NEED TO KNOW
Heidi Gardner is saying goodbye to Saturday Night Live.
On Thursday, Aug. 28, PEOPLE has confirmed that Gardner is departing the sketch comedy series after eight seasons. She previously joined in 2017 as a featured member and became a repertory player in 2019.
The show has not commented on her exit.
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In a February 2025 interview with Craig Ferguson, Gardner said she was still enjoying her time on SNL, but admitted that the only thing she had “started to feel a little bit is just sketch fatigue, or idea fatigue.”
Will Heath/NBC
“At this point, after doing Groundlings and SNL for so long, I’m like, ‘I’ve written a lot of sketches,'” she said. “You just get scared and it does happen some weeks where I’m like ‘I do not have an idea for a sketch, a game, or a character. ‘ ”
“Luckily we have amazing writers at the show that will be like, ‘But I have an idea for you.’ That’s the only thing that has gotten a little tough,” she added.
Hinting at what she would like to explore outside the show, she said: ” I’d love to have a show that I co-star in and co-write, and it’s a character and it’s a world and it’s a character I get to live in for a while and explore more.”
Holland Rainwater/NBC
Long before venturing into comedy, Gardner was a hairstylist for nine years before deciding to start taking comedy classes in 2010, per InStyle.
Since then, Gardner has honed her comedy skills, appearing in films such as Life of the Party, Otherhood and Hustle, as well as television shows like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Girls5eva and Shrinking.
Gardner told InStyle in an October 2021 conversation that when it came to SNL, she had played “overly emotional, going-through-it women or teenagers” with a “range of emotions.”
Will Heath/NBC via Getty
“In my own life, I think I’ve always been a bit of a people pleaser. Maybe the world around me was a little chaotic, so I had to keep my cool,” she said. “And so I really like playing characters that don’t care and just let loose in public with no shame, like cry, yell, roll their eyes.”
Gardner has several memorable moments on the show.
Some of her highlights include playing Michael Jordan’s beloved security guard, John Michael Wozniak, in a sketch inspired by The Last Dance and hilariously breaking character during a Beavis and Butt-Head skit featuring Ryan Gosling.
Throughout her tenure on the show, she also portrayed Kim Kardashian, helped parody Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso,” and the 2024 election. Her recurring characters included Bailey Gismert, Brie Bacardi and Baskin Johns.
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Saturday Night Live season 51 premieres on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
