'SNL' Alums Bobby Moynihan and Horatio Sanz Are Not the Same Person

This post has been a long time coming, because for years now, Bobby Moynihan has had the unfortunate displeasure of constantly being confused for Horatio Sanz. I see it in the comments here, and I see it elsewhere. On a good day, Moynihan gets, “Is he the one with all the allegations against him?” On a bad day, people just unload on him and anyone who employs him—without stopping to ask themselves if they’ve identified the correct former SNL star.

It’s unfortunate, really, because SNL has had a tendency to hire types. See: Adam Sandler, Jimmy Fallon, and then Andy Samberg. Andrew Dismukes will probably be confused for Mikey Day for the rest of his career (when Alex Moffat isn’t being confused for Mikey Day). Thank goodness there were several years of separation between James Austin Johnson and Darrell Hammond. Quick: How many folks can readily identify Luke Null, Jon Rudnitsky, Brooks Wheelan, and Paul Brittain—who many viewers probably believe changed his hairstyle and morphed into Kyle Mooney between 2012 and 2013?

But the biggest confusion still remains between Horatio Sanz, who was on SNL during the Jimmy Fallon years, and Bobby Moynihan, who was on during the Andy Samberg years. Still, I get it. It didn’t help that both actors had bearded glow-ups after their stints on SNL. Here’s Sanz in Great News:

And Moynihan in Mr. Mayor (both shows were associated with Tina Fey):

They were also both fixtures on “Weekend Update” with loopy characters—Sanz’s Costas Popakanstantis and Moynihan’s Drunk Uncle:

And yet, when Moynihan appeared on this year’s 50th Anniversary special, some folks immediately took SNL to task for having a groomer on the show. Except it wasn’t Horatio Sanz—he didn’t appear in the special.

Honestly, the best way to tell the two apart these days is this: if you see one of them on television or in a movie, it’s Bobby Moynihan. Horatio Sanz’s career basically vanished after the allegations against him for grooming an SNL superfan emerged. In the last five years, I’ve seen Sanz exactly once—in a brief appearance on Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Moynihan, meanwhile, is still very active. He plays the tech guy in NCIS: Origins. He had a role in Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon’s You’re Cordially Invited earlier this year. He voices a character in Inside Out 2 (in fact, he does a ton of voice work).

So when Moynihan shows up in that Tracy Morgan comedy next year with Daniel Radcliffe, rest assured—it’s not Horatio Sanz, who has mostly been reduced to periodic posts on Instagram.