'SNL's Jon Rudnitsky Is Fairly New To Show Biz

Jon Rudnitsky is one of the newest players in the Saturday Night Live cast. The comedian joined SNL in September 2015, just in time for the show's 41st season. The 26-year-old comedian hailing from Harrington Park, New Jersey, is one of the youngest members of the cast (Pete Davidson is the youngest at 22), so you might be wondering what he did to land the job. What else has Jon Rudnitsky been in? Surprisingly, not much is on his resume, but he managed to impress Lorne Michaels somehow.

Rudnitsky is an alum of the infamous improv comedy group the Groundlings in Los Angeles, where he also attended the University of Southern California. As far as stuff you may have seen him in, there's not much, although his run on SNL will definitely make him more recognizable.

Rudnitsky was in an episode of Criminal Minds in 2012, which was his television debut. As for film, one of the comedian's most recent projects pre-SNL was the 2015 black comedy horror film Patchwork, which got pretty great reviews. It's more likely that you've seen him in his viral videos, like his True Detective parody, which made the round in 2014. He's also been in a smattering of short films.

Rudnitsky hasn't been in much else on television, aside for, of course, Saturday Night Live. Unfortunately, though, shortly after he joined the cast last fall, Rudnitsky's sordid past surfaced, and he became the center of one of many SNL controversies. As reported by Gawker's Defamer, which did a thorough investigation of Rudnitsky's social media, he was guilty of posting several tweets and Vines before being cast that were full of misogynistic, homophobic, and racist jokes. Bustle has reached out to Rudnitsky's rep for comment on the tweets, but has not yet heard back.

But Rudnitsky became an SNL cast member nonetheless, even though the first controversy surrounding him was the fact that he was yet another white male comedian added to the cast, even after the deluge of criticism Michaels received for the lack of diversity in the cast, which led to an "emergency casting" that luckily led to the additions of Shasheer Zamata and Leslie Jones.

Rudnitsky doesn't seem to have any projects coming up, though undoubtedly he will be busy with the weekly sketch show. As Bustle's Marisa Lascala noted, the actor made his mark with a standout Dirty Dancing parody sketch on the Feb. 6 episode of SNL, proving that he does have a knack for physical comedy, which is always great to see on the show (Baby Boss, anyone?). Rudnitsky might get more stage time now that he's had a big SNL moment. As for what else he might be in, that is anyone's guess.

Image: Mary Ellen Matthews/NBC