7 SNL Hosts Who Could Be Cast Members

With 50 years under its belt, NBC’s Saturday Night Live has featured many comedic talents just before they broke big. Then there are those who are visiting, those who have a major project to promote. Some are terrific while others are Steven Seagal. What follows are the best hosts, the visitors who each time contribute a massive amount to their episode yet have never actually been a cast member. So that means folks like Martin Short were excluded because, while he was only a cast member for one season, he was still a cast member. Steve Martin, however, was fair game for inclusion and, to get him out of the way, Martin absolutely could have been a cast member. That said, Alec Baldwin was excluded, not because he has hosted so many times, but rather because he played popped up as Trump so often between 2016 and 2020, he might as well have been considered a cast member.

There was one more exclusion, but one still worthy of a mention: John Mulaney. Mulaney was a writer on SNL from 2008 to 2013 so, without a doubt, plenty of his ideas found their way into the show, just as a cast member’s would. So, with those parameters set, here are seven SNL hosts who are such naturals one could be forgiven for thinking they’re part of the season’s lineup.

Adam Driver

The first time Adam Driver hosted it was about a month after the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and, as was expected, he played with his image as Kylo Ren. “Undercover Boss: Starkiller Base” was the highlight of that particular episode, but it was in “America’s Funniest Cats” that he was already capable of taking center stage in an SNL sketch and crafting a full character in just a few minutes.

Two years later he came back and did the same with “Career Day,” which was immediately deemed one of the best sketches of the 2010s. He’s so good in the sketch he managed to break just about everyone in the room by slamming his cane through an artificial crow. When he hosted again in 2020 he fronted the standout sketch “Science Room,” which features his science teacher struggling to reach a pair of students. It’s a sketch that has been repeated, but no one has played the put-upon educator as well as Driver (save for former cast member Jason Sudeikis).

Ariana Grande

All in all, Ariana Grande has made four appearances on SNL. Two times as the musical guest, one time as the host, and one time as both the musical guest and host. She’s a multi-hyphenate, and that’s something she’s proved on the sketch show. Grande is a talented singer, an impressively ranged actor, and a master impressionist.

Her first gig as host was all the way back in 2016, where she was a standout in sketches like “Mermaids” and, especially, “Celebrity Family Feud.” But it was in 2024 (the time she was not playing double duty) that Grande was so phenomenal it was enough to make SNL fans wish she’d host multiple times per year. She lent her vocals and comedic time to “Wedding” to great effect, stole “Charades,” in which she played an overbearing mother, did a very solid Celine Dion impression in “UFC,” fronted the hysterical “Castrati,” and managed to beat resident impressionist Chloe Fineman at her own game in “Jennifer Coolidge for Maybelline.” Here’s hoping she hosts again when Wicked: For Good is released.

Charli XCX

Charli XCX had made herself a presence on SNL before playing double duty as host and musical guest in November 2024 via serving as musical guest in 2014 and 2022 as well as a cameo in 2021. But, in that 2024 episode, she stepped up to the plate and then some.

She did the same thing Grande did in “Babymoon,” which was the second sketch featuring Marcello Hernandez’s Domingo. But that wasn’t the only area where she showed herself to be (nearly) Grande’s equal, as she delivered a hysterical Adele impression for “Wicked Auditions.” She even teamed up with Andy Samberg for an SNL Digital Short and proved herself able to make even middling sketches like “It Girl Thanksgiving Special” watchable. It will be exciting to see what Charli XCX does when she’s inevitably brought back to host again.

[RELATED: Actors Who Have Never Hosted SNL]

Emma Stone

Oscar winning performer Emma Stone has a long history with SNL. In fact, it’s where she met her husband, Dave McCary. All in all, Stone has hosted five times and made four cameos.

