Heidi Gardner has taken her last bow on the Saturday Evening Dwell stage and won't be returning for season 51.
The comic, 42, is exiting SNL after eight seasons, in accordance with a number of shops. Gardner, for her half, nonetheless has SNL's official Instagram deal with listed in her social media bio and has not publicly introduced her departure.
Us Weekly reached out to NBC for remark.
Gardner's alleged exit comes after Devon Walker and Emil Wakim confirmed their respective departures. It was reported earlier on Thursday that Michael Longfellow would additionally not be again for an additional season.
The information additionally comes after creator Lorne Michaels teased that season 51 would function just a few modifications following the historic season 50 celebrations earlier this 12 months.
“Final season, once we have been on the get together of the primary present, quarter of 4 within the morning, Dana [Carvey, who played Joe Biden] comes over to me and says, ‘I don't assume anybody is aware of you known as me June 4th [to play Biden].' I needed individuals coming again and being a part of [the 50th season],” Michaels recalled to Puck in a Sunday, August 24, interview. “So when Kate [McKinnon] hosted, Kristen [Wiig] and Maya [Rudolph] got here again for it. And that meant there couldn't be these sort of disruptions [to the cast], or something that was going to take the main target off [the 50th season]. And we had an election.”
Gardner joined SNL in 2017. All through her eight seasons on the sketch comedy present, Gardner originated beloved characters comparable to teen movie critic Bailey Gismert and Angel a.okay.a. “Each Boxer's Girlfriend From Each Film About Boxing Ever.”
SNL has catapulted Gardner into a gradual appearing profession as nicely, together with starring in 2018's Lifetime of the Social gathering, 2022's Hustle and voicing Eli's mother in 2023's Leo.
Gardner started enjoying Grace on AppleTV+'s Shrinking in 2023 and had a visitor starring function on You earlier this 12 months.
Saturday Evening Dwell followers are speculating that solid member Bowen Yang could also be leaving the present following its season 50 finale. Yang, 34, appeared bereft whereas he hugged castmate Sarah Sherman through the closing ‘Goodnights' phase on Saturday, Could 17, as SNL's stars gathered on stage to shut the season. Yang additionally regarded emotional whereas […]
Forward of her departure, Gardner confessed that engaged on SNL can get repetitive.
“I'll say the one factor that I've began to really feel somewhat bit is simply sketch fatigue, or concept fatigue,” she confessed throughout a February episode of Craig Ferguson's “Joy, a Podcast” podcast. “At this level, after doing Groundlings and SNL for thus lengthy, I'm like, ‘I've written a number of sketches.'”
Gardner defined, “It does occur some weeks the place I'm like, ‘I do not need an concept for a sketch, a sport, or a personality.' Fortunately, we have now superb writers on the present that shall be like, ‘However I've an concept for you.' That's the one factor that has gotten somewhat robust.”
She insisted on the time that she did nonetheless “love enjoying characters” and was conscious SNL was the one place she might tackle personas to “this diploma.”
Gardner additionally hinted at her future plans, telling podcast listeners, “I do know no matter I do subsequent … I'd like to have a present that I costar in and cowrite, and it's a personality and it's a world. And it's a personality I get to reside in for some time and discover extra.”
Saturday Evening Dwell returns for season 51 on NBC Saturday, October 4, at 11:30 p.m. ET.
