Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and John Goodman have hosted Saturday Night Live a combined 46 times. On the flip side, some of the most famous names in Hollywood still have never emceed NBC‘s late-night staple, including Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, and Denzel Washington.
Saturday Night Live won its 114th Emmy Award last weekend, extending its record as the winningest TV show in history. Before Season 52 begins airing Sept. 26, check out our list of 52 SNL dream hosts who we think should host the program for the first time.
Many of our picks have already appeared in cameo or guest roles, while others — including current Emmy nominees Rhea Seehorn and Matthew Rhys, and box-office draws Tom Holland and Zendaya — have never stepped foot on the iconic Studio 8H stage at Rockefeller Plaza.
MOVIE STARS
1. Al Pacino
Pacino’s friend and frequent collaborator Robert De Niro hosted Saturday Night Live three times and guest-starred many times as Robert Mueller. Yet, the 86-year-old Oscar winner for Scent of a Woman (1992) has so far avoided making any sort of appearance on the long-running program. Perhaps Pacino’s upcoming press tour for Killing Castro will be his ticket to Studio 8H.
2. Brad Pitt
Pitt has popped up on the program before, including during the COVID-necessitated “At Home” episodes as Dr. Anthony Fauci. However, he’s never hosted. Later this year, Pitt is returning to his Oscar-winning role of Cliff Booth in Netflix’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel, so what better way to jump-start his awards buzz than by taking over SNL for the first time?
3. Cate Blanchett
In recent years, the two-time Oscar winner for The Aviator (2004) and Blue Jasmine (2013) has been dipping her toe into TV, with Emmy-nominated projects like Mrs. America and Disclaimer. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before the A-lister takes the full plunge into NBC’s sketch comedy institution.
4. Christian Bale
He’s played iconic characters like Batman and Frankenstein’s monster. His films have grossed over $5 billion at the worldwide box office. He won an Oscar for The Fighter (2010). And yet, somehow, Bale has never appeared “live from New York” in any capacity. This may be the Caped Crusader’s most baffling case yet.
5. Chiwetel Ejiofor
If the smash hit of the summer, Backrooms, isn’t enough to finally get Ejiofor on the SNL stage, nothing ever will be. His breakout role in 12 Years a Slave (2013) earned him an Oscar nomination, and he’s continued making strong career choices with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The Lion King, The Life of Chuck, and more.
6. Cillian Murphy
Murphy won an Oscar for Oppenheimer, and some of that film’s box office success during the summer of 2023 was thanks to the fact that it opened alongside Barbie, with many theatergoers opting for a “Barbenheimer” experience where they watched both movies in the same day. SNL parodied the culture-defining moment with Emily Blunt from Oppenheimer and Ryan Gosling from Barbie.
7. Denzel Washington
The double Oscar winner for Glory and Training Day is one of the most well-respected actors working today. That’s why, even though he’s never appeared on Saturday Night Live, he still has a presence there, with cast members like Jay Pharoah, Tim Meadows, and Dean Edwards impersonating him throughout the decades.
8. Greta Lee
Lee’s biggest role to date was as Nora in Celine Song’s directorial debut, Past Lives (2023). Following that, the actress earned nominations at the Emmys and Critics Choice Awards for her co-starring role in The Morning Show. Note that she would be only the third Asian woman in Saturday Night Live‘s 52-year history to host, after Lucy Liu in 2000 and Awakwafina in 2018.
9. Halle Bailey
After gaining worldwide notoriety for taking on the role of Ariel in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, Bailey was seen in the musical film version of The Color Purple as Nettie. She has two more films this year: You, Me & Tuscany and The Debut. There’s no doubt Bailey’s star continues to rise, and a host appearance on Saturday Night Live by the 26-year-old actress and singer would bring even more young eyeballs to the aging franchise.
10. Harrison Ford
From Indiana Jones to Star Wars to TV’s Shrinking, Ford has done it all. Except, that is, appear on Saturday Night Live. However, the gruff-voiced actor does still have a unique presence on the show, as Adam Sandler mentioned him in a lyric in his infamous “Hanukkah Song” in 1994: “Harrison Ford’s a quarter Jewish, not too shabby.”
11. John Leguizamo
The actor is receiving Oscar buzz for his role of the blind servant Eumaeus in The Odyssey, and it could be enough to finally propel him to the SNL stage. In 2015, Leguizamo claimed, “I won’t watch SNL anymore” after the show hired then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as a host. Four years later, he criticized the late-night program again for its historic lack of Latino cast members, and he’s never appeared on the show — before or after.
12. Johnny Depp
Saturday Night Live seems like the perfect venue for someone as versatile as Depp, who’s famous for physically disappearing into every role he’s given. Alas, the closest he’s gotten is when cast members parody him, including Kyle Mooney in a 2022 sketch that skewered his defamation trial against Amber Heard.
