The skit was aired just months after then-presidential candidate Donald Trump hosted the show shortly after he announced his candidacy and made offensive and derogatory comments toward Mexicans and revealing plans to build a wall between the US-Mexico border. In 2016, an NBC News article questioned SNL’s motives in “Latino erasure,” when a skit involving cast members portraying nine Democratic candidates for that year’s presidential election was notably missing Julián Castro. The list consists of Horatio Sanz, who was born in Chile Fred Armisen, whose mother is of Venezuelan descent and Noël Wells, who is one-quarter Mexican. Throughout its 47-year history, Villaseñor is just the fourth SNL cast member of Latino descent. Since then, she has racked up voice acting credits including Adventure Time, Toy Story 4, Wreck It Ralph 2, OK K.O.!, American Dad and Family Guy and others, and also released her debut album in October 2019.īorn in Whittier, California, Villaseñor is of Spanish, Basque and indigenous Mexican descent, with roots in Jalisco and Aguascalientes, Mexico.Īt age 15, she began performing stand-up comedy at the Factory Comedy Camp in Hollywood, having since headlined more than 100 clubs and colleges around the country. She first burst onto the scene auditioning on America’s Got Talent where she was a semifinalist during the show’s sixth season in 2011. It was reported after her hire in 2016 that she previously auditioned for the late night sketch comedy show in 2009, but was not selected to join the cast.Ī comedienne, actress and impressionist, Villaseñor is also an artist, singer and musician. I feel like on that level, it’s nice to connect with people.She became known for her impressions of figures such as Dolly Parton, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. “That’s what I really like about doing stand-up, especially vulnerable emotional bits, where I talk about my insecurities or what makes me sad. “I think comedy is a place where we can work on connecting more as people,” Villaseñor says.
Villaseñor’s heartfelt storytelling, along with her chameleon-like ability to morph into others, is really about connecting with them. So she could just be in the crowd like, ‘Yay!’ (perfect Silverman voice). If I run into her at a comedy club, she’s going to tell me, ‘Are you going to do me? Do me.’ And so I have to go on stage and open with Sarah. “Sarah Silverman, I’ve been doing her impression for a while. “All of them love it,” Villaseñor says of the feedback she’s received on occasion. Villaseñor has made the subjects of her impressions, whose mannerisms she studies in some cases and in others stumbles upon instinctually, happy, too. “They really help me feel confident and make me feel happy.” “Every impression I do learn, it’s because I love them so much,” Villaseñor says of the people she embodies. Over the last two seasons, she’s performed in sketches and brought her impersonations of Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga and Owen Wilson, among others, to the series. Villaseñor eventually landed a spot on “SNL,” a first for a Latina performer. Her sets led to comedy show appearances and a successful run on “America’s Got Talent.” So Villaseñor kept honing her act and sharing more of herself, performing a mix of impressions, singing and personal stories. She auditioned for “Saturday Night Live” in 2009 but wasn’t hired. “The first few years, it would crush my soul and crush my confidence. Villaseñor began performing impersonations of celebrities like Christina Aguilera, Barbara Walters and Ellen DeGeneres at open mic nights in comedy clubs around Los Angeles right after high school.īut success didn’t come as quickly as her comedy calling. I realized that I was going to be a comedian.” “I was always really shy growing up, so to find that one thing that made me feel alive, it felt so good. “I realized I could do singing impressions when I was 12 years old, first being Britney Spears,” Villaseñor recalls. These days, Villaseñor’s love for pop diva impersonations isn’t just something for her bedroom mirror or for the amusement of her high school friends: She’s turned it into a career. Melissa Villaseñor’s career in comedy started with three words that every teenage girl in the late ’90s sang at least once into a hairbrush: “Oh Baby, baby…”
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