Rookie writer Leslie Jones incensed many “Saturday Night Live” viewers with her edgy commentary on slavery last spring, so what does the show do? Promotes her.
Jones will be a featured player starting with this weekend’s episode, an NBC spokeswoman said.
It's official I'm a cast member!!! Get ready! Get ready!! @nbcsnl
— Leslie Jones 🦋 (@Lesdoggg) October 20, 2014
She was one of several African-American women invited to try out for “SNL” last year when a lack of cast diversity prompted some viewer backlash. Though Sasheer Zamata was chosen for an on-air job, Jones came aboard as a writer and stirred things up with a Weekend Update commentary in May about the strengths she would bring to being a slave. “Look at me!” she said. “I’m a Mandingo!” Twitter critics called the piece “racist” and “irresponsible.”
Unfazed, “SNL” made her a frequent on-air presence this season — as a commentator as well as an actor playing a starving African and a vengeful NFL wife.
With Jones, Zamata, Jay Pharaoh, Update co-anchor Michael Che and cast veteran Kenan Thompson, that’s five African-Americans in the 15-member cast — surely the most ever.