She first hosted one month after the release date of her first leading role in Easy A in 2010. Overall, it was a lackluster episode, but Stone helped elevate it. The following year she held her own with Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig in “Secret Word” and managed not to break even once when confronted by Hader’s old-timey reporter Herb Welch in “WXPD News New York” (which is no easy task). There was then a five-year gap at which point she came back to a mostly new cast and displayed the same chemistry she had with the previous line-up. That in and of itself is a summary of why Stone is such an SNL natural, she seems to have a full understanding of how it’s the players’ game and she’s just visiting, but since she is visiting, she’s going to bring her all. Some hosts seem apprehensive, others seem to showboat, Stone plays it just right.

Melissa McCarthy

The first time Melissa McCarthy hosted was the same year she broke through big as the major scene stealer in Bridesmaids. And, in just six years, she joined the Five-Timers Club. It’s not quite as impressive as Steve Martin joining the club after just 546 days, but it’s close. In fact, that six-year span is the shortest of any modern-day host (meaning from 2000 on), beating out Dwayne Johnson (17 years), Emma Stone (13 years), Ben Affleck (13 years), Paul Rudd (13 years), Scarlett Johansson (11 years), Jonah Hill (10 years), and Justin Timberlake (10 years).

In 2011 she teamed with her Bridesmaids co-star for “The Lawrence Welk Show Cold Opening,” where like others on this list she showed she could craft a full character in a single sketch. In that same episode’s “Office Flirt,” she showed she was already at the point where she could lead a particular episode’s sketch so well that it became the episode’s best sketch. It was a massively impressive debut hosting gig. Then, in 2013, she hilariously played an abusive basketball coach in “Outside the Lines” and was the major laugh-getter in “Million Dollar Wheel” and “Pizza Business.” The following year she was once again a scene-stealer in “Guess That Phrase!” (in which she got her own catchphrase: “Pass the Mash!”). Two years later she hosted again (with the standout sketch being “Whiskers R We” alongside Kate McKinnon) and later went all-in on “Just Desserts!,” a sketch in her most recent hosting gig. That was 2017, and while she’s made two cameos since then, SNL fans could use her as host again.

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling has proved he’s extremely funny in movies like The Nice Guys, so perhaps it’s not such a surprise the actor (who often plays serious roles) is a hoot on SNL. Thus far he’s hosted three times (2015, 2017, and 2024) and made a cameo appearance (one week before his 2024 hosting gig).

Gosling’s first hosting gig proved him to be one of the few people who can break on camera and not only is it not irritating, but it’s also outright charming. We refer to, of course, the iconic sketch “Close Encounter.” He was also a natural for the sketch “Birthday Party,” where he played an unusually attractive father being hit on with increasing intensity by Aidy Bryant’s over-enthusiastic Melanie. The highlights from his 2017 hosting gig were “Another Close Encounter,” “Italian Restaurant,” where he and Cecily Strong played a couple who just can’t wrap their heads around having just eaten Pizza Hut instead of Terrazano’s (a restaurant that doesn’t exist) and the instantly iconic and bizarre “Papyrus.” As for his 2024 episode, he once again found himself abducted by aliens in “Close Encounter Cold Opening,” tried to get out of his nuptials in “The Engagement,” and starred in what is deemed by many to be the best sketch in a long time, “NewsNation: Beavis and Butt-Head.”

Tom Hanks

By this point, viewers of just about every age demographic are familiar with Tom Hanks. And, given the popularity of projects like Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan, most people probably think of him as a dramatic actor first and foremost. But Hanks really got his start in comedy, first with the sitcom Bosom Buddies (1980-1982) before moving into comedic film territory with movies such as Splash, Bachelor Party, The Money Pit, Dragnet, Big, and Turner & Hooch. In fact it wasn’t until 1993’s Philadelphia that he really began his career as a dramatic actor (and in doing so won the Academy Award for Best Actor)

But, even after moving over to more dramatic work, Hanks has never shaken off his comedic roots as, between 1985 and 2020, he’s hosted a whopping 10 times. And, even when he’s not hosting, he still often makes himself available to the show, as he’s put in 11 cameo appearances since the turn of the century. Hanks basically is an honorary SNL cast member.