Kenan Thompson

Kenan Thompson (/ˈkiːnən/; born May 10, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He has been a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live since 2003, making him the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history. He was also the first regular cast member born after the show's premiere in 1975. He currently stars on the NBC sitcom Kenan, which premiered in 2021.

Thompson began his acting career in the early 1990s, and was an original cast member of Nickelodeon's sketch comedy series All That. In this time, he often collaborated with All That costar Kel Mitchell. In 1996, they began starring in their own sitcom Kenan & Kel (1996–2000). Thompson also had roles in The Mighty Ducks franchise, Good Burger, and the title character in the 2004 film Fat Albert.

He has been nominated four times for a Primetime Emmy Award for his work on SNL, winning once. He is ranked at No. 88 on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars.

Thompson was born on May 10, 1978 in Columbus, Ohio. His parents are Fletcher and Elizabeth Ann Thompson. He has two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. His family moved to Atlanta, Georgia when he was 9 months old. Thompson's mother enrolled him in acting classes at age five. His first role as Toto in a church production of The Wiz had no lines. He continued acting throughout his youth, appearing in school plays such as The Gingerbread Duck. He auditioned for a theater company, The Youth Ensemble of Atlanta (YEA). As a child he was a fan of The Price Is Right which he referred to as "my first love" and "very joyful viewing", which had an effect on his future acting style.

Early career

One of Thompson's earliest roles was as an entertainment reporter for CNN's "Real News for Kids". He went on to star in the original run of All That (where he got replaced by Gabriel Iglesias), with such characters as Principal Pimpell, Miss Piddlin, Pierre Escargot, and Superdude. He starred as Kenan Rockmore on Nickelodeon's Kenan & Kel. While attending Tri-Cities High School, a Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School in East Point, Georgia, he began filming his first movie, D2: The Mighty Ducks.

Later career

Thompson has starred in several films including Good Burger, based on the All That sketch of the same title, and Fat Albert, in which he played the title character. He has also had supporting roles in the movies Heavyweights, D2: The Mighty Ducks, D3: The Mighty Ducks, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Barbershop 2: Back in Business, My Boss's Daughter, and Snakes on a Plane.

In 2009, Thompson was a regular voice actor in the Fox cartoon series Sit Down, Shut Up, portraying Sue Sezno, who, as evinced by her last name, always says no. The series premiered on April 19, 2009, but was canceled after only four episodes due to low ratings and less than favorable reviews. Thompson provided the voice for the LeBron James puppet in Nike's MVP "Most Valuable Puppets" commercials, which were produced to be shown throughout the 2009 NBA Playoffs. Thompson also guest starred on the USA Network series Psych in the fourth season episode "High Top Fade Out". He played an estranged college singing buddy of the character Gus. In 2011, he returned to Nickelodeon, as he guest starred in "iParty with Victorious", a crossover episode of TV sitcoms iCarly and Victorious.

Thompson appeared as a host of sorts of TeenNick's 1990s programming block, The '90s Are All That, appearing in many of the block's early bumpers and hyping material. He would return to the block, now called NickRewind but at the time called The Splat, for All That's 22nd anniversary, with segments filmed at the 2015 New York Comic-Con.

In 2015, movie ticketing website Fandango announced that Thompson would play their brand character, Miles Mouvay. Thompson would play Mouvay in 18 videos, eight 30-second commercials, and a few comedic skits.

On September 23, 2015, Thompson appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon alongside former All That co-star Kel Mitchell in which they reprised their popular Good Burger roles as "Ed" and "Lester Oakes, Construction Worker". They later competed against one another in an episode of the revived Nickelodeon game show Double Dare that aired in November 2018.

In 2019, Thompson served as a judge for NBC's comedy competition series Bring the Funny. He also became an executive producer with Mitchell for Nickelodeon's All That revival, premiering in June. In May 2019, NBC announced they had picked up Thompson's single-camera comedy The Kenan Show to series. The series, retitled Kenan, premiered in 2021 and features Thompson as a newly-widowed father determined to be a "super dad".

In 2020, he became the spokesman for Universal Parks & Resorts’ "Let Yourself Woah" campaign, and was set to host the 2020 White House Correspondents' Dinner before it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Thompson's namesake show, Kenan, premiered on NBC. He would also be named host of that year's Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. For his role on Kenan, he has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, in 2021.

Saturday Night Live

Thompson returned to sketch comedy when he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2003, becoming the show's first cast member born after its 1975 premiere. According to Thompson he had previously sent an audition tape to SNL multiple times with them claiming he looked too young, with him noting "it was a couple years’ worth of that". A fan of the show before joining, Thompson noted that he feared that being on the show was a "disservice" to it stating "It was weird for me for a long time". Thompson was a featured player until 2005 (spanning the 29th and 30th seasons) and was promoted to repertory player at the beginning of season 31 (the 2005–2006 season).

In 2013, he refused to play any more black women on the show and demanded SNL hire black women instead.

Thompson has been a cast member on SNL for 19 seasons, breaking the record for the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history previously held by Darrell Hammond, who was on the show for 14 years. Thompson became the most senior cast member in the second half of the 2013–14 season, following the departure of Seth Meyers. He is also the longest-serving African-American cast member, surpassing Tim Meadows, who stayed on the show for ten seasons, and is also the oldest current cast member. Thompson also holds the record for most celebrity impressions performed on the show, performing 139, beating Hammond's previous record of 107. Although early on he planned to stay on the show until something else came along, by 2019 he noted that SNL was his "forever plan".

Thompson has been nominated for four Primetime Emmys for his work on SNL, winning once. He has thrice been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, in 2018, 2020 and 2021. For co-writing the song "Last Christmas", in 2017 he was nominated for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, an award he then won in 2018 for the lyrics to Come Back Barack (along with Chris Redd and Will Stephen).

In 2014, SNL head writer Brian H. Tucker noted that simply putting "KENAN REACTS" would get a script more laughs, further elaborating, "Put him in your sketch somewhere, anywhere, and your sketch will get better. Because Kenan knows how to take ordinary lines and make them funny, and take funny lines and make them special." Similarly, Lorne Michaels in a 2019 article would refer to Thompson as "the person I most rely on in the cast". Vulture referred to him as the "heir apparent" to Phil Hartman, both being "the glue" of their respective casts.

Thompson's celebrity impressions on SNL include Al Sharpton, Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Cosby, Charles Barkley, David Ortiz, OJ Simpson, and Steve Harvey on the recurring Family Feud sketch.

Recurring characters

• Darnell Hayes, the host of Black Jeopardy!
• Diondre Cole, the host of What Up with That? (What's Up with That? in some episodes), who is repeatedly distracted by the show's theme song
• Reese De'What, the host of Cinema Classics
• Willie, Michael Che's overly optimistic neighbour
• Jean K. Jean, a French comedian
• Lorenzo McIntosh, a prisoner in the Scared Straight sketches
• Steve Kane, the gym teacher in the Daniel Frye sketches
• Tre, a character in the Californians sketches
• Virginiaca Hastings, an argumentative shopper
• Elliot Pants, Host of What's Wrong with This Picture?

Thompson married model Christina Evangeline on November 11, 2011. Together, they have two daughters, Georgia, born June 20, 2014, and Gianna, born August 2, 2018.

^1Thompson stood in for Cowell, who was still recovering from a back injury the previous week that required him to rest under medical observation.