LI's Kate McKinnon, rest of cast, returning for this season's 'Saturday Night Live'

Sea Cliff native Kate McKinnon will be returning to "Saturday Night Live" for season 46, premiering Oct. 3, along with the rest of last year's ensemble.

Newsday has confirmed trade reports saying that repertory cast-members McKinnon, Beck Bennett, Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson and Melissa Villaseñor all will be back, as will featured players Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang, with Ego Nwodim promoted to repertory.

Such full-cast renewals have happened about a half-dozen times on "SNL," most recently from seasons 40 to 41 (2014-2016), when repertory cast-members McKinnon, Bryant, Strong, Thompson, Vanessa Bayer, Taran Killam, Bobby Moynihan and Jay Pharoah all were rehired, with featured players Beck Bennett, Colin Jost, Kyle Mooney and Sasheer Zamata being promoted, and featured players Michael Che, Pete Davidson and Leslie Jones continuing.

Additionally, "SNL" said on social media Wednesday that comedians Andrew Dismukes, Lauren Holt and Punkie Johnson would be joining the show. Executive producer Lorne Michaels, 75, confirmed to New York magazine's Vulture.com that they would be featured players, with stand-up comic Dismukes being promoted from the show's writing staff.

"SNL" also tweeted Wednesday, "Jim Carrey is our new Joe Biden!" Michaels told Vulture, "There was some interest on his part. And then we responded, obviously, positively. But it came down to discussions about what the take was. He and ["SNL" head writer] Colin Jost had a bunch of talks. He and I as well. He will give the part energy and strength, and … [laughing] Hopefully it’s funny."

McKinnon, 36, a two-time Emmy Award winner for her work on the late-night comedy sketch series, will be back for her eighth season as a repertory cast member. She debuted as a featured player on April 7, 2012, toward the end of season 37, and was promoted to the repertory cast for season 39, premiering Sept. 28, 2013.

In November, she was announced to star as animal activist Carole Baskin in a miniseries about exotic-animal zookeeper Joe "Joe Exotic" Schreibvogel aka Joe Maldonado-Passage. The project, with the working title "Joe Exotic," will run on NBC and two sister platforms: the streaming service Peacock and the basic-cable network USA.