13. Keanu Reeves
Reeves returns this summer as the voice of toy stuntman Duke Caboom in Toy Story 5, which is sure to be a juggernaut at the box office and on the awards circuit. Saturday Night Live can join the toy-nomenon by hiring the star of film franchises like The Matrix, Speed, and John Wick to host for the first time ever.
14. Kevin Costner
The actor and filmmaker won Oscars for directing and producing Dances With Wolves (1990) and took home an Emmy for starring in Hatfields & McCoys (2012). His sole appearance on SNL was as a member of the audience during the 50th anniversary special. Isn’t it time he gets promoted from the seats to the stage?
15. Laura Dern
Dern, an Oscar winner for Marriage Story (2019), may not have hosted SNL, but her father has — twice. Bruce Dern hosted the show in 1982 and 1983, when Laura was just a teenager. Her only onscreen appearance so far was in 1993 when her Jurassic Park co-star Jeff Goldblum served as the show’s ringleader. “Weren’t you scared [the T-rex] was gonna eat us?” Dern asked from the audience.
16. Leonardo DiCaprio
It’s wild to think that DiCaprio, one of this generation’s biggest A-list movie stars, has never hosted SNL. To date, the only time he has stepped foot on Studio 8H was in a cameo capacity during a 2014 episode hosted by his The Wolf of Wall Street co-star Jonah Hill. An action-figure version of DiCaprio’s character from One Battle After Another also popped up during Teyana Taylor’s episode in January.
17. Mark Ruffalo
Ruffalo is one of the last main Avengers stars to never host SNL. He’s had to watch from the sidelines as Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, and multiple Chrises all took the stage, hoping someday his time would come. The four-time Oscar nominee will be on this year’s Emmy ballot for Task; he already has two Emmys to his name for starring in I Know This Much Is True and producing The Normal Heart.
18. Meryl Streep
She’s a three-time Oscar winner for Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie’s Choice, and The Iron Lady. She’s also won three Primetime Emmys for Holocaust, Angels in America, and Five Came Back. There’s nothing Meryl Streep can’t do — except, apparently, host SNL. Her first and only appearance to date came during the 50th anniversary special, where she played the mother of Kate McKinnon’s Miss Rafferty, a frequent alien abductee.
19. Morgan Freeman
Freeman’s only appearance on SNL was during a 2010 episode hosted by Bryan Cranston. He sat next to Ernest Borgnine during an iteration of the recurring What Up With That? sketch. Should the Oscar winner for Million Dollar Baby (2004) host the program in the fall, he would be 89 years old, and surpass Betty White’s record as the oldest host in history.
20. Nicholas Galitzine
From TV’s Red, White & Royal Blue to film’s Purple Hearts, Galitzine has proven his chops as a serious actor. And now he’s becoming a household name thanks to starring as the iconic He-Man in this summer’s Masters of the Universe. SNL is undoubtedly going to poke fun at the scantily clad superhero when this fall, so why not do it with Galitzine at the helm?
21. Sandra Bullock
Saturday Night Live missed the bus by not asking Bullock to host when Speed became a juggernaut in 1994. They had another potential touchdown 15 years later when she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Blind Side (2009). Perhaps 2026 is the year she’ll finally be conjured up on the SNL stage, as it coincides with the release of the highly anticipated Practical Magic 2.
22. Tom Cruise
Rumor has it that Cruise watched a taping of SNL in 2001 when Val Kilmer was hosting, and that he declined a cameo invitation. In the decades since, the four-time Oscar nominee still has never appeared onstage. His new film, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger, arrives in October, right around the time Season 52 will be airing its first episodes. The timing couldn’t be better.
23. & 24. Tom Holland & Zendaya
While former Spider-Man portrayers Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield both hosted the show, Holland, the current Peter Parker, never has. Likewise, Holland’s real-life girlfriend and onscreen crush, Zendaya, is also an SNL newbie. The lovebirds are currently blowing up the box office in The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day. We’d love to see them take the stage together in a rare double-host situation, similar to Tina Fey & Amy Poehler, or Steve Martin & Martin Short. Holland recent told Amy Poehler why he’s never hosted: “I’m heavily dyslexic … I’m just so petrified at the concept of trying to read something and [the cue cards] change.”
25. Viola Davis
While mostly known for her dramatic work — she won an Oscar for Fences (2016) — Davis isn’t afraid to show her lighter side in projects like The Simpsons, Kung Fu Panda 4, and Live in Front of a Studio Audience. How close has she come to Studio 8H? When her The Help co-star Octavia Spencer hosted in 2017, she delivered a quick impression of Davis in a sketch titled “Zoo-opolis Voice Actors.”
