Marcello Hernández

Hernández has been in a relationship with architect Ana Amelia Batlle Cabral since 2025. Batlle Cabral is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design and Yale and is from the Dominican Republic.

Hernández's parents separated before he turned five. His mother, Isabel Cancela, is Cuban, and his father, Joaquin Hernández, is Dominican. His mother later married José Cancela, who became Hernández's stepfather. Hernández has a younger sister named Isabella and two older step-siblings through José Cancela, including former Nevada State Senator Yvanna Cancela.

Hernández grew up in Miami and attended Belen Jesuit Preparatory School. He began playing soccer at age four and competed as a midfielder. In 2014, he was named first-team all-Miami-Dade while playing for Belen's Wolverines, and he also trained with the under-15 Dominican Republic national team.

At Belen, a teacher encouraged Hernández to study drama after recognizing his theatricality. He performed in his senior year and played three roles in a school production. He later attended John Carroll University, graduating in 2019 with a degree in entrepreneurship and communication. He received a theatre scholarship and participated in the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute and Model United Nations activities.

Hernández joined John Carroll's men's soccer team in 2015 and played seven games as a freshman. He left the team during the 2016 season to pursue stand-up comedy after discovering open-mic performances. He began traveling between Ohio and New York, eventually moving to New York City in 2019. His early work included short-form comedy on social media and appearances connected with the Miami lifestyle page Only in Dade.

Hernández was selected as a New Face of Comedy at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal in 2022. Casting agents for Saturday Night Live saw him there, and he auditioned for the show later that year. He joined the cast for the series' 48th season, becoming its first Gen Z cast member.

His recurring SNL characters include Domingo, a flirtatious lothario; Grant, one half of the Weekend Update dating-advice duo known as “The Couple You Can't Believe Are Together”; The Movie Guy; and Joaquín Antonio González Hernández Suárez, the host of The Immigrant Dad Talk Show. Domingo became one of his breakout roles after a sketch in which the character steals a bride and flirts with Kelsey, played by Chloe Fineman.

Hernández has also portrayed a Dominican baseball player, a cicada, a 4.8-magnitude earthquake, and a frozen embryo from Alabama. He played Don Francisco in a 2024 SNL parody of the Spanish-language program Sábado Gigante, receiving praise from Don Francisco. Hernández also wrote sketches for Spanish-speaking hosts and guests including Bad Bunny and Ana de Armas. Pedro Pascal played the Latina mother in one of Hernández's best-known sketches, and the two later reprised the “Protective Mom” sketch with Bad Bunny.

Hernández played Esteban in the 2025 film Happy Gilmore 2 and Nick in 72 Hours. He appeared in the television miniseries Dying for Sex and in the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special as Domingo and himself.

His first stand-up special, Marcello Hernández: American Boy, was released on Netflix in January 2026. Hernández served as both its writer and executive producer. His announced voice roles include Fergus in Shrek 5 and a part in The Angry Birds Movie 3.

Hernández hosted the 2026 ESPY Awards, an annual sports awards ceremony produced by ESPN.

Hernández's comedy combines observational and sketch humor with surreal physical performance. His material frequently addresses Latin American culture, family life, race relations, everyday embarrassment, food and cultural differences.

His work is strongly shaped by growing up Latino in Miami. He has used his Cuban and Dominican family background in sketches about immigrant parents and Latino households, while keeping his comedy rooted in personal experience rather than political commentary. Hernández has said that he does not want to change his voice and intends to write about what he knows.