NBC Near Deals for Two New 'Saturday Night Live' Cast Members

5:38 PM PDT 9/7/2012 by Lesley Goldberg , Seth Abramovitch

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Aidy Bryant and Tim Robinson are expected to join the long-running sketch comedy series' 38th season with a deal likely to come next week.

Aidy Bryant and Tim Robinson

Saturday Night Live is refilling its ranks.

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The long-running NBC sketch comedy series is closing in on deals to add a pair of comedians -- Aidy Bryant and Tim Robinson -- to its cast for its upcoming 38th season, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

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Bryant is a Second City alum from Phoenix, Ariz., with a theater degree from Columbia College. With SNL's Vanessa Bayer, her sketch comedy group has performed at Chicago's Annoynance Theatre comedy club.

Detroit native Robinson, meanwhile, has a role in CBS' midseason Christopher Mintz-Plasse comedy Friend Me and has appeared in a handful of short films and as the lead in the BBC's Nice Day for a Welsh Wedding. He's also a Second City alum and an improv group active in Chicago's comedy circuit.

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The duo help replenish SNL's ranks after the recent departures of regulars Abby Elliott, Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig, who all departed the series after its 37th season. Wiig announced her departure last season, with Samberg confirming his exit in June with Elliott announcing in August that her days in Studio 8H were done. She has since moved on to an arc on CBS' How I Met Your Mother. Jason Sudeikis' status with the Lorne Michaels series remains unclear.

A formal deal for the pair is expected to come next week, days before SNL's season premiere on Sept. 15 with host Seth MacFarlane and musical guest Frank Ocean.

NBC declined comment. The Comic's Comic first reported the news. Check out a pair of videos featuring Bryant as a woman named Kendra who undergoes therapy in a basement and Robinson's two-man web series My Mans, which was filmed as a pilot for Comedy Central, below.