Chris Redd Is the Newest to Depart Saturday Evening Reside

Chris Redd is leaving Saturday Night Live, PEOPLE can verify.

The comic — who has been with the long-running NBC sketch present for 5 seasons, impersonating the likes of Kanye West and Mayor Eric Adams, amongst others — is the newest forged member to exit SNL earlier than its forty eighth season.

“Being part of SNL has been the expertise of a lifetime. 5 years in the past, I walked into 30 Rock understanding that this was an incredible alternative for progress,” Redd, 37, stated in an announcement. “Now, with mates who’ve turn into household and recollections I’ll cherish perpetually, I am grateful to [creator] Lorne Michaels and to the whole SNL group. From the underside of my coronary heart, I can not thanks all sufficient.”

Following his departure, Redd will headline an HBO Max comedy particular set to debut later this yr, entitled Chris Redd: Why Am I Like This?. He’s additionally slated to voice a lead function in a challenge from Broadway Video and Audible along with starring in Common’s function movie Cyber Monday, which is at the moment in improvement.

Redd first joined SNL as a featured participant in September 2017 for season 43 earlier than being promoted to repertory standing in 2019 forward of the present’s forty fifth season. Throughout his time on the sequence, Redd scored a Primetime Emmy for excellent unique music and lyrics in 2018 for the track “Come Again Barack.”

His exit follows a mass exodus forward of the present’s forty eighth season. Longtime forged members Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney and Pete Davidson left the present after the season 47 finale.

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PEOPLE confirmed earlier this month that three further SNL comedians — forged members Melissa Villaseñor and Alex Moffat, in addition to featured comic Aristotle Athari — wouldn’t return for season 48.

Longtime sketch present producer and expertise chief Lindsay Shookus additionally introduced her exit from the sequence in August.

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Final week, SNL revealed that new forged members Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker will be part of the present forward of its upcoming season.

On the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards, SNL creator Lorne Michaels stated that season 48 “will probably be a transition yr, and the change years are at all times troublesome.”

“There are new individuals, and issues are altering, and a unique technology comes into the present,” Michaels, 77, told reporters backstage after SNL picked up its sixth consecutive excellent selection sequence trophy.