Leslie Jones Details Her 'Frustrating' 'SNL' Experience

Leslie Jones revisited her “Saturday Night Live” experience, describing it as “frustrating” after joining NBC’s comedy series in 2014 and leaving in 2019. Years later, the “Ghostbusters” actress said she felt typecast by the show’s writers, even though she acknowledged that SNL often turns performers into “a character of yourself.” In an interview on “The Sam Sanders Show” in June 2026, Jones said sketches repeatedly framed her as an angry person fighting others or being in love with a white boy, which she found difficult. She also said the experience was “bittersweet,” but that she still “loved being there,” while not missing the mental strain. When asked whether SNL is a good place for Black comedians, she responded with the idea that it functions like “the machine that it is.”