Northwestern Alum Joins Cast Of 'SNL' As New Trier Grad Departs

CHICAGO — A Northwestern University graduate and former host of a variety show in Chicago will join the cast of "Saturday Night Live" as its 47th season kicks off this week.

Sarah Sherman, who is also known by her stage name Sarah Squirm, is one of three new cast members announced Monday by producers of the NBC show, along with Aristotle Athari and James Austin Johnson.

"SNL just made a HUGE mistake," Sherman tweeted in response to the announcement.

After graduating Northwestern, the Long Island native hosted a variety show called "Helltrap Nightmare" at The Hideout for more than three years. In 2016, she was named Best Stand-Up Comic by the Chicago Reader.

That year, Sherman said that while the independent Chicago arts community had been supportive of her brand of weird and sometimes grotesque comedy, the "energy" of Northwestern was incompatible with her own.

“I felt like maybe my voice didn’t fit in," she told the Daily Northwestern. "I didn’t know what I was capable of at Northwestern. There’s a lot of grime and gore in my (work) that isn’t totally in the Northwestern aesthetic.”

In 2019, Sherman and the other core performers from her variety show moved to Los Angeles.

Last year, she worked as a creative consultant for "The Eric Andre Show" and wrote for the Netflix show "Magic for Humans." This year, she wrote, directed and acted in a video short called, "Sarah Vaccine."

As one comedian with Chicago connections joins the SNL cast, another departed.

Beck Bennett, a New Trier High School graduate and Wilmette native, said that he loved the show and would miss being a part of it.

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"Thank you for 8 years of remarkable people and incredible experiences that completely changed my life," Bennett said in a social media post. "I had so much fun"

Featured player Lauren Holt also will not return, according to NBC.

Cecily Strong, an Oak Park native and Northwestern alum, will remain a member of the cast for the 2021-22 season, despite speculation that she would be departing. Alex Moffatt, a Winnetka native and North Shore Country Day School graduate, also remains on the cast.