Key points
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Jalen Brunson, Dakota Johnson, Shane Gillis, and more are among SNL season 52’s first hosts.
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Rosalía, Katseye, and Gracie Abrams are some of season 52’s buzziest musical guests.
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Taylor Swift, Ramy Youssef, and the New York Knicks have made surprise cameos on the show this season.
Saturday Night Live season 52 is underway, and the show has recruited a wide variety of talent to serve as hosts and musical guests.
The season kicked off with NBA star Jalen Brunson, who led the New York Knicks to their first NBA championship in 53 years, making his hosting debut, along with musical performances from Katseye.
After that, Dakota Johnson returned to the show for her third hosting gig for the second episode of the season, with Turnstile performing as the musical guest.
Season 52 saw two new cast members join the fold as featured players: Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter. Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Marcello Hernández, James Austin Johnson, Colin Jost, Sarah Sherman, and Kenan Thompson all returned as repertory players, and Ashley Padilla and Jane Wickline were promoted as repertory players after two seasons as featured players.
Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska all returned as featured players after joining the cast in that capacity at the start of season 51.
Chloe Fineman was the sole cast member to leave the show at the end of season 51, though Bowen Yang had previously left halfway through that season.
Here’s everyone who served as host and performed as musical guests in season 52 of SNL.
Jalen Brunson/Katseye

SNL began the season with a hometown hero: the point guard who earned the NBA Finals MVP award for leading the New York Knicks to its first championship in over half a century. Several of Brunson’s teammates, including OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, and Karl-Anthony Towns joined him during the monologue, and Ramy Youssef portrayed Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the cold open — a role that he previously played on the show in a cameo in November 2025.
Katseye served as the musical guest with performances of their songs “Animal” and “Hootie Frutti” from their new EP Wild. They also popped up in the pre-recorded sketch “Dream Academy Season Two.” The group appeared as a quartet as Manon Bannerman remains on hiatus as she focuses on “personal health and wellbeing” and Sophia Laforteza similarly went on hiatus for “personal health and wellness.”
Dakota Johnson/Turnstile

Veritystar Dakota Johnson returned to host the show for the third time on the Oct. 3 episode after previously hosting in 2015 and 2024. She also previously appeared on the show in the 40th anniversary special in 2015, and made a cameo during Lily Allen’s performance during the Josh O’Connor–hosted episode in December 2025.
Johnson got a superstar assist during her monologue from Taylor Swift, who’s hosted once and served as musical guest five times throughout her career. Johnson was a guest at Swift’s star-studded wedding to Travis Kelce in July, and recently starred in the singer’s “Patient Zero” music video alongside Colin Farrell.
Hard rock band Turnstile performed their song “Birds” followed by a medley of their tracks “I Care” and “Dull,” all from their 2025 album Never Enough.
Shane Gillis/Rosalía

Shane Gillis is slated to host the season’s third episode on Oct. 10. Gillis was infamously announced as a new SNL cast member in 2019, but was fired before the season began after receiving backlash for racist humor he performed on a podcast the previous year. Gillis still made his way to Studio 8H as host in 2024 and 2025.
Spanish pop star Rosalía will perform as the musical guest on Gillis’ episode. She previously performed on the show as a guest during Bad Bunny’s musical guest stint in 2021, where the two musicians sang the duet “La Noche de Anoche.” She returned to the show the following year as musical guest to promote her album Motomami, and recently wrapped her Lux Tour in Miami in September.
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Inde Navarrette/Gracie Abrams

Following her breakout performance in the horror phenomenon Obsession, Inde Navarrette is scheduled to host season 52’s Halloween episode on Oct. 31. This marks her first time on the SNL stage, and the first SNL ep to air on Halloween since John Mulaney hosted in 2020.
Gracie Abrams is set as the musical guest for Navarrette’s episode. She previously performed as musical guest in December 2024 on the episode hosted by Chris Rock.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
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