Louie Zakarian

In his one-hour interview, Louie Zakarian talks about his early interest in makeup and how he came to learn the craft through his own research and experimentation. He discusses his first job in television, on the show Monsters, and how he broke into NBC and the union through work doing makeup on Donahue. He then talks about getting the opportunity to work at Saturday Night Live, including appearing on-camera in one of his first episodes. Zakarian then goes into detail on Saturday Night Live, including a typical workweek for the makeup department, how quick changes work during the show, cast shakeups during his tenure, and his rise to head of the makeup department. He also talks about working with hosts and Lorne Michaels, doing the makeup for Digital Shorts, and specific sketches and characters, including Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer and Alec Baldwin as Donald J. Trump. He concludes by giving advice to aspiring makeup artists and reflecting on what he enjoys about the fast pace of Saturday Night Live. B-roll consists of a tour of the makeup storage facilities at Saturday Night Live. Dan Pasternack conducted the interview on March 26, 2019 in New York, NY.