Saturday Night Live comedian Leslie Jones will be leaving the sketch show after five seasons, she announced Tuesday.
Jones, 51, was the oldest cast member ever to join the show at age 47 in 2014. She began her career with SNL as a writer, joining the team amid a public outcry for SNL to hire more black women.
Jones joined the cast after several notable appearances on the Weekend Update segment of the show. She became known for her outspoken nature, her trouble finding dates, and celebrity impressions of Oprah and Whoopi Goldberg.
Controversy found Jones in 2016 when she became embattled with right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannapoulos. Jones claimed that Yiannapoulos and his fans had launched a racist attack on her via Twitter in the wake of her performance in the Ghostbusters reboot, which was largely panned. Jones had been criticized on Twitter for her own language on the site, which many felt to be racist and hateful.
In another 2016 incident, conservative journalist Kassy Dillon directly quoted an old tweet of Jones that said, “You and your friends are bigots. If you don’t like me why the [expletive] do you watch let alone contact me. Kill yourself bigot.” Dillon was subsequently suspended by Twitter but was reinstated a short time later. Yiannopoulos was permanently banned from the social media site in July 2016, a move many of his fans felt was directly related to his interactions with Jones.
Jones voluntarily left Twitter a few months after saying that she no longer felt up to the pressure of the harsh criticism from other users. She did not mention her past tweets calling several people and businesses racists and bigots. She reactivated her account a short time later.
Sorry girl, love you, it if you read the article @Westin did in fact remove the man…and told the woman and her daughter that they were right.
— Jenn (@rileyfionn) June 16, 2018
Yea you talking to an employee who works there. Of course she gonna defend the asshole who she works for. And while you are welcoming they wasn’t. YOU WAS NOT THERE!! So for you to come on here and post that bs is not cool. You not dragging my name for a racist person!
— Leslie Jones ? (@Lesdoggg) February 8, 2018
I expect more from a Hollywood actress. Real classy.
— cool man (@WehmerNation) September 21, 2016
Sources confirmed to Deadline that Jones would be departing SNL of her own volition, citing a burgeoning film career, including a role in the upcoming sequel to Coming to America. Netflix also announced that they had signed Jones to perform a stand-up special that would be released in the near future. She was nominated for two Emmys for her work on SNL.
