Ego Nwodim on Her Favorite ‘SNL’ Characters: “I Like Playing People Who Are Strong and Wrong”

Saturday Night Live is quickly becoming the Ego Nwodim show. She didn’t get many shining moments during the two seasons she spent as a featured player after joining the cast in 2018, but SNL has more than made up for it in the years since. Her Dionne Warwick impression inspired Warwick herself, who once referred to Nwodim in a tweet as “that young lady,” to make a cameo. Nwodim also has enjoyed viral hits with the well-done-steak-cutting, table-shaking Lisa From Temecula, the vibes-only talk show “Girl Talk,” a lawless Black Ariel protesting her heroic prestige in The Little Mermaid and a parody of the saucy Hulu series A Teacher.

SNL standouts often show up in the Emmy supporting categories, and Nwodim could very well make this year’s nominations. In recognition of her outstanding season, cut short by the writers strike (this interview took place beforehand in April), Nwodim talked with THR about her most memorable sketches, Lisa From Temecula’s future and what she makes of her opportunities outside of SNL.

This has been a remarkable season for you. In your first couple of years, it felt like you weren’t really getting a big breakthrough moment. Now, episodes are pretty heavily designed around you. What’s changed?

It takes some time to find out how to marry your voice to the show’s voice. When I came into the show, it was this 44-year-old institution. I had just done a one-woman show at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, and I got to make that show whatever I wanted. Then you get to this institution, and you have to find a way to make those things mesh. I really did not have much context for what this job entailed. The literature is out there, but you’ll never really know if you’re not experiencing it. It would have certainly helped to have a friend when I got in there to be like, “Let me give you the basics.” I got great advice toward the end of my first season from Cecily [Strong] about not taking anything at the show personally. If something doesn’t go your way, don’t take it as some sort of reflection of you or your talent.

When I got there, it was a pretty big class, and so having the actual space as a first- and second-year performer, when the show had so many people that the audience had grown to love, was quite challenging. But the grand exodus that occurred [in 2022] created space. By that point, I’d had more experience to understand what works at the show and how my voice fits. There was a space to actually capitalize on that, because there was room in the cast and we could breathe a little bit.

When you say “grand exodus,” you mean Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Strong and Beck Bennett leaving around the same time?

And Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor. That’s a lot of people — incredible performers and pillars of the show — to leave all at once. It was scary having them go, but it also was like, “OK, you might get the ball now, and you’ve been wanting the ball.” Everything works out how it’s supposed to, even if that can be a frustrating thing to hear at times. I got the room to learn from these people, and now I have the space to demonstrate the skills I learned.

Have any of the characters or ideas from your one-woman show crossed over to SNL?

My mom was a character I played in my one-woman show — breaking the news to her that I wasn’t going to be a doctor and I was going to be an actor. The impression isn’t quite true to life, but that was in the “Proud Parents” sketch I did with Daniel Kaluuya where we are having a meltdown about our son. I also did a Kerry Washington impression and Tyra Banks, but they haven’t ended up on the show just yet.

Your biggest breakout this season was Lisa From Temecula. Where did she come from?

She is the brainchild of [writers] Alex English, Gary Richardson and Michael Che. Alex had gone to dinner with his cousin and family over one of our hiatuses throughout the season, and I guess she ordered a steak well done, and [cutting] it, she was kind of shaking the table. I really keep putting his business out there — he’s like, “This girl is just going to make my cousin an enemy of me.” So that’s where that was born. I used to order my steaks well done. You’re like, “OK, this woman is unwell.” I’m better now. I don’t do that. But it was their brainchild, and I got this incredible gift from them. I couldn’t have ever expected that everyone would love it as much as I love performing it.

In those sketches, are you physically shaking the table?

There’s somebody under the table synchronizing their shaking with my sawing — or, in the case of the salad [in the follow-up sketch], my shaking. I’m so grateful there is someone because the first time I did Lisa From Temecula, I was like, “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but how heavy is this table going to be? Am I going to be able to shake it while doing it?” I’m not producing the sketch because it wasn’t my baby, so I’m not super involved in the conversation about what the production is going to be like. I’ve got oddly strong arms, but I don’t know if the level of shaking is going to read on camera. And then when I heard somebody was going to be under there with me, I was like, “Great.”

Because it needs to be a big shake for the joke to land.

Exactly. Our table-read table is gigantic. It seats all of the cast, Lorne [Michaels] and the host. I was delivered a steak at our table read, and I was shaking the table. So, like, your girl is kind of strong. But at the table read, I was breaking like crazy.

You never know whether a sketch will click enough for a character to be worth reviving. How quickly did you sense Lisa would be back?

