Actor and comedian Aziz Ansari, whose parents are from Chennai and make appearances on his Netflix show 'Master of None', is making history. He will be hosting Saturday Night Live on Jan. 21. This announcement from NBC makes him the first host of the show from a South Asian descent.
"More than 90 per cent of SNL’s hosts have been white and only two celebrities of Asian descent — Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu — have hosted the show before, according to IndieWire’s demographic breakdown of all of the show’s hosts (that doesn’t include Fred Armisen and Bruno Mars, who both have some Asian ancestry). Most non-white hosts have been black, IndieWire found.
SNL has faced controversy in recent years over diversity issues. In 2013, the lack of a black female cast member led to executive producer Lorne Michael holding special auditions to hire one. He ended up hiring Sasheer Zamata, as well as Leslie Jones (who was initially brought on as a writer)." Continue reading at The Toronto Star.