Is Ashley Padilla Saturday Night Live’s New Breakout Star?

To see this in action, look no further than Padilla’s first big moment this season: when she anchored the “Parent Teacher Conference” sketch during the Bad Bunny–hosted premiere on October 4. Padilla milked major laughs as an awkward principal who was desperately attracted to Bad Bunny’s single father. She had a brief but memorable turn as Amy Klobuchar during the cold open of Amy Poehler’s episode on October 11, which earned a shout-out from the senator herself on X, and followed that up with a starring role as an office worker who accidentally let one rip in “Surprise,” from Sabrina Carpenter’s October 18 episode. Even when fumbling a line about laughing out of her butt, Padilla was funny enough that costars like Fineman and featured player Ben Marshall were visibly struggling not to break character.

Clearly, the show’s writing staff feels similarly. After the first three episodes of season 51, SNL superfan and data analyst Mike Murray—who hosts the SNL by the Numbers podcast—ranked Padilla, based on her screen time and the number of sketches in which she appeared, as number three on his SNL power list, placing her just after Sherman and Weekend Update cohost Colin Jost. According to Murray, Padilla logged the most screen time of any cast member during Carpenter’s episode, with 13 minutes and 45 seconds on air—a single-episode total that Murray claims beats the career highs of Nwodim, Gardner, Fineman, and Melissa Villaseñor.

Perhaps Padilla is rising so quickly due to a talent vacuum on the show. Before season 51, SNL lost two of its biggest female stars in Gardner and Nwodim; of its 17 current cast members, only two full repertory players are women—Sherman and Fineman. As it stands, women make up only 30% of SNL’s cast. And given the lack of female talent, all five of SNL’s women have been given more to do.

Especially Padilla. On the November 1 episode, hosted by Miles Teller, Padilla once again popped up in multiple sketches and had a breakout moment with a Weekend Update bit, “Two People Who Just Hooked Up Discuss the Government Shutdown.” The extended riff cast Padilla and frequent scene partner Andrew Dismukes as newly besotted lovers, highlighting her brand of naturalistic, grounded comedy peppered with unexpectedly broad line readings.