Every cast member in Saturday Night Live‘s history has some level of talent. Otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten the job. But in my mind there are only a select few who often light up the screen and make every sketch better, and those are usually my favorites. Here are my top ten favorite SNL cast members from throughout the show’s 50-year history.

10. Gilda Radner (1975-80)

I loved Gilda because she brought a lot of humanity and sincerity to her comedy. Her gift was that she didn’t seem like she was playing for the laughs. She was just a good actress who knew how to embody characters like Baba Wawa, Emily Litella and Roseanne Roseannadanna in ways that were less focused on the exaggeration of the caricature and more focused on the natural humor that comes from being a human. She had a sharp sense of humor but she could also easily embrace her inner child like few others could, which is the perfect skill for an SNL cast member.

9. Dana Carvey (1986-93)

Dana Carvey’s cadence is so distinct and his comedic timing is so sharp that it’s hard to imagine characters like the Church Lady, Garth, Johnny Carson and George Bush Sr. being as funny if it were anyone else playing them. A lot of SNL viewers felt the same and Carvey became a fan favorite, to the point where ABC even gave him his own variety show after he left SNL. He was also one of the show’s best impressionists because he always took something familiar about the person he was imitating and magnified it tenfold through a comedy lens.

8. Kristen Wiig (2005-12)

There was something about the way Kristen Wiig played characters that showed how she could fully embody any emotion from joy to frustration to insecurity to panic and take it to a mesmerizingly unhinged but very human direction, like a cross between Jim Carrey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Subtlety was never her thing on SNL but she did take huge swings, and that could often lead to comedy gold.

7. Fred Armisen (2002-13)

Fred Armisen has a unique gift for deadpan. It’s something he not only utilized well on SNL but also on Portlandia and Late Night with Seth Meyers. What makes me laugh so hard about him is that he is really good at selling the joke as if he truly believes what he is saying. His disarming soft-spokenness usually makes it even funnier. He has a lot of great moments on SNL but one of my favorites was when Armisen, while impersonating Prince, performed a caricatured version of the singer throwing a very soft-spoken temper tantrum, which was not only a good example of Armisen playing to his strengths but a perfect example of his gift for subtle personality humor.

6. Amy Poehler (2001-08)

Like Gilda Radner, Amy Poehler is really good at embracing her inner child and letting loose, which, again, serves comedy really well. Poehler has always been one of my favorite cast members because she’s one of those comedians who can almost naturally get me to laugh with a single line delivery or a facial expression.

5. John Belushi (1975-79)

John Belushi was too wild for TV. At least that’s what everyone in the television industry thought, including Belushi himself who was initially opposed to being on a TV show. But when SNL allowed him to be himself, he really put himself into the show. His screen persona was often brash, physical and short-tempered, but those things all translated to comedy gold because the writers understood his appeal and exactly who he was. In many ways he personified what SNL strived to be: a wild and fun time. I see why he became a star after this because he was the show’s biggest scene stealer.

4. Eddie Murphy (1980-84)

One of those cast members who are impossible to imitate because he had such a distinct swagger. The recurring Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood sketch is a good example of how Murphy can make a line funnier just by being Eddie Murphy, and like Belushi, it’s easy to see why he became such a big star. Right from the beginning of his SNL tenure in 1980, he established himself as the coolest person in the cast just by being a wise guy who often said what everyone was thinking. His charisma and his ability to make sketches a hundred times better are unmatched.

3. Bill Hader (2005-13)

We’ve reached the top 3, which means we are now in the zone of cast members who really make me laugh out loud. Bill Hader’s Stefon is obviously hilarious but even when Hader is hosting a game show, reporting the news or imitating people like Vincent Price, Al Pacino or Clint Eastwood, he knows how to take it to the funniest place possible. He has really good comedic instincts because he just knows how to use his eyes, his voice and his physicality to get laughs.

2. Will Ferrell (1995-2002)

Will Ferrell is really good at playing clueless, awkward and tone-deaf men, which kind of makes him the perfect cast member for a show that satirizes America. His portrayal of George W. Bush is his most memorable, but even when he played it straight as an exasperated Alex Trebek trying to keep it together while hosting Jeopardy! he could still be the funniest person in the sketch. Although he was often at his most funny when he was just being plain ridiculous. Look at his deadpan facial expression in the sketch where he is hurling passive aggressive insults at dogs in order to guilt them into obeying his commands for a good example of his comedic strength. Again, it’s not hard to see why he became a star.

1. Chris Farley (1990-95)

I have still yet to see anyone on this show who is as good as Chris Farley. He had such a gift for cranking his comedy up to an eleven while remaining totally sincere in his performance. Which would have been amazing enough but then there’s the fact that he’s also a pro at physical humor. Even when he falls down or pretends to get hit in the face he knows how to get big laughs. He’s a slapstick genius and a comedic force who absolutely deserves the top spot on this list.

Honorable Mentions

Dan Aykroyd

Jane Curtin

Martin Short

David Spade

Norm MacDonald

Maya Rudolph

Kenan Thompson

Kate McKinnon

Leslie Jones

Sarah Sherman