5 Best Female SNL Cast Members, Ranked

"Saturday Night Live" made a name for itself through the dedicated and undeniable talent behind the show, namely its incredible core cast of comedians who were able to tickle America's funny bone on a weekly basis. But when you look at the breadth of performers who have lent their talents to the show over the years, the impact the show's female cast members have had on the variety series simply cannot be denied — so we're ranking the best of the bunch.

Needless to say, the amount of noteworthy women to call Studio 8H home is, well, many. We simply can't include them all on a list of five. We're sorry to say that generational talents like Kristen Wiig, Amy Poehler, Laraine Newman, Maya Rudolph, Sasheer Zamata, Tina Fey, Leslie Jones, and Vanessa Bayer won't appear on this list — but that doesn't mean they don't have significant roles within the show's history.

Think of this as a roundup of the biggest female MVPs of "SNL" — the cast members who were integral to the series for one major reason or another, and are thus cemented as major faces of the franchise as a result. We think they're pretty worthy. Keep reading to see who we ranked as the five best female cast members of one of the best NBC shows ever.

You may not have been expecting us to mention the hilarious Cheri Oteri on this list — but she rightly deserves a spot here for being a foundational part of the show's overall success. Oteri isn't necessarily talked about all that much these days when it comes to "SNL," but she was actually part of a major and necessary recovery effort on the show in 1995 after a rough Season 20 in 1994. NBC ended up stepping in to make massive cuts to the cast at the time.

Oteri was part of the new crop — which also included Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan — and she proved herself to be one of the show's biggest new assets at the time. She originated many characters that would go on to be well-known and loved, including the Spartans cheerleader Arianna and "Morning Latte" host Cass Van Rye. Oteri was such a welcomed new presence in mainstream comedy that she was able to parlay her time at "SNL" right into a film career with her work as the parody version of Courteney Cox's "Scream" character in 2000's "Scary Movie."

Without Oteri's unique style, bold character-building, and unmistakable presence amid a cast of new and old greats, "Saturday Night Live" might not have regained its footing quite so quickly, and may have never been ushered into the period of ascension the show saw in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Jane Curtin, one of the show's three original female cast members, is a legend in her own right. She helped show the world what "SNL" could be, and she helped prove women not only deserved a front-and-center place in comedy, but that they were integral to the landscape of the genre.

But Curtin was a bit different than both her other female counterparts on "SNL" and her peers on the whole. She played a crucial part in the dynamic of the show's sketches, one usually reserved for one or very few folks: The character known as the straight woman. The straight woman, or man, is the comedic foil in a scene, the one that grounds it in reality, sets up the jokes with logic, and maintains a sense of being an arm's length away from the comedy — and Curtin was excellent at it across her five-season run.

In fact, she was the blueprint for this integral character archetype within the show's landscape, known in the years that followed as the "Queen of Deadpan" — and through that archetype, she was afforded another major opportunity within the show. She became the first female "Weekend Update" host in the show's second year.

Of course, Curtin played a couple of standard comedic roles throughout her time on "SNL," including the iconic mother of the Coneheads in those recurring sketches, but her pitch perfect deadpan and its legacy made the biggest impact on the series.

One of the marks of an excellent "SNL" cast member is originating a character that become a hit and stands the test of time. A few folks have been able to make that happen over the years, and one of them is comedian Molly Shannon, whose presence was a key part of the show's resurgence in the late 1990s.

Shannon wasn't quite part of the incoming cast of newbies tasked with bringing the show back from a major low point after 1994's Season 20, but for all intents and purposes, she pretty much was, having joined as a featured player just three months before the end of that season. One of the lucky few brought back after a huge cast rehaul for Season 21 in 1995, she was then promoted to a repertory player — and looking back, the show made a lucky move in doing so.

Though she had been working on the character since college, Shannon introduced Mary Katherine Gallagher to the world during Season 21 of "SNL" — and she was a breakout hit. Shannon shared a prototype of her during the end of Season 20, but debuted the persona in her full form five months later after the show's summer break. The wacky and weird Catholic school teenager character was both a sign new era for prominent female "SNL" writers but also of Shannon's own mainstream success down the line (and her 1999 "SNL" spinoff film "Superstar").

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't name Kate McKinnon as one of the modern faces of "SNL." She won hearts with her undeniable work on the series, and it quickly became clear she was the definition of a key player, known for her extensive character work and a wellspring of inspired celebrity impressions, including Hillary Clinton, Justin Bieber, Ellen DeGeneres, and Elizabeth Warren. On top of her reputation for impressions, the comic developed many recurring characters that no doubt helped her build a film career outside of the show during her 10-year run, like Russian peasant woman Olya Povlatsky and cat lady Barbara DeDrew.

McKinnon was nominated ten times for her work on the show over the years, winning two Emmy Awards for supporting actress in 2016 and 2017 — the first "SNL" cast member to receive the accolade since Dana Carvey's 1993 win. She went on to star in some popular comedies while still appearing as a rep player on "SNL," like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's "Sisters" and the "Ghostbusters" reboot.

Ultimately, McKinnon's weird and wacky style felt like a continuation of the bizarre yet beloved tone of Kristen Wiig's work on the show, another highlight for the series during her 2005 to 2012 stint. McKinnon joined the cast right as Wiig was saying farewell, and she carried that torch brilliantly before blasting off into the sunset with it and paving her own legacy through her characters and impressions.

Gilda Radner — one of the three original female cast members alongside Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman — was the show's dreamer. Her spacey silliness and unabashed joy was easy to connect and laugh with, helping her make a distinct impression within the show's freshman cast as one of its most carefree, explorative, and generous performers.

Lorne Michaels, the show's creator and producer, was so confident in Radner's work that she was the first actor cast, and she more than proved why throughout her five-season stint. She originated characters that became cultural touchpoints for "SNL" as it came into its own in the first five years, including Roseanne Roseannadanna and Baba Wawa. Plus, she co-wrote on her own material alongside original "SNL" writer Alan Zweibel, commanding real control over her characters and the roles she got to play.

Radner was often featured on "Weekend Update" with characters juxtaposing the anchors, including Curtin's straight woman anchor. Her characters were able to shine and grow in popularity there, a tactic still used on the segment today. She was also skilled at impressions, embodying Lucille Ball, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Patti Smith on the show.

Her "SNL" tenure is considered generational. Radner's quirky, regular girl persona mixed with her dedication to being herself was not only deeply relatable, but it also inspired many female comics to rely on their own authenticity. "She was our equivalent to Michelle Obama," Tina Fey said at the premiere of the documentary "Love, Gilda" (via USA Today). "We all saw [her] and said: 'I wanna do that.'"