This Sunday, Ego Nwodim will continue her post-Saturday Night Live career hot streak when she hosts the 2026 Spirit Awards. But, the comedian insists, she doesn’t have a grand plan for her time after leaving the show. “I’m just in pursuit of fun at all times,” she says. “My agents were agent-ing, and I got an email with this offer, and I just thought I wanted to do it.”
Nwodim, who also recently joined the cast of the Barbershop TV series at Amazon Prime Video, will pick up the hosting torch from her former SNL co-star Aidy Bryant, who hosted the award show in both 2024 and 2025. Nwodim insists that there is no formal SNL-to-Spirit Awards pipeline (“We’ll have to ask Film Independent about that,” she quips), but rather an informal common interest in this specific pop culture. “I love the freedom in independent film, and I love any movie that is either heartbreaking or has an ending that leaves you with a lot of questions,” she says.
Below, she tells The Hollywood Reporter how her time on the show, and a recent one-woman show at Lincoln Center, have influenced her hosting style.
Out of this year’s slate, what stuck with you the most?
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. I had to pause and do a bathroom break because I was getting really tense. As a woman without children who does want kids, I’m like, I’m sorry, but what in the fresh hell is happening? Yet I want to sign up for this? But also, the end of Lurker made me go, “Wait, he was kind of insane and we didn’t like him and now he’s the man.: It made me think about how much that might be reflected in certain industries; you don’t know what kind of work went into building a successful artist or film.
Did you talk to former host Aidy Bryant to get any tips?
I did not. I love the unpredictability of any kind of gig. Within reason. We’ve moved to the Hollywood Palladium this year, for the first time since 1994, so it’s giving brand new.
Have you noticed that your nerves are any different post-SNL?
I did a one-woman show at Lincoln Center for a week in November, and I was shitting bricks because it was an hour of just me. And I wrote the show, honest to God, hand to the man, up until I was going onstage. That’s good for me, because it makes me feel alive, but I was nervous that it was going to be just me. That did dwindle with every night that I performed the show and I became more familiar with the material.
Is that part of preparation for a special, or is this material going to become anything else?
It may or may not be part of my Netflix Is a Joke show in May. And when I say ‘may or may not,’ that’s not a cheeky way of being like, maybe you’ll see it and maybe you won’t. It’s literally that I don’t know — if you can’t tell, your girl’s kind of last-minute with things. I have to figure out if it works for that particular venue and occasion.
I know a lot of people talk about wanting to do material as themselves, or that is their own, after years of performing in character and with the collective of SNL. But then it seems that there’s a vulnerability in that switch.
It’s funny, my one-woman show was a character. I know this sounds like such bullshit, like look at me in my turtleneck, I’m an artist, but me and the character felt like one. Genuinely. I had the protective layer of saying it was a character, but without giving too much away, I’m essentially naked at the start of the show. I thought that would be a fun visual. I also didn’t have the protective layer of being able to say that someone else wrote it, like on SNL. So if you don’t like this stuff it’s like, damn, you hate my guts.
Which SNL character do you think is going to follow you forever?
It’s definitely between Lisa from Temecula and Miss Eggy. Those two are hustling for the crown of most remembered, which is very sweet and I’m grateful. And then every once in a while, someone will mention a character that I did on Comedy Bang Bang. I’ll be out in the wild and someone will say, “Oh Entrée PeeE Neur.” And I know that they’re a comedy nerd.
If you channel Miss Eggy at the Spirit Awards, are there fines for swearing?
This is my whole thing: Don’t ask permission, ask forgiveness. I didn’t ask permission. I cuss a lot in real life, so we’ll have to see if it’s allowed.
Do you ever get starstruck, say if you’re going to be speaking directly to celebrities in the monologue?
Rarely. But the experiences I have had of being starstruck, it’s come from looking up and being surprised that, like, Eddie Murphy is right there. Didn’t expect to see you, Mr. Murphy. I don’t really have people I could name that if I ever met them I’d go crazy — although, if I met President Barack Obama that would certainly strike me. It really is more just the element of not expecting to see someone and then seeing some incredibly talented person that I grew up watching.
I’m surprised you haven’t met Obama. I feel like you could get into a room with him.
I’m working on it. I really am. I see it happening for me.
