Kenan Thompson Gets His Moment

After seven seasons on Saturday Night Live, Kenan Thompson is finally starting to get America’s—and Lorne Michaels'—attention. “I’ve gradually gotten to the point where I’m hopefully getting a sketch a week—that’s everyone’s ambition,” Thompson tells New York. Michaels adds that Kenan, whose popular sketches include “Scared Straight,” “What Up With That?” and “Virginiaca,” “is on fire this season. He just makes everything you do funnier.”

Thompson has been doing comedy since scoring his breakthrough role as a teen on Nickelodeon’s All That, but in real life, “I do have a super-serious side, and I’m very quiet,” he says. His impressions of everyone from Tiger Woods to Bill Cosby have also gained him popularity, and he brushes off accusations of racism and sexism for his Virginiaca character: “What’s funny is funny,” he says.
(More Kenan Thompson stories.)