Ania Magliano isn’t afraid of a risky joke. 

The 28-year-old British comedian — who has become a breakout star of “Saturday Night Live U.K.” — came out swinging in the premiere episode in March with an impressive takedown of former Prince Andrew, who had just been arrested and ordered to leave his royal home.

“Andrew’s new residence, Marsh Farm, is of course named after the nearby marsh where his body will be found,” Magliano, the co-host of “Weekend Update,” said with a smirk, evoking a low “Oooh” from the audience. In another episode, she compared Mark Zuckerberg to Hitler with a zinger that generated headlines: “It’s been revealed that Meta billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is building a bunker under his compound in California — and I hope he uses that bunker in exactly the same way Hitler did.”

For Magliano, provocation is part of the job, and she’s not afraid of the social media backlash. “I’m kind of detached from it. I try not to read the comments,” she says when we meet for coffee in White City, where “SNL U.K.” shoots. “That Mark Zuckerberg one … I was just like, ‘It’s a joke.’ And also, it’s Mark Zuckerberg; I think he’s fair game. He’s ruining a lot of people’s lives.”

And the risk has paid off: Magliano and “Weekend Update” co-host Paddy Young have become fan favorites. The success of the segment has led to a nearly sold-out U.K. stand-up tour, which Magliano will be taking to the U.S. in December for her first-ever shows in New York and L.A. Certainly in London, she’s becoming an undeniable presence, her face plastered all over the tube on posters advertising the tour. 

“They really went all out with that [campaign],” Magliano says with a laugh. In contrast to “Update,” where she looks news anchor ready in a white button-down, a tie and a maroon jacket, today Magliano is dressed down in a navy sweater vest, her hair in a messy updo. Though she constantly delivers one-liners on-screen, in person she’s a bit serious, though maybe that’s just because she’s busy. It’s Tuesday, and she has 20 jokes to write by the end of the day. “So much of [‘Update’] is written Thursday, Friday, Saturday,” she explains, taking long sips of her black coffee. “So right now, we literally have nothing.”

Magliano and Young work with four other writers to put together “Weekend Update” each week, with everyone submitting dozens of jokes a day in the run-up to the show. “It’s crazy. Every joke that’s in the live show has been forensically analyzed,” she says. 

Magliano didn’t set out to be a “Weekend Update” host. After working London’s stand-up circuit with her observational, personal comedy — topics range from traumatic OB-GYN appointments to doomed threesomes — writing for Amelia Dimoldenberg’s YouTube series “Chicken Shop Date” and being a finalist on the U.K. comedy game show “Taskmaster,” Magliano was looking for a full-time gig. She’d heard rumors back in 2023 about a British version of “SNL” but suspected it wouldn’t get made in the U.K.’s struggling comedy landscape.

“In the U.K., TV tends to not happen,” she says glumly. “I’m so used to stuff not getting made. There’s no money.”

The audition process for “SNL” was “really long,” she says, and included sending in a five-minute self-tape, performing at a live showcase where “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels lurked in the background and doing a chemistry test with Young. She also threw her hat in the ring as a writer, so she had to submit three fleshed-out sketches. By the time Magliano got the call, she was exhausted. 

“I was like, ‘If I’m not in this, it’s going to feel like such a waste of time,’” Magliano recalls. “It was an emotional roller coaster. And then after the ‘Weekend Update’ screen test, I was like, ‘Fuck, I want to do it so badly because that was so much fun.’ So then I got quite attached.” 

The show’s harshest criticism came before it premiered: Nearly every U.K. publication questioned if a format like “SNL” — with its emphasis on physical comedy and celebrity hosts — would translate to Brits’ more reserved, self-effacing humor. Though ratings have fluctuated, with only Hannah Waddingham’s episode as host nearing the 200,000-plus live viewers of the first two shows, it was enough for Sky to order a 12-episode second season for the fall.

“You had people saying, ‘It’s gonna be shit,’ and people saying, ‘No, it’s gonna be good.’ That’s kind of the weird benefit of doing something on this huge scale — you realize you’re not ever going to please everyone,” Magliano says.

The show’s first host was none other than Tina Fey, a “Weekend Update” alum who also helped the cast in the first two weeks of production. Watching her work was pivotal for Magliano. “I haven’t worked with a really powerful woman in comedy who writes and creates her own stuff,” she says. “And I thought it was so fucking sick: When she came to our ‘Weekend Update’ meeting, she had jokes that she’d written on her way there to pitch to us. I was literally like, I want to be like that when I grow up.” 

Fey isn’t the only “Update” veteran who has helped usher in “SNL”’s U.K. counterparts; Seth Meyers also came over in the show’s early weeks to lend a hand. And for the fifth episode, Jimmy Fallon made cameos during Nicola Coughlan’s opening monologue and behind the news desk. Magliano, Young and the “Update” writing team only learned that Fallon would be coming on the Wednesday before the broadcast and turned around a bit — roasting Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, Benson Boone, Lily Allen and more — to pitch to him by Friday morning.

“He was just so enthusiastic and unbelievably generous with his time and energy,” Magliano says. “He was up for it in a way that you kind of forget that this is a really, really famous person.” 

Magliano is also the first woman “Weekend Update” host since Cecily Strong ended her tenure in 2014. It’s an opportunity she’s been reveling in. “I do think there are certain types of jokes that are fun to do as a woman,” she says, adding that it feels important for women to deliver jokes about the likes of Epstein, Prince Andrew, Russell Brand and Michael Jackson. 

Though it remains to be seen if “SNL U.K.” can launch comedy stars the way the U.S. version has, Magliano seems a safe one to bet on. When I ask where she sees her career heading, Magliano points to Fey.

“Honestly, when I saw Tina in action I was like, ‘I want to do that job,’” she says. “I think the great thing about the U.S. ‘SNL’ is it’s launched so many people’s careers just in terms of them making their own thing. So I definitely would like to — in the very far future — be in charge of something.”