Darrell Hammond Biography

Darrell Hammond was born in 1955 in Melbourne, Florida. Before joining the cast of Saturday Night Live, and becoming its longest-lasting member, Hammond graduated from the University of Florida with a broadcasting major and then set his sights on New York City.  He first began doing stand-up and impersonations in the 1980’s, and audiences began to recognize him for his dead-on impersonations of a variety of Looney Tunes characters.

Darrell joined SNL in 1995. When he left the cast in 2009, he was fifty-three, the oldest of any cast member in the history of the show. While at Saturday Night Live, Darrell Hammond became known for impersonating hundreds of celebrities, including Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, John Travolta, Al Gore, Phil Donahue, and Sean Connery. After fourteen years and nearly three hundred shows, Hammond still occasionally returns to the show for cameo appearances.

In addition to his work on Saturday Night Live, Darrell Hammond has appeared in a number of films, including Celtic Pride (1996), The Devil and Daniel Webster (2001), Scary Movie 3 (2003), New York Minute (2004), Ira and Abby (2006), Kiss Me Again (2006), Netherbeast Incorporated (2007), Epic Movie (2007), and Wieners (2008.) He has also appeared on television in a number of Law & Order episodes, and Comedy Central has featured him in his own comedy special, Comedy Central Presents Darrell Hammond. Since leaving SNL, Darrell Hammond has frequently appeared as a guest on the Howard Stern Show, and in 2007, he began his run in the Broadway show The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Darrell Hammond has been very public about his childhood abuse, struggles with addiction, and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.  He explores these issues in depth in his 2011 memoir, God, If You’re Not Up  There, I’m F*cked. He recently appeared in episodes of At Home with Amy Sedaris and Criminal Minds. In 2018, he appeared in one of his famous SNL impersonations, as George Washington in The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time.