Chloe Fineman’s ‘SNL’ Exit Confirmed, and Her Next Chapter Could Be a Netflix Drama
‘Saturday Night Live’ fans are still processing the fallout from Season 51, and the show is already shifting its attention toward what Season 52 might look like this fall. Cast turnover has become part of the rhythm of the franchise, with departures often landing in the summer months as NBC quietly resets its roster before production ramps back up.
Chloe Fineman has spent the better part of a decade becoming one of the show’s most reliable secret weapons, known for sharp impressions that turned into some of the most shared sketches on social media. She joined ‘SNL’ as a featured player at the start of the 2019 to 2020 season, a run disrupted almost immediately by the pandemic, and used that strange moment to build her reputation from home.
Now that run is officially over. Fineman is leaving ‘Saturday Night Live’ after seven seasons, marking her as the first confirmed cast departure following Season 51. She had been with the show since 2019 before being elevated to repertory status for Season 47, and her exit was first reported by Deadline before being amplified across entertainment outlets including ComicBook.com.
Fineman herself confirmed the news was coming, saying it was really hard to leave ‘SNL’ but that it felt like the right time, a sentiment she shared while speaking with Deadline about her departure. In a separate Instagram post, she wrote that after seven wonderful seasons at ‘SNL’, she had decided it was time for her next chapter, adding that working on the show had been the greatest privilege of her life.
She has already lined up her next project, entering negotiations to join Colin Woodell, KJ Apa and Diane Guerrero in ‘Myron Bolitar’, a new Netflix drama series inspired by author Harlan Coben’s book series. Fineman is reportedly in talks for the show, though Netflix has declined to comment on the casting.
Fineman built her calling card by lampooning celebrities like Drew Barrymore, Britney Spears, Nicole Kidman, Timothée Chalamet, Sydney Sweeney and Jennifer Coolidge, a range that made her one of the show’s go to impressionists during her tenure. Her exit follows a wave of major departures a year earlier, when Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker all left ahead of Season 51, with Bowen Yang exiting midway through that season.
She also left the door open for a possible return, noting that she would never be too far away, language that echoes how ‘SNL’ has historically welcomed back former cast members for cameos and hosting gigs. For now, her focus appears to be shifting from live sketch comedy to scripted drama, a jump that feels significant given how identified she became with the ‘SNL’ stage.
With ‘Myron Bolitar’ still in the negotiation stage and no official Season 52 cast list yet announced, Fineman’s departure leaves a noticeable gap in the ‘SNL’ lineup heading into the fall. Do you think her run as one of the show’s sharpest impressionists will be impossible to replace, or is there another cast member ready to step into that spotlight?
