Is Kristen Wiig The Best Female SNL Cast Member Of All-Time?

Last night, Saturday Night Live star Kristen Wiig signed off as a cast member for the final time. As a tribute, she danced with each of her fellow actors and actresses, as well as longtime headman Lorne Michaels. The moment was touching and fitting, the perfect way to say goodbye to a woman who has been such an integral part of the late night show for so long.

During her tenure, Wiig created a lot of memorable characters and appeared in a lot of brilliant sketches, but her most noteworthy accomplishment might actually be that she’s arguably the first woman ever to be the most important cast member at any given time. Many brilliant comediennes have made people laugh on that famous stage, but all existed (somewhat) under the shadow of a more famous and more beloved male performer. Gilda Radner played opposite John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. Julia Louis-Dreyfus shared the screen with Eddie Murphy. Molly Shannon, Maya Rudolph and Ana Gasteyer co-existed with Will Ferrell, and Tina Fey and Amy Poehler overlapped with Jimmy Fallon.

Of course, Wiig too competed for screen time with great male cast members like Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg and Kenan Thompson, but for the first time, a fair argument could actually be made that she was the central attraction. So, the question is, will Kristen Wiig go down as the best female cast member of all-time? Or was she simply a very good cast member who greatly benefited from the period she worked on the show?

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Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.