Lorne seemed to have an inkling that this is a character that can recur. In my mind, I’m like, “Is that sketch going to work?” It was so fun, but I don’t know if it was going to actually do what I needed it to do. Things are so amazingly funny to us, and then we get to do it in front of a live audience and it’s like they are watching a dramatic play. But on the Friday before the show, Lorne asked us to give her a more memorable name. Her name was always Lisa, but he said, “I think people might want to see this character again.” I love that he saw it that way.

Was the salad-tossing always the gambit for the second sketch?

No. We knew we were going to be asked to bring it back after the response to the first one. I pitched Korean barbecue at one point. Now, if we do it again, I want to see what she’s like in court and what she’s like on a date, maybe at the movies being disruptive. Gary said something really beautiful before we started writing [the follow-up sketch], which was, “Look, it’s not going to be as good as the first. We need to just know that going in. Let’s just say that out loud.” I love that, as opposed to pretending we’re going to be able to replicate that magic exactly the way it happened the first time. But what’s exciting is there are so many questions about this woman’s backstory. We landed on salad ultimately because there’s a reason for the table to shake with salad. There were other things we discussed, and I don’t want to say them out loud now, because maybe we’ll use them at some point.

What comes more naturally to you: the physical comedy required for somebody like Lisa or the hyper-verbose humor required for somebody like Mary Anne Louise Fisher, the Christmas shopper?

In my dream world, I get to marry both of those things. There was one time I was in the cold open with Maya Rudolph and Alec Baldwin at a Trump town hall, and I was a woman nodding her head in the back. Not a single word, just a bobble-headed woman co-signing everything Trump was saying. That was really fun. But that’s hard to say, because I love delivering jokes, too.

Another sketch from this season that I love is “Hawaii Flight” with Keke Palmer, which you co-wrote. Where did that idea come from?

I’m eternally grateful to Keke’s energy around that piece. I had this idea of two flight attendants on a plane when the plane crashes. I thought of this emergency in the air and a passenger being like, “How do I get the safety vest?” and the flight attendant going, “Oh, now you want to know? Because I went over that up top and you guys weren’t listening.” That setup was too dark for the show, probably, but I’ve had that idea since my first or second season. And where does it go after that? Sometimes a joke is just a joke and doesn’t have legs. In this case, I was on a flight somewhere and I saw a photo of what looked like two rambunctious flight attendants. They were back-to-back. So I thought, “This could be me and Keke.” Then it became about how old the plane is. Rarely do I look at a picture and go, “I’m inspired to write a piece about this.” But these women looked so full of life.

An archetype you frequently play is the bossy lady who’s there to set everybody straight. I’m thinking of the neighbor who barges in to perform the exorcism on Jenna Ortega, the prison guard commenting on the inmate’s visitation and the teacher Andrew Dismukes wants to hook up with. Do you have a sense of where that archetype comes from for you?

I like playing people that are strong and wrong.

That’s a good way to put it.

I love it. I’m really fascinated by human behavior. Imagine embodying a person who’s so oblivious to the truth or reality or what our societal norms should be — and confident in their oblivion. I’m not interested in doing that in my real life. I’m very much like, “What’s the truth? How can I be a better version of myself?” But these characters think everyone else is going to have to bend to their will, and that’s funny to me. If Lisa From Temecula was more aware of herself, she wouldn’t be as funny. When she starts to blame the mess [at the dinner table] on everyone else, it’s like, “You did that.” I love indignant and disruptive characters.

Is there a sketch this season that you thought would go differently? Something that didn’t get as much attention as you’d hoped or that became a surprise hit?

I really enjoyed this piece that Streeter Seidell wrote for me. It’s not that it didn’t go well. I think it went great, and I think people enjoyed it. But it was something that was really fun for me to do. It was a classroom sketch where I played a substitute teacher who comes in.

At the STEM school?

Yes. “Students Together Echieving Much.” He gave me the gift of that piece. It was a little later in the show than he and I’d hoped because people don’t always stay up to watch. Or so I’ve heard. Honey, I’m up till it’s over!

People who keep up with SNL are always curious to see how much castmembers thrive outside the show. The SNL-to-movie career path doesn’t exist the way it did when, for example, Adam Sandler was on the show, but I’m curious what you make of the opportunities that have come your way as your renown has grown.

I think what you acknowledged is accurate. The time when Adam Sandler was on the show is not the same as right now. The material being produced is very different, and the opportunities are very different. I’m always fortunate anytime anybody wants to work with me. I don’t take any of this for granted. I got to do Love Life season two with William Jackson Harper, and just getting to work with him and [creator] Sam Boyd was amazing. I want to see more opportunities come for sure, but I also have the patience and the humility to know that they’ll come in the time they’re supposed to. The more opportunities I get on the show, the more people will get to see what is actually in my little tool kit of skills. I’m looking forward to the opportunities that come even during this summer hiatus that we’re approaching. There are a few conversations that are happening. I’m along for the ride and having a very good time.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.