Jonathan Rudnitsky

Jon Rudnitsky was an American comedian who became well-known to television audiences in the fall of 2015 after he joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975- ). Born and raised in Harrington, New Jersey, Rudnitsky's first real experience with making people laugh came in grade school when he learned that he could crack his fellow classmates up by doing impressions of his teachers. From that moment on Rudnitsky realized he had found his calling. He started honing his standup act in high school, performing at open mic nights at clubs in and around New York City, before moving to Los Angeles to study acting at the prestigious University of Southern California. While attending USC Rudnitsky was very active in the Los Angeles comedy scene. In addition to performing his standup act at such iconic clubs as the Comedy Store and Laugh Factory, he was also a member of the legendary L.A. improv group The Groundlings. When he wasn't performing in the clubs around L.A. or doing improv, Rudnitsky was making his own YouTube videos. His videos were usually parodies of popular shows like "House of Cards" (Netflix, 2013- ) or "True Detective" (HBO, 2014- ), and many of them were viral hits on the web. His videos became such huge viral hits that in the summer of 2015 "SNL" came calling. Rudnitsky was asked to join the young cast of the show's 41st season. Rudnitsky had trouble finding his niche in the show's cast, however, and was not invited back after the series' 2015-16 season.