Sarah Sherman

Sarah Nicole Sherman (born March 7, 1993), also known professionally as Sarah Squirm, is an American comedian, actress, and screenwriter. Sherman is known for using surreal and body horror comedy. and was promoted to repertory status in October 2023.

She has also appeared in films including Nimona, Rap World, Pizza Movie, and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, as well as multiple projects produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, including You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah and Roommates.

Early life and education Sherman was born and raised in Great Neck, Long Island, New York, into a Jewish family. She told Variety, "I grew up liking, you know, crazy cartoons, and I love Joan Rivers and The Nanny and Garbage Pail Kids and Ren & Stimpy and stuff like that."

She attended Great Neck South High School, where she was on the improv team and ran track, graduating in 2011. She subsequently graduated from Northwestern University in 2015 with a degree in theater.

Career Early work

Sherman developed an interest in stand-up comedy after she did not make the improv team at Northwestern. After graduating, she decided to stay in Chicago, befriending the comedian Megan Stalter, and had a monthly show called Helltrap Nightmare along with Luke Taylor, David Brown, Wyatt Fair, and Scott Egleston.

Saturday Night Live Auditions Sherman was asked to audition for the long-running NBC sketch-comedy show Saturday Night Live after doing a stand-up set at the Just for Laughs festival. She had previously been asked to perform some showcases for SNL producers and attempted some character-based work which, according to her, "fucking sucked." In 2021, she auditioned again. James Austin Johnson was directly ahead of her in line, and she expressed her nervousness, but "I went into the audition with good vibes because of James and, LOL, we both got it." In the interview, she added, "I did standup. I didn't have any impressions or characters. It was disgusting, I'm talking about genitals." She was subsequently cast as a featured player for its 47th season, alongside fellow newcomers Johnson and Aristotle Athari. and with whom she shares an office. Among their sketches together are "Jewish Elvis," "My Best Friend's House," and "Shrimp Tower". Of their Christmas sketch "Pongo," featuring a "wonderfully creepy" synthetic pet, Bleeding Cool writes, "With all due respect to co-writer Bulla, this sketch had Sarah Sherman's brand of humor all over it – and it was brilliant." About a black-and-white pre-taped video suggestive of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Sherman told Style Weekly, "I was so lucky to have immediately linked up with amazing writers who totally got it. You know, like Dan Bulla, who I write with a lot. We did this sketch called 'The Anomalous Man,' where I play this mythical creature beast with Dua Lipa, it was kind of an Elephant Man parody. When we were writing it, Bulla was like, 'Oh and by the way, you need to have a hunchback with an eyeball on it."

Asked about her favorite experience with any performer, Sherman refers to her twisted, gory Scooby-Doo sketch in Season 49: "This past finale, Jake Gyllenhaal was the co-host. He's such a good actor and just willing to go there and be aggressive and crazy and chaotic and high energy... The first time he hosted, we did that sketch where I play Chucky and I appreciated anyone willing to go there."

Weekend Update Sherman's segments on Weekend Update are popular among the cast and viewers, as she torments Colin Jost, who is willing to be the butt of the joke. Sherman has said that Jost urged her to create segments for them, and she says, "I took his kindness and used it to just bully him. And it worked great, but it only worked because he's having fun." She designs her own wacky over-the-shoulder graphics for the segments. Among her jokes in that roast, she asks him why there are no Jews in the cast. When he replies that there are Jews on the show, including her, she turns to the camera and yells, "In other news, local wet blanket Colin Jost is keeping track of the amount of Jews at SNL. He's making a list and he's checking it twice." In "Sarah Sherman Roasts Colin Jost Again" (2022), the premise is that she will explain how to remain cozy in the winter, but then embarrasses Jost by segueing into pubic hair, the cost of living in New York (she lives in his doghouse), and his relationship with Michael Che ("It's always will-they-won't-they with you two!"), each joke turning the topic into an extended insult to Jost.

At times, Sherman portrays other characters: television journalist Nancy Grace; the widow of Peanut the Squirrel; an alarming meditation guru in a Morgan le Fay-type wig, Genesis Fry, who reveals Jost's darkest secrets; J.J. Gordon, Jost's Hollywood agent, who suggests humiliating film projects for him, such as a Jurassic Park-themed porn film or a biopic entitled Jost the Two of Us: My Summer with Epstein; and CJ Rossitano, who is revealed to be very likely Jost's son. Wearing clothes identical to Jost's and clutching a pencil as he habitually does, CJ says: "Me and my mom live right over on 47th and Fifth." Jost: "That's funny, that's where my former housekeeper lived." CJ: "What a coincidence, Colin! My moms a former housekeeper." Harry Chapin's father-son song "Cat's in the Cradle" rises in the background.