26. Will Smith
The Oscar winner for King Richard is still on his multiyear apology tour for slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards. Next stop, Saturday Night Live? The program infamously made fun of him during a sketch in which an Oscar seat-filler, played by Jerrod Carmichael, is gobsmacked when Smith, portrayed by Chris Redd, gets up and slaps Rock off-camera.
TV STARS
27. Allison Janney
Janney may have won an Oscar for I, Tonya (2017), but it’s her TV roles on shows like The West Wing, Mom, and The Diplomat for which she’s best known. She appeared alongside the rest of her West Wing cast mates in the Al Gore-hosted episode of SNL in 2002 during an Oval Office-themed sketch. How do we pass a bill to get her on the main stage? Fun fact: Aaron Sorkin’s short-lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip tapped Janney to play a version of herself who hosted an SNL-inspired sketch series.
28. Anthony Anderson
This stand-up comedian and game show host is no stranger to performing in front of a studio audience, so it seems strange he’s never emceed SNL. Anderson has also received 11 Emmy nominations for producing and starring in Black-ish. To date, his only appearance on the sketch program was as a cameo in Zach Galifianakis’s 2010 episode.
29. Carol Burnett
There have always been rumors that Burnett and SNL are feuding, particularly as Lorne Michaels reportedly said in 1975, “We do sketches, not skits; kids do skits, and so did Carol Burnett.” Her sole cameo appearance on the program was during Harry Anderson’s 1985 episode, years after her own influential series, The Carol Burnett Show, went off the air. Now is the time that Burnett, age 93, and SNL come together to create an episode that would no doubt have viewers tugging at their ears.
30. Elisabeth Moss
From Mad Men to The Handmaid’s Tale, Moss has shown no fear in the types of roles she’s taken on. That’s why it’s strange her only SNL cameo to date was in a Will Ferrell-hosted episode in 2009, the same year she got married to cast member Fred Armisen. Moss is currently having a busy 2026, appearing on both The Testaments and Imperfect Women.
31. Hannah Einbinder
The Emmy winner is currently starring in the meta slasher flick Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma alongside Gillian Anderson of The X-Files fame. The Hacks star has a unique relationship to SNL since her mother, Laraine Newman, was one of its original cast members. Einbinder made a surprise cameo during the Season 50 premiere alongside her Hacks co-star, Jean Smart, to introduce musical guest Jelly Roll.
32. Laura Linney
Linney effortlessly switches between the small screen (winning Emmys for Wild Iris, Frasier, John Adams, and The Big C: Hereafter) and the big screen (earning Oscar bids for You Can Count on Me, Kinsey, and The Savages). Her current TV project, American Classic, takes place in a small hometown theater, which is perfect training for the Saturday Night Live stage.
33. Matthew Rhys
From Brothers & Sisters to The Americans, Rhys has been a part of television for decades now. More recently, he received three Emmy nominations for starring on the limited series The Beast in Me and starring and producing the comedy series Widow’s Bay. The Welsh actor has a unique history with SNL, having appeared as George Carlin, the show’s first-ever guest host, in the 2024 biographical film Saturday Night.
34. Mel Brooks
At 100, Brooks would become the oldest SNL host in history if he were to take the reins. (Betty White currently holds the record; she was 88 when she hosted the 2010 Mother’s Day episode). Brooks, an EGOT winner for projects like The Producers, 2000 Year Old Man, and Mad About You, shows no signs of stopping now, with his next project being Very Young Frankenstein on FX.
35. Rhea Seehorn
From Better Call Saul to Pluribus, Emmy nominee Seehorn has mastered the world of dramatic acting. Now she has her eye on the biggest comedy prize in television. “I would love to host SNL,” she told Gold Derby. “I can’t even tell you, like, it would be a dream come true. I did sketch comedy stuff a long time ago — never at the level of Mr. Odenkirk, I would never say something like that — but it would be so fun to get to play with those guys.”
36. Ricky Gervais
Gervais’ scorched-earth method as ringleader of the Golden Globes shook Hollywood to its core, but Saturday Night Live never capitalized on his viral nature. However, the two-time Emmy winner for starring in Extras and producing The Office did cameo on SNL during a “Japanese Office” sketch in Steve Carell’s 2008 episode.
37. Sarah Paulson
Paulson is an Emmy winner for The People v. O.J. Simpson who has proven her versatility in projects like American Horror Story, Game Change, and 12 Years a Slave. When she appeared in a sketch with her real-life buddy, Pedro Pascal, during his 2023 episode, her fans thought it was a harbinger of things to come. Alas, Paulson never returned to the program — at least, not yet.
