From Weekend Update to Kingpin: SNL’s Colin Jost Trades Punchlines for a Turn as a Peacock Drug Lord

Here’s something I didn’t have on my 2026 TV bingo card: Colin Jost—yes, the Weekend Update guy from SNL and the target of about half of Michael Che’s on-air pranks—might be heading up his own crime series. Not a sketch, not a goofy cameo, but an actual drama (with more than a few comic twists, if the vibe is right). And he’d be playing a very different kind of suit-and-tie Ivy Leaguer than the one we see reading punchlines every Saturday night.

Colin Jost as... the Drug-Dealing Dentist?

According to Variety, Jost is currently developing a show for Peacock where he’ll play Larry Lavin, a real-life dentist who managed to moonlight as the head of a pretty significant cocaine ring in the late 1970s and early '80s. If you’re thinking 'What in the world?,' yeah, that’s the whole point—the story’s genuinely wild.

Lavin was your classic suburban, khakis-and-poloshirt Ivy Leaguer living outside Philly. By day, he cleaned teeth; by night (well, probably by day as well), he sold cocaine to well-off professionals. His empire was eventually known as 'the Yuppie Conspiracy'—not exactly Breaking Bad, but pretty close on the upscale absurdity scale.

The Not-So-Secret Link: Ivy League Bros with Side Hustles

Now, here's where things get unexpectedly symmetrical: Jost himself went to an Ivy (Harvard) and ran the Harvard Lampoon, which is essentially the institution for future comedy writers. SNL has made a running joke out of Jost’s sweater-vest, clean-cut, upper-crust persona. Obviously, he never dealt drugs (as far as I know), but he does have that same 'How did you end up here, exactly?' aura that fits Lavin’s double life.

The Story Gets Even Crazier

• Larry Lavin kept his scheme going for years—all while looking like the guy who complains about your mailbox being two inches too high.
• Once busted in 1984, he went on the run with his pregnant wife and toddler, hiding out in Virginia Beach under fake names in a boating community (because of course he did).
• It took until 1986 for the FBI to catch him, finally ending the whole bizarre saga.

Who’s Steering This Ship?

Alex Barnow signed on as showrunner. If you don’t recognize the name, you’ve definitely heard of some of his credits: wrote on Family Guy (season 3), co-created the Matthew Perry sitcom Mr. Sunshine, and ran The Goldbergs for quite a stretch. Translation: mostly sitcoms, a heavy background in comedy. Jost, despite his recent forays into acting (remember him in Coming 2 America? Barely?), is still primarily known for making people laugh, not gasp.

So, expect the tone to at least flirt with comedy, if not go full-tilt funny. The official blurb calls it 'the shocking and absurd true story of the suburban dentist who built a drug empire behind the facade of the American dream.' The 'absurd' is doing some work there.

What Happens Next?

Don't set your watch by this just yet—Peacock hasn't officially picked up the show. If it does go ahead, Jost isn’t quitting SNL; he’ll juggle both.

The series is based on the first season of the true crime podcast 'Wolves Among Us.' So if you’re curious about the original story, you can listen to that podcast right now—regardless of whether the TV version ever gets the green light.

Meanwhile, Jost is still cracking jokes on SNL, and he’s also got a new movie—The Breadwinner (opposite Nate Bargatze)—coming out in theaters May 29.

'The shocking and absurd true story of the suburban dentist who built a drug empire behind the facade of the American dream.'

To sum up: A not-so-action hero dentist, a real-life suburban scandal, Jost playing (sort of) against type, and a creative team with deep comedy roots. If that doesn’t at least get you to check out a trailer, I don’t know what will.