A Brief Rundown of the ‘El Chavo del 8’ Cast

El Chavo del Ocho, or El Chavo del 8 for all of Latin America, has come to Saturday Night Live (SNL). The famous Mexican situational comedy series, created by and starring Roberto Gómez Bolaños aka Chespirito, has been a staple of Latine households for generations. And the Season 51 premiere, with Puerto Rican Bad Bunny as host, brought it to American audiences, in English. 

The show centers on the experiences of a group of people living in the same neighborhood, with the protagonist, El Chavo, always getting into trouble. The show originated from a sketch written by Gómez Bolaños and originally aired as part of the program Chespirito, which also included El Chapulín Colorado. Later, the two characters became famous enough to warrant their own separate shows. 

SNL recreates that with its cast, starting with El Chavo del 8 himself, played by Marcello Hernández. The character was played by Gómez Bolaños in the show, and he’s supposed to be an 8-year-old boy.

Alongside El Chavo are his friends, Quico, who is played by Bad Bunny on SNL, and was played by Carlos Villagrán in the original show. Then there’s Sarah Sherman playing the iconic La Chilindrina, who was originally played by María Antonieta de las Nieves. They’re basically the “young” cast, even though in SNL and in the original, they’re played by adults. 

The rest of the cast is made up of Andrew Dismukes, playing Don Ramon, a character played by Ramón Valdés. He is La Chilindrina’s father. Chloe Fineman, meanwhile, plays Doña Florinda, who is Quico’s mother and was played by Florinda Meza in the original show.

The other character SNL portrays is El Señor Barriga, though unlike the other characters who get their name in Spanish, he is referred to as Mr. Stomach. In SNL, the character is played by Keenan Thompson, and on the show, he was played by Édgar Vivar.

John Hamm made a brief cameo at the end of the sketch as El Professor Jirafales, who is the children’s schoolteacher and a suitor of Doña Florinda.

El Chavo del 8 had another character that did not appear in the sketch but was considered part of the main cast: Doña Clotilde or  “La Bruja del 71,” played by Angelines Fernández.