Big win for the liberal diversity enforcers.

Via NBC:

Sasheer Zamata, an alum of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and an online comic, will join the cast of “Saturday Night Live” on Jan. 18, NBC announced Monday.

Zamata, who has made a name for herself with web shorts like “Pursuit of Sexiness,” has been rumored to be joining “SNL” since last year when the show began a search to add the first black women to its cast since Maya Rudolph departed in 2007.

The lack of diversity on the “SNL” was a hot topic last fall when the show added six new cast members and only one was a minority. According to The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Lorne Michaels had already begun a search for African-American female comedians when the controversy erupted, and Zamata was among 12 hopefuls who received callbacks and were invited to test on stage last month. The auditions were the first in the history of the show to focus exclusively on minority women, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Since “SNL” has been on the air, the series has only had four black female cast members: Yvonne Hudson, Danitra Vance, Ellen Cleghorne, and Rudolph, who appeared on the show for seven years.