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The 51st season of Saturday Night Live<\/em> saw a fair number of cast shake-ups, including the departures of major talents Heidi Gardner<\/strong> and Ego Nwodim,<\/strong> who left the show after eight and seven seasons, respectively. But one featured player has emerged amidst the chaos, positioning themselves as a potential anchor for a new era of SNL.<\/em> And no, it\u2019s not Marcello Hern\u00e1ndez;<\/strong> it\u2019s Ashley Padilla.<\/strong><\/p>\n Padilla joined Saturday Night Live<\/em> in September 2024, ahead of the show\u2019s 50th season. Though she had a bit of a breakout moment as Joann from Joann Fabrics<\/a> in a Weekend Update bit, she mostly put in solid work in supporting roles alongside fellow newly hired featured players Emil Wakim<\/strong>\u2014who was let go after one season\u2014and Jane Wickline.<\/strong> But now, just four episodes into season 51, Padilla has become one of SNL<\/em>\u2019s most reliable presences, playing major roles in multiple sketches each night.<\/p>\n Comedically, Padilla is a lot like SNL<\/em> alum and Emmy nominee Vanessa Bayer.<\/strong> Both are experts at playing seemingly regular women and middle-aged-mom roles\u2014who can forget Bayer feeding her \u201chungry guys\u201d in SNL<\/em>\u2019s Totino\u2019s commercial<\/a>?\u2014and both also excel at imbuing these apparently innocuous people (wives, girlfriends, principals, office workers) with a clandestine zany streak. Padilla\u2019s not a wacky, gonzo comedian like Sarah Sherman,<\/strong> nor is she an expert impressionist like Chloe Fineman.<\/strong> But she does fit a specific, necessary niche. Her dry sensibility also recalls Jane Curtin,<\/strong> SNL<\/em>\u2019s first female Weekend Update anchor\u2014who often played the straight woman in sketches, but had razor-sharp timing. Padilla\u2019s everywoman exterior conceals the beating heart of a freak.<\/p>\n To see this in action, look no further than Padilla\u2019s first big moment this season: when she anchored the \u201cParent Teacher Conference\u201d sketch during the Bad Bunny<\/strong>\u2013hosted premiere on October 4. Padilla milked major laughs as an awkward principal who was desperately attracted to Bad Bunny\u2019s single father. She had a brief but memorable turn as Amy Klobuchar<\/strong> during the cold open of Amy Poehler<\/strong>\u2019s episode on October 11, which earned a shout-out from Klobuchar on X<\/a>, and followed that up with a starring role as an office worker who accidentally let one rip in \u201cSurprise,\u201d<\/a> from Sabrina Carpenter<\/strong>\u2019s October 18 episode. Even when fumbling a line<\/a> about laughing out of her butt, Padilla was funny enough that costars like Fineman and featured player Ben Marshall<\/strong> were visibly struggling not to break character.<\/p>\n Clearly, the show\u2019s writing staff feels similarly. After the first three episodes of season 51, SNL<\/em> superfan and data analyst Mike Murray<\/strong>\u2014who runs the X account @thesnlnetwork\u2014ranked Padilla, based on her screen time and the number of sketches in which she appeared, as number three on his SNL<\/em> power list<\/a>, placing her just after Sherman and Weekend Update cohost Colin Jost.<\/strong> According to Murray, Padilla logged the most screen time of any cast member during Carpenter\u2019s episode, logging 13 minutes and 45 seconds on air\u2014which Murray claims is a higher single-episode total<\/a> than the career highs of Nwodim, Gardner, Fineman, or Melissa Villase\u00f1or.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n