
Ben Marshall joins the cast of Saturday Night Live for his first season. Marshall joined the SNL writing staff in 2021 and has appeared on-camera as part of the comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy. Marshall is from Savannah, Ga., and his birthday is May 1.

Kam Patterson
Kam Patterson joins the cast of Saturday Night Live for his first season. Patterson is a stand-up comedian and a regular on live comedy podcast Kill Tony. He can next be seen in Netflix’s 72 Hours. Patterson is from Orlando, Fla., and his birthday is April 10.

Veronika Slowikowska
Veronika Slowikowska joins the cast of Saturday Night Live for her first season. Slowikowska is known for her viral sketch comedy content on Instagram and TikTok. She has appeared in Tires and What We Do in the Shadows. Slowikowska is from Barrie, ON, Canada and her birthday is Oct. 29.

We haven’t seen this many new cast members (and I’m including Marshall here) added to the cast since Season 38 when Tim O’Brien made the jump from the writers room and was joined by Beck Bennett, Kyle Mooney, John Milhiser, Noël Wells and Brooks Wheelan.

And what does this mean for Please Don’t Destroy? The trio, which had been positioned as the heirs to The Lonely Island, took a backseat during Season 50 — not only appearing in very few sketches but also getting cut for time during a sketch with an actual Digital Short.

“I love these boys so much,” Marhshall wrote on Instagram. “I couldn’t be more grateful to have gotten into this business with my two best friends. Getting to write for SNL together and make our own videos for the show was beyond our wildest dreams — and I’m so proud of everything we’ve made so far. This is a new chapter, but we’re not going to stop working together anytime soon.”

John Higgins also addressed the news, writing on Instagram: “I can’t believe how lucky I was to be a part of this show. It was my dream and I got to live it. And to do it with my two best friends and my dad was an unbelievable experience. Thank you to everyone who made my time there so special, it made this decision that much harder. But for now, I’m excited to pursue acting opportunities that I’ll announce soon but today I’m just grateful for everything we got to do.”

Deadline reports that Martin Herlihy is expected to stay with the show as a writer.

SNL returns on Oct. 4.