Comedian John Mulaney will perform at Washington University this spring, Social Programming Board announced Sunday night.

The Spring Comedy Show will take place on Wednesday, March 18 at 8:30 p.m. in Graham Chapel, and doors will open at 8 p.m.

SPB comedy director and sophomore Maansi Vatsan said that the comedian was chosen because of his increasing popularity and broad-based appeal, citing his two St. Louis shows at the Pageant later this spring.

“The fact that John [Mulaney’s] going to be at the Pageant twice this semester just goes to show how popular he is and how high in demand he is,” Vatsan said. “He’s a pretty big name in the standup world right now, and we wanted to have him come to students where they could see him in the comfort of their own campus for free. They didn’t have to worry about going to the Pageant and getting tickets or any of that.”

Mulaney was chosen after the undergraduate student body was polled for its interest in various performers for the comedy show, including Wanda Sykes, Craig Robinson, Bo Burnham and a group from “The Daily Show”—Kristen Schaal, Jessica Williams and Jordan Klepper.

Mulaney is best-known for his work as a writer for “Saturday Night Live” but premiered a television sitcom under his own name as the creator, producer, writer and lead actor on FOX in fall 2014.

The most popular character Mulaney created on “Saturday Night Live” was “Stefon,” the well-meaning but disconnected New York City correspondent for the Weekend Update desk, whom he co-created with Bill Hader.

Mulaney was nominated for several Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series with the “SNL” writing staff from 2009-12. He won an award in 2011 for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards with Justin Timberlake, Seth Meyers and Katreese Barnes for the Justin Timberlake Monologue on “SNL.”

Vatsan hopes that students will be as excited about Mulaney as they were for Kenan Thompson in the fall comedy show.

“I’m really excited. After John Mulaney’s ‘New in Town’ special, I was just like, I need him to come here, and he also did really well on the survey, and I was really excited, like this is perfect, and I’m pumped. I hope students are as excited as I am,” she said.

Last fall, students lined up outside Graham Chapel hours in advance of Thompson’s show. Vatsan does not think that the “SNL” link between the two performers is much of a problem.

“I think their comedic styles are so different. For me it’s not a big deal, especially because ‘SNL’ is such a big thing in the world of comedy and their styles are very different,” Vatsan said. “Kenan was more of a comedic speaker, and John Mulaney wrote for ‘SNL,’ and since he’s left that, now he’s developed his personality as a standup comic, and in terms of the atmosphere they bring to Graham Chapel, it’s going to be very different.”

Students familiar with Mulaney’s work are excited to see what the comedian will bring to campus.

“I think John Mulaney has done a lot of great work throughout his career and has definitely been an influential part of the ‘Saturday Night Live’ broadcasting, so I’m really excited to see how it’ll turn out,” sophomore James Wall said.