It’s Official – Second City Cast Members Join SNL

The Second City is proud to announce that Second City cast members, Shelly Gossman & Tom Flanigan, have been invited to join the writing staff and Touring Company ensemble members Vanessa Bayer and Paul Brittain have been invited to join the cast for the 36th season of Saturday Night Live on NBC. Producers and writers from Saturday Night Live visited The Second City last month to scout for new talent.

Andrew Alexander, CEO/Executive Producer for The Second City, said, "They are all consummate Second City performers - smart, funny and always ready to say yes...they will be missed at Second City."

Shelly Gossman attended St. Olaf College and The National Theatre Institute before moving to Chicago to study improvisation. During her early years in Chicago, she studied improvisation at The Second City Training Center and eventually became a teacher for The Second City Training Center’s Improv Program. She performed extensively with The Second City Touring Company and wrote her first resident revue at The Second City Las Vegas. Additionally, she has been a volunteer and member for Gilda’s Club Chicago. She has co-written and appeared in four Mainstage revues at The Second City including No Country for Old White Men, America: All Better! and The Second City’s 50th anniversary revue, Taming of the Flu. Most recently, she co-wrote and performed in The Second City’s newest show, Spoiler Alert: Everybody Dies.

Tom Flanigan moved to Chicago after earning a biomedical engineering degree at the University of Iowa. While studying and performing improvisation, he was also a co-founder of the science-minded sketch group, Galileo Players. After traveling around the world with The Second City Touring Company, Tom was hired as a cast member of The Second City e.t.c. He has co-written and performed four revues on the e.t.c. stage including Campaign Supernova, Brother, Can Your Spare Some Change?, the Jeff Award Winning Studs Terkel’s Not Working and the current hit revue, The Absolute Best Friggin’ Time of Your Life.

Vanessa Bayer was most recently seen in The Second City’s productions of Jewsical and Girls Night Out as well as performing in a variety of roles as understudy for The Second City Touring Company and The Second City Mainstage. Additionally, Vanessa is a graduate of The Second City Training Center Conservatory Program.

Paul Brittain had recently joined the talent ranks at The Second City appearing with The Second City Theatricals production of El Show Mas Funny.

Shelly, Tom, Vanessa and Paul join a long list of fellow alums that have been a part of Saturday Night Live including Dan Aykroyd, Peter Aykroyd, Jim Belushi, John Belushi, Cindy Caponera, Stephen Colbert, Brian Doyle-Murray, Rachel Dratch, Robin Duke, Ali Farahnakian, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Tom Gianas, Mary Gross, Tim Kazurinsky, Joe Kelly, David Koechner, Michael McCarthy, Adam McKay, Tim Meadows, Jerry Minor, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Michael Patrick O’Brien, Bob Odenkirk, Gilda Radner, Tony Rosato, Horatio Sanz, Martin Short, Jason Sudeikis, Rich Talarico and Nancy Walls.