Horatio Sanz

Early life and career

Sanz, the youngest of three sons, was born in Santiago, Chile, to Sylvia and Carlos Sanz. He is the younger brother of actor Carlos Sanz. He grew up in the North-Pulaski area of the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois.

Sanz performed at various theaters in Chicago, including The Court Theater and The Second City, where he was a member of their Chicago ETC theater. While in Chicago, Sanz was also one of the founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) sketch comedy and improv troupe. Sanz can still be seen regularly performing with the sketch troupe at their long-running hit improv show "ASSSSCAT 3000", at both of the UCB's popular comedy theaters located in New York City and Los Angeles.

Sanz was part of the cast of the short-lived ABC sitcom In The Motherhood in 2009, playing the role of Horatio the "manny" (male nanny). In 2010, Sanz and his former SNL castmate Chris Parnell starred together on Big Lake, a Comedy Central sitcom from executive producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. From 2010 to 2011, Sanz was a writer and producer on the Comedy Central sketch series Nick Swardson's Pretend Time.

In November 2008, Sanz made his first public appearance in almost a year, after having lost 100 pounds (45 kg; 7 st 2 lb). "I've been eating better,” he admitted. Sanz quipped, “I've been trying to come up with a joke about how I've lost weight and I was going to say, 'I stopped putting nuts in my sundaes.'" He also says, "I never weighed myself when I was at my fattest, because I was scared I might die'." Sanz says he has been working out, too. In June 2009, he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and claimed that much of his weight loss was because he had stopped drinking alcoholic beverages.

In 2015, he started his own podcast called The Hooray Show, which features comedy sketches and interviews with his friends in comedy.

Saturday Night Live

Sanz joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in September 1998. At the beginning of Saturday Night Live's 31st season, he was the temporary replacement for Tina Fey as Amy Poehler's Weekend Update co-anchor while Fey was on maternity leave until she resumed her duties on October 22, 2005. On September 20, 2006, Saturday Night Live announced that Sanz would not be returning due to massive budget cuts that called for Lorne Michaels to either cut back on show production or get rid of long-standing or poor-performing cast members.

Sanz returned to SNL as a guest on February 3, 2007, appearing as Elton John, and again on November 3, as presidential candidate Bill Richardson and yet again on the December 17, 2011 Christmas show as himself in a musical number ("I Wish It Was Christmas Today") and as a member of Beethoven's orchestra ("Beethoven: Meet The Band").

Characters on SNL

Awards and honors

Sanz received "high" honors at High Times magazine's 2003 Stony Awards, collecting the "Stoner of the Year" award.

In popular culture