Maya Rudolph Will Return to ‘SNL’ as Kamala Harris to Make the 2024 Election a Little Less Miserable

Just as the comedy gods intended, Maya Rudolph will return to Saturday Night Live this fall to portray Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Per Deadline, Rudolph will be on-hand for the sketch show’s 50th season through the 2024 election. The extremely welcome and sensible decision comes as Harris prepares to likely take over the Democratic nomination for president following Joe Biden’s decision not to seek reelection. 

Rudolph — who originally appeared on SNL between 2000 and 2007 — first played Harris in September 2019, back when Harris was vying for the Democratic nomination for president ahead of the 2020 election. While Harris lost the primary, her eventual selection as Biden’s running mate prompted Rudolph to return to the show for the 2020 election cycle (where she was notably partnered with Jim Carey, who stepped in to impersonate Biden). 

The last time Rudolph played Harris was a March 2021 episode of SNL that Rudolph hosted. The sketch found Rudolph’s Harris leading a “Unity Seder” to celebrate Passover, with Martin Short stepping in to play Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

Rudolph has earned a ton of praise for her Harris impression, and even a pair of Emmys. She won Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2020 for her appearance in just a single Democratic debate sketch on an episode otherwise hosted by Eddie Murphy. She won the same prize a couple of years later for that aforementioned 2021 episode that she hosted. 

And Harris herself has expressed her love of Rudolph’s impression, too. Back in 2019, when Rudolph first debuted the impression, Harris quipped on an MSNBC interview, “Look, I plan on keeping Maya Rudolph in work for the next eight years.” 

Though it didn’t quite work out that time, now Harris potentially has another chance to make good on that promise.