Maya Rudolph Bringing Her Emmy-Winning Kamala Harris Impression Back for 'SNL' Season 50
The actress and comedian first impersonated Harris on 'Saturday Night Live' during the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.
Maya Rudolph is set to be Saturday Night Live's Kamala Harris once again.
The 52-year-old actress will return to SNL for its 50th season to reprise her Emmy-winning role as Vice President Harris, 59, this fall when the sketch show covers the last stretch of the 2024 presidential campaign, Deadline reports. She was previously a cast member from 2000 to 2007.
The outlet also notes that pre-production on Season 3 of Rudolph’s Apple TV+ series Loot, in which she stars and executive produces, has been paused. Although filming was supposed to begin on Aug. 26 in Los Angeles, the cast and crew were told the production was pushed for scheduling reasons.
The Bridesmaids star originally played Harris opposite Jim Carrey as now-President Joe Biden during the lead-up to the 2020 election, alongside Alec Baldwin as former President Donald Trump.
James Austin Johnson, who joined the long-running series in 2021, replaced Carrey as Biden during the 47th season’s cold open. Johnson has also stepped in to impersonate Trump in several sketches since then.
Rudolph won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2020 for her impression of Harris.
The Vice President gave her stamp of approval for Rudolph’s portrayal of her in 2019.
“That girl being played by @MayaRudolph on @nbcsnl?” Harris wrote on X in 2019. “That girl was me.”
“YES SHE WAS SENATOR HARRIS!!!” Rudolph quote-tweeted.
In 2020, Harris and Hillary Clinton discussed the experience of being impersonated in a conversation with Rudolph and Amy Poehler, who also portrayed Clinton on the show during a livestream fundraiser for the Biden/Harris campaign.
"You’ve each played one of us on Saturday Night Live. Can you just…walk us through what that process is like?" Harris asked the pair, per Deadline.
“Like, in front of you? That’s embarrassing,” said Rudolph as Clinton laughed.
“In terms of Senator Harris, I didn’t have an impression because I wasn’t walking around the house doing my Kamala,” Rudolph said. “But I think it starts with trying to get someone’s voice, if you can. I’m that person that, when I am telling a story about someone, when I [say] the words that they said, I usually say it in that person’s voice. So I tend to mimic the sound of people’s voices, or if there are gestures or mannerisms.”
“When they put the wig on me, it was done,” she added.
Saturday Night Live returns for its milestone 50th season on Sept. 28.
