{"id":1301,"date":"2026-05-09T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/09\/this-snl-breakout-kissed-harry-styles-how-will-he-top-that\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:30:00","slug":"this-snl-breakout-kissed-harry-styles-how-will-he-top-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/09\/this-snl-breakout-kissed-harry-styles-how-will-he-top-that\/","title":{"rendered":"This \u2018SNL\u2019 Breakout Kissed Harry Styles. How Will He Top That?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tBen Marshall\u2019s first meeting in Hollywood did not go as expected.<\/p>\n

\tIt was only a year after college, during the early days of his comedy career, when he and friends Martin Herlihy and John Higgins were starting to make names for themselves with their sketch videos on YouTube. The three had just signed a manager, who\u2019d arranged a meet-and-greet with executives at Comedy Bang Bang, the influential podcast and production company in L.A., so the trio hopped on a plane assuming they were about to hit it big. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cWe came in and pitched a bunch of ideas,\u201d he recalls. \u201cLike, \u2018We want to do this and this.\u2019 And the guy very kindly patted us on the back and said, \u2018That\u2019s not how this works. I\u2019m just getting to know you.\u2019 \u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tIt took a bit more time, but Marshall, 31, ultimately got known. In fact, this month, he wraps his first season as an official SNL<\/a><\/em> castmember \u2014 after four prior seasons on the writing staff \u2014 drawing the curtain on an on-camera debut that included kissing Harry Styles and making Jack Black lose it on live television. And this summer, he\u2019ll also be starring alongside Kevin Hart in 72\u6642\u9593<\/em>, \u201ca big, broad, crazy comedy\u201d about a bachelor party that will mark Marshall\u2019s maiden foray onto the big screen.<\/p>\n

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\t \t\t\t\t\tIn the upcoming Kevin Hart comedy 72\u6642\u9593 <\/em><\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlan Markfield\/Netflix<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\t\u201cIt was my first time being an actor-for-hire,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019m also interested in doing something a bit more grounded. A rom-com would be cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMarshall describes his early trajectory as High School Musical<\/em>-like. He grew up in Savannah, Georgia, and despite developing an early love of comedy \u2014 \u201cMy parents got divorced when I was 10, and when we would sleep over at my dad\u2019s house, we would always go to Hollywood Video down the street and rent a VHS with Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler\u201d \u2014 he was on a path to play basketball instead. His father was a college star who almost went pro, and pursuing a sports scholarship seemed like the thing to do. \u201cEventually I was like, \u2018No, Dad, I want to perform,\u2019 \u201d says the 6-foot-5 Marshall. \t<\/p>\n

\tHe transferred to an arts magnet school and then went to NYU, where he joined the prestigious improv group Hammerkatz, which is where he met Herlihy and Higgins, as well as SNL <\/em>writer Moss Perricone. Moss used to host a show with Rachel Sennott in the basement of his apartment, that was also my bedroom,\u201d says Marshall. \u201cIt was called Puke Fest, and it was also a drinking game, and I would move my bed and set up chairs. It smelled amazing.\u201d <\/p>\n

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\t \t\t\t\t\tBen Marshall <\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Guy Aroch<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tA slightly more formal live show, in a slightly less odorous basement, scored him the SNL <\/em>gig. Please Don\u2019t Destroy was building their following the hard way \u2014 performing weekly underneath the East Village bar Von\u2019s \u2014 when the shows caught the attention first of SNL<\/em> castmember Heidi Gardner and then Lorne Michaels, who hired all three Please Don\u2019t Destroy members to join SNL<\/em>\u2018s writing staff and produce digital shorts for the show.<\/p>\n

\tMarshall arrived at 30 Rock without much of a directive. \u201cThere are a million rules and also no rules at SNL<\/em>,\u201d he explains. Their breakout effort \u2014 a deadpan satire about Jiffy Lube launching a hard seltzer line \u2014 made it to air and went viral, and soon they were pitching A-listers every week.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cJohn pitched an idea for Sydney Sweeney where she\u2019s just in our office confidently farting \u2014 we\u2019re having a conversation with her and she\u2019s loudly farting and not acknowledging it,\u201d he says. \u201cTo her credit, she was like, \u2018That is funny, but maybe let\u2019s go with another idea.\u2019 \u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tMarshall says the promotion to full castmember has been life-altering (he recently helped his mom buy a condo) but challenging. \u201cThis year at SNL<\/em> was like being a senior and a freshman at the same time,\u201d he says. \u201cI know my way around the place, and I\u2019m giving advice to the other new cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tKnowing his way around a writers room, though, turned out to be poor preparation for performing onstage. During an early-season dress rehearsal for a sketch with host Nikki Glaser called \u201cBeauty and Mr. Beast,\u201d Marshall found himself in a full panic. \u201cI remember being like, \u2018Will you help me figure out where I\u2019m supposed to be looking?\u2019 \u201d he recalls with a laugh. By Josh O\u2019Connor\u2019s episode a month later, playing a sensitive stripper at a bachelorette party, he realized he was completely comfortable in front of a red light.<\/p>\n

\tStill, he continues to have difficulty turning off his writers-room brain. He often wakes up in the middle of the night with a jolt of inspiration for sketches. \u201cMy Notes app is just 40,000 pages of random ideas,\u201d he says. \u201cThe other night, I wrote down, \u2018I\u2019m a janitor son, murderer rising.\u2019 I guess it\u2019s an astrology joke, but it\u2019s just nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t \t\t\t\t\tMarshall on Saturday Night Live<\/em> with Colin Jost<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWill Heath\/NBC<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tAt 30 Rock, he shares a dressing room with castmate Tommy Brennan, and the two have installed a basketball hoop so they can shoot around before the show airs. To blow off steam beyond Studio 8H, he plays in a weekly pickup game of comedians on the Lower East Side \u2014 which recently earned a write-up in The New York<\/em> Times<\/em>. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThey said, \u2018A name that frequently comes up as one of the best players is Ben Marshall of Please Don\u2019t Destroy,\u2019 \u201d he recalls. \u201cThat was the best piece of press I\u2019ve ever gotten. That means more to me than anything I\u2019ve done in comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThis story appeared in the May 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Marshall\u2019s first meeting in Hollywood did not go as expected. It was only a year after college, during the early days of his comedy career, when he and friends Martin Herlihy and John Higgins were starting to make names for themselves with their sketch videos on YouTube. The three had just signed a manager, who\u2019d arranged a meet-and-greet with executives at Comedy Bang Bang, the influential podcast and production company in L.A., so the trio hopped on a plane assuming they were about to hit it big. \u201cWe came in and pitched a bunch of ideas,\u201d he recalls. \u201cLike, \u2018We want to do this and this.\u2019 And the guy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,557,830,85,335],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hollywood","category-snl","category-thr-spotlight","category-tv","category-tv-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}