Arts & Entertainment

Wilmette Native Joins Saturday Night Live; Oak Park Native Moves Up On Show

Cecily Strong, who graduated from Northwestern University and started on SNL last year, will be a Weekend Update host; meanwhile a New Trier grad will officially start on the show.



After weeks of rumors, it's official: Beck Bennett, who stars in popular AT&T commercials, is joining the cast of Saturday Night Live.

Beck Bennett, a Wilmette native and New Trier graduate, is officially joining the cast of Saturday Night Live for the coming season, according to the SNL Facebook page. Rumors of the move have been circulating for several weeks

Bennett is probably most recognizable as the star of a popular series of AT&T commercials where he talks, straight-faced, to small groups of garrulous kids. Bennett will join the show in its 39th season on NBC. 

The show lost many of its most high-profile stars at the end of last season and is bringing on six new cast members this year

Also of local interest: Oak Park native and Northwestern University grad Cecily Strong is going to be a new Weekend Update co-host.

The Oak Park native was one of three new cast members on SNL last season. She started getting a higher profile as, "the Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party."

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Strong, who went to Oak Park and River Forest High School, the Chicago Academy for the Arts and Northwestern University, is a veteran Second City and iO performer.

Reporting contributed by Charlotte Eriksen.


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