38. Stephen Colbert
Colbert already has a history with SNL: he was a freelance writer and the voice of Ace in “The Ambiguously Gay Duo” animated sketches. Since his version of The Late Show went off the air in May, he’s been keeping busy with an appearance on public access television and writing a Lord of the Rings screenplay. NBC may have been hesitant to hire Colbert as an SNL host since he was employed by rival network CBS, which makes now the perfect time. Just imagine the Trump rage-tweets!
39. Whoopi Goldberg
The EGOT champ for Ghost, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and The View is a frequent punching bag on SNL, with cast members like Kenan Thompson and Leslie Jones taking her on. Goldberg enjoyed two cameos on the sketch show — first in 1986 with Robin Williams, later in 2013 with Justin Bieber — but has yet to host.
MORE CELEBRITIES
40. & 41. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama
The 44th president and first lady are former cast member Ego Nwodim’s choice to co-host the show together. “We could do a co-host situation, as Steve [Martin] and Martin [Short] did,” she told Gold Derby. “I’m just throwing it out there. A Michelle and Barack episode? Not bad.” Many other politicians have emceed the program, so why not the Obamas?
42. Bette Midler
The Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner was a musical guest on Saturday Night Live way back in 1979, when Buck Henry hosted. Isn’t it time Midler got her own turn at the helm, and a chance to put the wind beneath her wings at Studio 8H?
43. Cole Escola
Escola burst onto the scene in 2024 for writing and starring in the Broadway hit Oh, Mary!, for which they accepted the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play while wearing a gown inspired by Bernadette Peters. In 2024, they were included in the TIME 100 Next list of the world’s most influential rising stars, and will soon be writing a Miss Piggy film to be produced by Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence.
44. Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson
Whether he’s breaking the internet with his viral videos or giving away islands on his competition show, MrBeast has proven there’s life after YouTube. The social media superstar even recently appeared on Survivor, a favorite of the SNL writers, where he upped the contestants’ prize money from $1 million to $2 million. If Lorne Michaels is interested in bringing in a younger fanbase to Saturday Night Live, he need look no further than MrBeast.
45. & 46. Venus Williams and Serena Williams
The most famous sisters in sports, neither Venus nor Serena have ever popped up on Saturday Night Live. Considering they’ve won dozens of tennis grand slam tournaments and were the influence for the Oscar-winning film King Richard, it’s clear there’s an appetite out there for more from the Williams sisters. We’d love to see them co-host together.
SNL ALUMS
47. Aidy Bryant
Cast member from 2012 to 2022. Bryant gave a decade of her life to SNL, but hasn’t yet been tapped to host. She popped up most recently in a cameo capacity to send off Bowen Yang last December. Since leaving the sketch program, she’s hosted the Spirit Awards twice and also created, wrote, and executive produced her Hulu comedy Shrill.
48. Ana Gasteyer
Cast member from 1996 to 2002. Not only does Gasteyer act — she also sings, and sings well. (Just ask The Masked Singer.) During her six-year tenure on SNL, Gasteyer took on infamous characters like music teacher Bobbi Mohan-Culp alongside Will Ferrell and Delicious Dish co-host Margaret Jo McCullen next to Molly Shannon, plus a sometimes-topless version of Martha Stewart.
49. Bobby Moynihan
Cast member from 2008 to 2017. From Drunk Uncle to Ass Dan, Moynihan definitely made his mark on Saturday Night Live during his decade-long stint as a cast member. The actor has since been keeping busy with projects like Hoppers, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins, and Minions & Monsters, and was spotted in last year’s Beyond Saturday Night special.
50. Cecily Strong
Cast member from 2012 to 2022. Strong is tied with Kate McKinnon at 11 seasons, the most ever for a female cast member. McKinnon was asked back to host in 2023, while Strong is still waiting for her official invite. Strong’s most talked-about impressions are Jeanine Pirro and Melania Trump, plus her Weekend Update character The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party.
51. Rachel Dratch
Cast member from 1999 to 2006. Gold Derby’s pick for the best sketch of the past 25 years is the first edition of “Debbie Downer” starring Dratch as a sourpuss character who always brings the energy way, way down. Dratch has returned to her home at Studio 8H many times over the years, but she’s never hosted by herself.
52. Tim Meadows
Cast member from 1991 to 2000. Meadows is one of the show’s longest-running male stars ever, with some of his popular characters being Leon “Ladies Man” Phelps, Dr. Poop, Tiger Woods, Sammy Davis Jr., and O.J. Simpson. He was also a writer on the program, earning an Emmy bid in 1993. Meadows has kept busy through the years with onscreen roles and voice-over work, even popping up in SNL50: The Anniversary Special.
