Melissa Villaseñor
Melissa Villaseñor
Born/Date of Birth: 9 October 1987
Place of Birth: Whittier, California, United States
Height: 1.57 m
Nationality: American
Education: Ramona Convent Secondary School (2005), Fullerton College
Medium: Stand-up, film, television, music, art
Nationality: American
Website: melissavillasenor.com
Melissa Villaseñor (born 9 October, 1987) is an American actress, stand-up comedian, impressionist, visual artist and singer. She is a cast member on Saturday Night Live, having joined in the forty-second season in 2016. Her other credits include voice work on several episodes of OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes and Adventure Time and a contestant on the sixth season of America's Got Talent.
Early life
Villaseñor grew up in Whittier, California, and attended the Catholic Ramona Convent Secondary School in Alhambra, California. She is of Mexican descent. At fifteen, Villaseñor started stand-up at the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp in Hollywood, California.
Career
Villaseñor was a semi-finalist in season 6 of America's Got Talent. Previously, she was selected for the New Faces lineup in the 2010 Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival. She has also done voice work for the animated shows Adventure Time, Family Guy and TripTank. Villaseñor appeared on the second season of HBO's Crashing.
Villaseñor also makes visual art and released her debut album Dreamer in October 2019.
Saturday Night Live
Villaseñor was introduced as a featured player on the October 1, 2016, episode of SNL alongside Mikey Day and Alex Moffat. Her debut was an impression of Sarah Silverman in the Family Feud: Celebrity Edition sketch. Villaseñor is the second Latina cast member after Noël Wells, who is a quarter Mexican, and the first Latina to be promoted to repertory status. She was promoted to the cast of repertory players in season 44.
She had previously auditioned for the show in 2009, when she was just 21 years old. She did a few impressions but was not hired that year. Instead, Nasim Pedrad and Jenny Slate were hired.
Personal life
After Villaseñor became a cast member of SNL in 2016, she deleted tweets she had previously written that some viewed as racist. Most of the tweets uncovered by media publications had been posted in 2010 and 2011. Villaseñor wrote tweets such as, "A bossy black lady at my temp looks exactly like steve erkel. Ugly". SNL and Villaseñor declined to comment on the alleged racism.
Villaseñor has defended her tweets as "trying to be edgy," and said she didn't regret the deletions. In 2018, she told Elizabeth Blair on Weekend Edition Saturday, "I'm flawed like everyone else, and yeah, I just wanted to make sure I was perfect."
Celebrity impressions
Villaseñor describes herself as a comedian and impressionist. She performed various impressions for America's Got Talent, as well as on First Impressions and her YouTube channel, including:
Barbara Walters
Natalie Portman
Owen Wilson
Jennifer Lopez
Kristen Wiig
Hillary Clinton
Gwen Stefani
Sonia Sotomayor
Whitney Cummings
Sia
Zooey Deschanel
Kate Micucci
Gloria Estefan
Miley Cyrus
Kathy Griffith
Christina Aguilera
Her impressions on SNL include:
Sarah Silverman
Winona Ryder (as her character Joyce Byers from Stranger Things)
Elaine Quijano
Sue Perkins
Owen Wilson
Wanda Sykes
Lady Gaga
Kristen Wiig
Jennifer Lopez
Kathy Griffin
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Rachel Maddow
Kate McKinnon
Nicole Scherzinger
Gwen Stefani
Carmen Yulín Cruz
Maisie Williams (as Arya Stark from Game of Thrones)
Ana Navarro
