Listen: 'Will & Grace' Actor Accuses 'SNL' Head Lorne Michaels of Refusing to Hire Queer Comedians

Out actor Tim Bagley, known for his roles on shows like "Will & Grace" and "Grace and Frankie," claims that despite his success with comedy troupe The Groundlings – from which NBC's long-running sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" has drawn talent over the years – he was shunned from "SNL" due to creator and producer Lorne Michaels' homophobia.

The Daily Beast reported that the actor, 67, told podcast host Julia Cunningham that Michaels "and influential manager Bernie Brillstein 'had kind of a thing where they did not hire gay people, so I never got to audition'" for "SNL," and added that the show was known for not casting queer comedians.

"All my friends" had the chance to audition for the show, the "Somebody Somewhere" actor told Cunningham, "and I was always kind of a standout at The Groundlings, but I was out" of the running when it came to "SNL" – something he attributed solely to the fact that he was openly gay at a time when many in the entertainment industry were not.

Podcast host Cunningham called the allegations "disturbing."

The article noted that Bagley "is not the first to accuse 'SNL' and Lorne Michaels of not wanting to hire openly gay people during the height of the show's popularity," and cited comments made by out comedian James Adomian, who had told the outlet in 2018 that his bids to become part of the cast came to nothing due to his sexuality.

"I think that Lorne Michaels is afraid of America's dads," the report quoted Adomian.

Times have changed during the program's half-century-long run, and now openly gay comedian Bowen Yang is one of the cast's most celebrated members.

Bagley acknowledged this, saying, "Bowen Yang is there now, and it's taken quite a long time... he was the actual first conscious, you know, gay person hired."

Before Yang – who was out when he joined the show – there were other openly queer cast members like Terry Sweeney (who the Beast said was the first out "SNL" cast member to be added), Kate McKinnon, and nonbinary comedian Molly Kearney, the article recounted.

But even in the case of McKinnon – who came out in 2016 after being cast on the show – the "Monk" actor alleged that Michaels had a problem.

"Kate McKinnon, she was hired and everything, and she was so brilliant, but they did an article in Rolling Stone where she was like, 'I'm gay,'" the "Hacks" actor said. Michaels, who hadn't known about McKinnon's sexuality before, "confronted her and she said, 'I didn't think that it would matter,'" Bagley said.

Listen to Bagley's comments in the clip from "The Julia Cunningham Show" below.