Comedian Ben Marshall’s Very Good Year: From “SNL” to Netflix’s Hit “72 Hours”, He Can’t Wait for What’s Next (Exclusive)

Colleen KratofilWed, August 12, 2026 at 4:56 PM UTC

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Ben Marshall on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ on July 14, 2026Credit: Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty

Key Takeaways

In a new interview, Ben Marshall reflects on his journey from making YouTube videos at 12 to starring on Saturday Night Live

His latest movie, the Netflix comedy 72 Hours, topped the platform’s most-watched list for two weeks straight

Marshall opens up about touring with Please Don’t Destroy, how he’s preparing for a new season of SNL and what’s next

AsSaturday Night Live’s Ben Marshall reflects on his whirlwind year in a sit-down interview with PEOPLE, he jokes he’s almost living his childhood dream.

“He would be a little disappointed that I’m not an NBA player,” Marshall, 31, quips of what his younger self would think of his career today. “But after he came to terms with that not being realistic, he would be psyched.”

While the 6’5” comedian may have the height for basketball, he made a name for himself alongside John Higgins and Martin Herlihy with their comedy group, Please Don’t Destroy, and made the jump from writer to featured player during season 51 of Saturday Night Live last fall. Now, he’s starring alongside Kevin Hart, Mason Gooding and SNL’s Marcello Hernández and Kam Patterson in Netflix’s hit comedy, 72 Hours. The movie, which follows a group of Gen Z friends on a bachelor party that Hart crashes, topped Netflix’s most-watched list for two weeks in a row with over 25 million views.

All jokes aside, Marshall says his younger self’s “mind would be so blown” to learn about his career today.

Ben Marshall with Ike Barinholtz on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ on July 14, 2026Credit: Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty

“I mean, the way that I started was making YouTube videos in my room when I was a kid, when I was 12 years old — I loved SNL. So the idea of actually being on the show is pretty insane,” he says.

Back when Marshall, who grew up in Savannah, Georgia, applied to colleges, he says he chose New York City (and eventually attended New York University) so he could potentially intern at SNL. He doesn’t come from a family in the entertainment business, but comedy was a big part of his life growing up.

“I remember when I was a kid and my parents got divorced, we would go sleepover at my dad’s, and we would go rent a big comedy movie from Hollywood Video and we would all have a sleepover with our friends and watch that. And that was extremely formative for me,” Marshall says. “My dad was always showing me Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, all those movies. And yeah, so now they kind of can’t believe it.”

Marcello Hernandez, Mason Gooding, Kam Patterson, Kevin Hart and Ben Marshall in ‘72 Hours’Credit: Alan Markfield/Netflix

He’s had SNL moments this season go viral (including his Jack Harlow impression on Weekend Update) and is in the biggest movie on Netflix. “It’s very cool,” he says of being a part of the star-studded Netflix cast.

“Marcello and I had a good friendship from SNL, and so we were able to go through the whole script together and pitch jokes and help each other figure things out,” he says. “But it was so cool getting to meet and work with Kam, because Kam was just a standup [during filming], he wasn’t on SNL in any capacity yet. And then to do that whole movie together over the summer and get really close, become good friends, then both be added to the main SNL cast was really cool.”

Kevin Hart, Kam Patterson, Ben Marshall, Mason Gooding and Marcello Hernandez in ‘72 Hours’Credit: Alan Markfield/Netflix

As for Hart? Marshall calls him “a force.”

“He’s constantly, constantly going. I would say every 10 minutes he’s having an espresso, and it’d be like God, he needs it because he’s doing so many things,” Marshall says. “He was very engaged and involved and really wanted everybody to score, very egoless when it came to the comedy. If I would riff something in rehearsal, he’d be like, ‘That’s great. You should do that. Let’s make sure we get that,’ which he doesn’t need to do. But he also had a lot of headphones on, doing a conference call, making some crazy business deal in between takes. He’s just going nonstop.”

Marshall started making a name for himself during the pandemic, alongside his best friends, Higgins and Herlihy, who all met at NYU, after their sketch videos under Please Don’t Destroy began going viral. In 2021, they were hired to write prerecorded videos at SNL and debuted their first digital short, Hard Seltzer, in October 2021. Two years later, they wrote and starred in their own movie, Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain.

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In 2025, Higgins left SNL, Herlihy transitioned into a full-time writer and Marshall became a featured player, but despite not working together in the same capacity, Marshall says they still talk every day. In fact, they actively make sure their busy schedules don’t keep them apart for too long. Right now, they’re on tour together through September.

Ashley Padilla and Ben Marshall on ‘Saturday Night Live’ on May 2, 2026Credit: Lloyd Bishop / NBC 2026

“It was really important to us to be like, ‘Okay, no matter what jobs anyone gets, let’s not cancel these [tour shows],” Marshall says.

He also promises, Please Don’t Destroy isn’t going anywhere any time soon. “We definitely have plans to keep doing Please Don’t Destroy for sure. We’re actively writing multiple things together. Yeah, it’s all full steam ahead. We’re just trying to squeeze things in when we can. And being able to tour and do the live show together is probably our favorite thing to do, so it’s really fun.”

He says the opportunity to be a featured player on the legendary comedy show “kind of presented itself” and thought it would be an “interesting challenge” to explore “a different side” of the job.

“I obviously was acting before, but just in the pre-tape [segments], so it was fun to learn the skill of how to do something live and read the cue cards and be reacting in the moment,” he says about this year at SNL. “It was really fun. I’m excited to do it again.”

While he’s riding the high of being in Netflix’s big summer movie hit, he says he’s focused right now on taking down time before SNL returns this fall.

“I’m trying to sleep and remember what it feels like to go outside and hang out with my friends and be a person,” he says of his break before SNL resumes. “I’m playing a lot of basketball, resting, reading a lot, writing, just getting mentally prepared to go back into that environment.”

Typically, on his Sundays off when the season is airing, he says he’s “pretty lifeless.”

“I’ll try to go play basketball in the late afternoon, but I’ll sleep until 2:00 or something,” he says. He also unwinds by watching anything other than comedy. “This is going to sound insane, but lately it’s been true-crime docuseries. I don’t know why that’s how I turn my brain off. I’m 10 years at least late to this, but I’m watching The Jinx right now, and I’m going, ‘Oh, my God, this is insane.’”

As he becomes a household name and keeps expanding his resume, he says he’s not engaging much with the fame aspect of the job. “I just keep focusing on doing the work and getting better as a writer and an actor,” he says, adding, “It does not come naturally to me, being on a red carpet and [press tours]. But it’s fun, and I’m getting more comfortable with it. And it’s awesome to be able to do it with people that you really like who are going through it at the same time. It was Kam and Marcello’s first movie, first press tour, so we were all just having fun with it and joking around with each other, and that was great.”

Ben MarshallCredit: Andrew Lipovsky/Getty

He’s getting the hang of it quickly. When asked in his final question where he sees his life in the next 10 years, he scored the perfect soundbite: “This is going to sound crazy, but in 10 years I’ll be, what, 41? So I’ll be the first 41-year-old rookie in the NBA. And people are going to say I can’t do it, but with the advancements in technology, I think that I can get my body to a place where that is physically possible.”

In the end, he just wants to continuing doing good work, including comedy and possibly drama down the line: “I think it’d be fun just to try everything.”

72 Hours is streaming now on Netflix.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”