Cecily Strong is leaving “Saturday Night Live” after 11 seasons, the show announced on its official Instagram account Saturday. The Dec. 17 episode is her last show.
A photo of a cue card reading, “We’ll miss you, Cecily,” was posted on their social media accounts, with a caption adding, “Tonight we send off one of the best to ever do it. We’ll miss you, Cecily!”
When Season 48 premiered in October and Strong wasn’t in the episode or the opening credits, fans worried that she was among the many to exit the show in 2022, following in the footsteps of her now-former castmates, Kate McKinnon, Pete Davidson, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney, Chris Redd, Melissa Villaseñor, Aristotle Athari and Alex Moffat.
The network, however, insisted that she was still on the show, and several individuals with knowledge of the matter confirmed at that time that Strong was on hiatus while starring in a production of the one-woman play ”The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” in Los Angeles.
This past season marked her 11th with “SNL,” making her one of the longest-running cast members on the show. Thanks to her impressions of Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, most recently Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake and her strong advocacy for abortion rights and feminism, she’s become a beloved fixture on the sketch comedy series.
The Dec. 17 show also marks Strong passing McKinnon’s record as the show’s longest-running female cast member in the show’s history.
Aside from “SNL,” Strong also stars in and co-produces Apple TV+’s musical comedy “Schmigadoon!” which was renewed for a second season. And it was announced in August that the two-time Emmy nominee is joining Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham, Nicholas Hoult and Ving Rhames in Sony and Alcon Entertainment’s “Garfield” animated feature, scheduled to premiere globally on Feb. 16, 2024.
