“Saturday Night Live” recently added another Gator to its exclusive collection of comedians.
UF telecommunication alumna LaKendra Tookes has joined the writing staff of SNL, where writers like Tina Fey and Seth Meyers were first launched into comedic stardom.
Comedian Leslie Jones was also recently hired by the sketch comedy show. These hires came a few weeks after a controversy surrounding the lack of diversity of the “SNL” cast.
Tookes, who graduated from UF in 2005, was a former news reporter before she took her job at “SNL.”
Bridget Grogan, multimedia news manager for the UF Innovation News Center, said she sees Tookes excelling at her “SNL” job.
“She had a lot of energy and just always had a great attitude,” Grogan said.
For current UF students like Kelly Collar, Tookes’s new position gives him hope to continue pursuing comedy.
Collar, a 21-year-old UF accounting senior, said hearing about Tookes makes his dream of being on “SNL” seem more possible.
“A lot of big writers go to Harvard or an Ivy League schools, but it’s good to see that they can come from anywhere,” said Collar, Theater Strike Force creative director and president of Generation Sketch Comedy.
Former “SNL” cast member Darrell Hammond was also a UF College of Journalism and Communications graduate.
Collar said UF is a great place for comedians to start.
“I think the diversity of the campus creates a good environment for humor,” he said.
Tookes could not respond to questions as of press time.
David Ostroff, department of telecommunication professor and chair in the UF College of Journalism and Communications, said he’s very pleased to see another Gator joining the SNL staff.
“I expect to see Gator gear showing up in skits,” Ostroff said.
A version of this story ran on page 4 on 1/13/2014 under the headline "Live from New York: UF telecom alumna joins ‘SNL’ writing team"
