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When Joe Biden decided to not seek re-election, the landscape of American sketch comedy changed. We all knew it was only a matter of time, asking not if, but when would our hero return? Yesterday, the news finally became official, as Deadline reported that Maya Rudolph would return to Saturday Night Live to play Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. We did it … Lorne.
Rudolph, who was a regular cast member on the show from 2000 to 2007, first began playing then-Senator Harris in 2019. She made her debut as Harris on the first episode of Season 45, which featured a spoof of the Democratic primary debate with Woody Harrelsoon as Joe Biden, Kate McKinnon as Elizabeth Warren, and Larry David as Bernie Sanders, among others. Harris withdrew from the race the following week.
As the 2020 campaign continued, and Biden later selected Harris as his running mate, Rudolph continued to make appearances in skits, including a debate with Beck Bennett, playing the man Harris would succeed, Mike Pence. Remember that fly? Rudolph’s last episode as Harris was just days following the general election, on November 7, 2020, 12 hours after the Biden-Harris ticket was declared the winner.
The following year, Rudolph began hosting Baking It, a baking competition show that ran for two seasons on Peacock. In 2022, began starring in Loot, a comedy series in which she plays Molly Wells, whose recent divorce makes her one of the wealthiest people in the world. On the show, which is on Apple TV+, Molly begins to run a charitable foundation she previously founded and forgot.
The exact details of Rudolph’s return are not yet known. But Deadline did report that production was delayed for the third season of Loot. The 50th season of Saturday Night Live will debut on September 28.
Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic and researcher, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He is an assistant editor at Cineaste, a GALECA member, and since 2019 has hosted The Video Essay Podcast. You can follow and/or unfollow him on Twitter and learn more about him via his website.
