SNL’s Sasheer Zamata Shines as Olivia Pope in Scandal Spoof

Dressed in a flawless white pantsuit while barking orders, Saturday Night Live’s Sasheer Zamata shined in her first big role as Scandal’s Olivia Pope.

Zamata, who joined the show in January, is the first female African-American cast member to join the show in several years. But on Saturday, she delivered the performance of a veteran in the Scandal sketch, assigning challenging tasks to her team—which was unfazed by her demands, saying, “on it!” and “easy.”

But the newest team member played by Lena Dunham, whose assignment was to attend a ball and place a bug on the Mexican ambassador’s wife, couldn’t keep up. She asked endless uproarious “follow-up questions” about logistics and how the team was expected to meet Pope’s demands.

Then, following a hilarious romantic encounter between Pope and President Fitz (Taram Killam) that involved lots of exaggerated facial expressions, Dunham stammers, and “Ok, that was the president of the United States how are you not texting 1,000 people right now?”

“He’s a problem,” Zamata explained.  “I don’t need problems. I fix problems.”

Look out Kerry Washington!

Watch the video: