50 years of UCLA and UC alums on 'Saturday Night Live'

The first episode of Saturday Night Live aired on Oct. 11, 1975, and the venerable sketch show has gone on to launch almost as many catchphrases ("Sweatah weathah") as comedy careers.

It may be a thoroughly New York production, but SNL owes plenty to the Golden State. There's at least a hint of truth beneath the freeway-obsessed Angelenos whose interpersonal lives are chronicled in recurring episodes of The Californians, for one thing. For another, the University of California alums who've joined SNL's cast and writers room over the years have each left indelible marks on the show, and on the legacy of American humor.

For the 50th anniversary of SNL's debut, we're highlighting our favorite performances by UC alumni. Five of the seven alums, featured below, are Bruins. To read about other UC SNL alums, visit the UC News website.

Mikey Day

Mikey Day graduated from UCLA with a degree in theater in 2002. He started working in the writer's room at SNL in 2013, and has been a cast member since 2016. That was the year he pitched a screwball skit casting Tom Hanks as David S. Pumpkins, the host of a haunted elevator ride, just in time for Halloween. It's hard to tell underneath the makeup and foot-tall wig, but that's Day on the left, as one of Hanks' backup-dancing skeletons. (Day also appears in Short Film, one of our favorite skits written by UC Irvine alum and former co-head writer Chris Kelly.)

Will Forte

Will Forte grew up in the Bay Area before moving south for undergrad, earning a history degree from UCLA in 1993. After graduation, he went to work at a brokerage firm, but told Diablo magazine that the job made him "miserable. " He soon found his way to comedy - and you can't help but wonder if his unhappy stint in finance had something to do with his performance as a spelling bee contestant who cannot, for the life of him, spell the word "business."

Taran Killam

Taran Killam's comedy debut came at age 11, with a ten-second role in the 1994 movie "The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult." He graduated from the Los Angeles High School for the Arts and studied theater at UCLA for a year before leaving to pursue his acting career. Killam played plenty of memorable characters during his six-year run at SNL, but we're partial to a short sketch in which he and Tina Fey are gate agents announcing the increasingly absurd lineup of passengers invited to board a flight before the hapless souls of boarding group 2.

Nasim Pedrad

As a theater kid growing up in Irvine, Nasim Pedrad looked up to SNL great Tina Fey. After earning a bachelor's degree from UCLA, Pedrad caught Fey's attention with her one-woman show, "Me, Myself and Iran," which showcased her Iranian American heritage. Fey encouraged Pedrad to audition for SNL, and Pedrad earned a spot on the cast from 2009-2014. Pedrad and Fey teamed up for Bedelia, a recurring bit about a high schooler in a loud dress who idolizes her mom.

Harry Shearer

Harry Shearer's decades-long comedy career got started while he was studying political science at UCLA in the 1960s, where he edited the campus humor magazine, Satyr. In 1979, he joined SNL as a writer and cast member. Shearer quit the show after a season and went on to co-create the heavy metal satire film "This Is Spinal Tap," in which he played the hapless act's bass guitarist, Derek Smalls. He and his "Spinal Tap" co-stars Christopher Guest and Michael McKean returned to SNL in 1984 for a sketch in which their characters are interviewed by a music journalist.