American comedian Victoria Jackson, best known for her six-year stint on Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s and early 1990s, has spoken candidly about sharing her Christian faith among the sketch show's famously irreverent cast.

Speaking with Focus on the Family president Jim Daly, Jackson said she credited her father with instilling in her a deep love of Scripture from childhood and recalled walking the corridors of NBC's studios as a young performer with a clear sense of calling.

“My dad gave me this hunger for the Word of God and I loved studying it,” she said, adding that she attended Bible college after graduating from high school.

After joining the cast at 27, she said she felt God call her.

“I remember walking down the hall and thinking this is my mission field... So I tried to witness to the cast when I got the opportunity."

Jackson said it was difficult at times to connect with people as they briefly passed each other in the hall, so she came up with an idea.

"We’re all making a lot of money... we all probably have new cars that have a new cassette player in them, that was the big thing in the 80s, so I got the Bible on cassette, and I gave it to each of them all wrapped up for a Christmas present and I put it outside of their dressing room door.”

She even sent one to television host Johnny Carson, saying she felt it was selfish to keep the Gospel to yourself.

“If you really love them, you would tell them. And if you really believe it, you would tell everyone," she said.

Jackson's conviction wasn't without cost. The 66-year-old recounted turning down a sketch she considered irreverent towards sacred things, telling producer Lorne Michaels she couldn't take part, even though she feared it might jeopardise her position on the show.