Saturday Night Live · 1975–2026
Every bar is one cast member's run, 1975 through Season 51 (2025–26). Color marks the class they joined in. Drag the season spotlight to light up everyone on air that year, then click a year — on the axis or any open space — to lock that column down the chart. Tap a class to isolate a cohort, or tap any name to see who they shared the stage with. A ✱ and gold rail flag the cast members who became head writer.
How to read it. Bar color = the era a performer first joined (their “class”). A striped segment is their featured period; where it turns solid they were promoted to repertory. A gold rail (and ✱ by the name) marks the seasons a cast member served as head writer — a rail can sit off the bar for someone like Jim Downey, who ran the writers' room long after his brief on-camera stint. Tenure, promotion, and head-writer years are season-accurate to ±1 (well-documented for the modern era, approximate before ~1985); a few brief returns are simplified; the chart runs through Season 51, and an arrow (►) marks performers still on the cast.