After holding auditions in December to find a black female to add to the Saturday Night Live cast, NBC producers have hired comedian Sasheer Zamata, an SNL spokesperson confirmed to Mashable on Monday.
Zamata joins this year's lineup after NBC found itself embroiled in a season-long controversy over the lack of diversity on the late night show's cast. Until now, SNL hasn't employed a black female comedian since Maya Rudolph left the show in 2007.
See also: One of These Black Female Comedians May Be the Next 'SNL' Star
Zamata, who earned a drama degree from the University of Virginia, stars in sketches on online comedy engines Jest and College Humor as well as on TV in FX's Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell, Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer, MTV's Hey Girl and ABC's Would You Fall For That?. She also has a web show called Pursuit of Sexiness.
She posted this acting reel to Twitter in September:

SNL's diversity issue resurfaced at the start of the season when the show introduced six new cast members, all of whom are white (pictured, above). The conversation intensified when SNL's Kenan Thompson said the lack of diversity stems, in part, from the shortage of black female comedians who are "ready" to enter the show's lineup.
During the Nov. 2 episode, host Kerry Washington (of Scandal) mocked the diversity issue, playing first lady Michelle Obama and media mogul Oprah Winfrey in the same skit. She had to make a quick outfit and hairdo change in order to play Obama and Winfrey back-to-back. Then, she ran offscreen to assume the role of pop star Beyoncé.

Tackling the diversity drama head-on, SNL ran these words during that Nov. 2 skit:
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