Ego Nwodim is the new cast addition on NBC’s Saturday Night Live for the venerable late-night sketch show’s upcoming 44th season, which premieres September 29 with host Adam Driver and musical guest Kanye West.

Additionally, SNL has added Alan Linic, Alison Gates, Eli Mandel and Bowen Yang as writers.

All have improv backgrounds.

NBCUniversal

Nwodim, who graduated from USC with a degree in biology, has been a regular cast member at the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles, where she performed her one-woman show Great Black Women … and Then There’s Me. She has a slew of guest-starring acting credits, including CBS comedies 2 Broke Girls and Living Biblically and NBC limited drama series Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders.

Linic and Gates hail from Chicago’s Second City, Mandel from Chicago’s iO Theater, and Yang — co-host of the pop culture podcast Las Culturistas — trained at Upright Citizens Brigade.

There have been minimal changes on Saturday Night Live this year, with one featured player, Luke Null, not returning, and one new featured player, Nwodim, joining. Michael Che, Colin Jost and Kent Sublette are continuing as co-head writers, while Bryan Tucker was named senior writer.

Saturday Night Live, from creator/executive producer Lorne Michaels, is produced in association with Broadway Video.