Surreal humor Sherman has been praised by critics for adapting her unusual and surreal comedy style to SNL without losing its impact. Luka Katic of Collider wrote, "Sherman certainly isn't the first unconventional comedian to be featured on SNL (i.e. Tim Robinson, Kyle Mooney, etc.). However, what makes her remarkable is her success in spite of that fact. Where actors like Robinson often felt they had to tone down their material for SNL, Sherman finds inventive alternative ways to channel her deranged sensibilities into the show." Jesse Hassenger of Vulture listed Sherman's "Meatballs" sketch from the Oscar Isaac/Charli XCX episode as one of the best of the season, writing, "In a crowded season, it was especially refreshing to come upon a sketch that feels like such a clear expression of its star's sensibilities." Style Weekly wrote, "With her loud clown wear and freakish, squirrel-next-door-vibe, Sarah Sherman is hands down the funniest, most unpredictable cast member." Looking back at earlier sketches in which Dan Aykroyd and Jay Mohr faked vomiting, she developed "an advanced vomit rig that's handsfree, kind of like Bluetooth style," as she describes it. When an interviewer asked why so many of her SNL sketches feature eyeballs, she credited her grandmother: "It's an exposed organ on your head, and it's not that deep. I also have a pathological neurosis about eyeballs because growing up, my grandma had one of her eyeballs removed and I was morbidly obsessed... I have her prosthetic eye. ... She would play these practical jokes on me with it when I was 8 years old. I would wake up and come down into the kitchen for breakfast, and she would turn around with no dentures or lens in. So she just had a white orb in her face and do a jump scare on me. And that was obviously very formative!" Since the people who write a skit also produce it, they also figure out set design and props, according to Variety. Dan Bulla says, "You talk to every department and a lot of people are like, 'Well, what should the wardrobe be?' Sarah never doesn't have an answer for those questions. She can cut to it from the germ of an idea. She can visualize every aspect of it. She's on the phone with the people who build the puppets." Bulla says Sherman talks about visual effects and color palettes: "It's that granular for her, and all of her ideas start like that." She co-starred in the Adam Sandler comedy film You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023) and was cast as a character in downloadable content for the video game High on Life (2022). She voice acted as "Coriander Cadaverish" in the animated film Nimona (2023) and in a cameo for season 2 of Severance (2025). She is expected to star in CoComelon: The Movie, which will be released in 2027.

Since October 2023, Sherman has hosted the NTS Radio show Freakradio Emergency Hotline. Among the artists she has played on the program are Macula Dog, Doug Lussenhop, Johnny Pemberton, Clownvis Presley, Negativland, and The Residents. On September 5, 2024, Sherman began her guest starring role as dialect coach Robin Finch—for Lois Cerillo, played by Rena Sofer—in the daytime soap opera General Hospital. In 2024, she debuted as a host for the HBO Max game show Human vs Hamster.

Influences Sherman has said her comedic influences include television shows such as Seinfeld, The Nanny, The Golden Girls, Pee-wee's Playhouse, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. She has also said, "I am obsessed with Norm MacDonald... can you imagine being on a show with Norm MacDonald, someone who's so fearless every week, saying the craziest shit on TV and getting in trouble for it?" In SNL history, she loves Dana Carvey's iconic sketch "Massive Head Wound Harry" (Season 17), in which Carvey wore a bloody, mangled head prosthetic which is tugged and chewed by a dog.

On Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2025, Meyers asked, "Were you somebody at a young age who was into David Lynch stuff?" Sherman answered, "I feel like he taught me, like, how to think, basically. And I'm in dream analysis and stuff because of him... I'm 15 [seeing Lynch's Blue Velvet for the first time] and I'm going, 'I guess there's, like, a dark underbelly to Americana suburbia'." She endorsed Zohran Mamdani in the 2025 New York City Democratic mayoral primary election. In one of her shows, Sherman had expressed her support for Palestine.

Filmography Film

Television Year Title Role Notes 2020 Magical Girl Friendship SquadLulu (voice)3 episodes 2020 The Eric Andre Show Creative consultant 2021–present Saturday Night Live Herself / various Main role 2022 Three Busy DebrasSarahEpisode: "The Great Debpression" Tig n' SeekArcade Employee / various (voice)Episode: "Wack E. Doodle Dandy" 2023 Hamster & GretelCrimson Haste (voice)Episode: "Crimson Haste Makes Waste/The Break-Stuff Club" Star Trek: Very Short TreksMucara (voice)Episode: "Worst Contact" ChuckyAnnie GilpinEpisode: "Dressed to Kill" 2024 PrimosCarmela (voice)Episode: "Summer of Imi-Tater/Summer of Ignacio" General HospitalRobin Finch2 episodes Human vs HamsterHerself (host)8 episodes 2025 SeveranceWater Tower (voice)Episode: "Hello, Ms. Cobel" Sarah Squirm: Live + In the Flesh Herself HBO Special2026 RuPaul's Drag RaceHerself (guest judge)Episode: "RDR Live Returns!"2026 Make That MovieSuper Breast (voice)Episode: "Synthezoidian Elders"