Heidi Gardner is leaving “Saturday Night Live.”The comedian, 42, is the latest cast member to exit the show ahead of Season 51, The Post can confirm.12Gardner during the 2025 Big Slick Party and Show in Kansas City on May 31, 2025.Gardner was the longest-tenured current female cast member last season after joining the sketch comedy show during Season 43 before being promoted to the main cast in 2019.Some of her most memorable “Weekend Update” characters include teen movie critic Bailey Gismert and Angel, “every boxer’s girlfriend from every movie about boxing ever.
One of her biggest moments last year was when she cracked as NewsNation host Bobbi More during a sketch of “Beavis and Butt-Head” that immediately went viral.
Gardner’s departure makes her the fourth comedian to exit the series this week, behind Michael Longfellow, Emil Wakim and Devon Walker, following Lorne Michaels’ promise of a massive cast shakeup.
The Post reached out to Gardner’s rep and “SNL” for comment.
As of recent years, the star has branched out from the comedy scene, starring alongside Harrison Ford and Jason Segel as Grace in “Shrinking” for Seasons 1 and 2.
She also appeared in an episode of Netflix’s “You” during its final season, the sitcom “Girls5eva” and Adam Sandler’s 2022 basketball movie “Hustle.”
Earlier this year, Gardner hinted at her possible exit while speaking to comedian Craig Ferguson on his podcast, “Joy.”
During the episode, she admitted that the job had become a “little tough.”
“I will say the only thing that I’ve started to feel a little bit is just sketch fatigue, or idea fatigue,” the star explained. “At this point, after doing Groundlings and SNL for so long, I’m like, ‘I’ve written a lot of sketches.’”
Hours before Gardner’s departure, The Post confirmed that Michael Longfellow would also be leaving “SNL” after his three-year tenure on the show.
He joined the NBC sketch comedy program in 2022 for Season 48 before being upped to the main cast for Season 50.
Like Gardner, the 31-year-old comedian has yet to confirm his departure himself.
Longfellow and Gardner’s former co-stars Devon Walker and Emil Wakim, meanwhile, confirmed their exits from the show earlier this week.
Walker, 34, announced his departure on Monday night after three seasons. Like Longfellow, he joined the cast as a featured player in 2022 and was promoted to the main cast in 2024.
“Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool,” he wrote on Instagram on Monday night. “Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we … made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction. We made a f–ked up lil family.”
Wakim, an “SNL” newcomer who was only on the show for a single season, said in his own Instagram post on Wednesday that being let go “was a gut punch of a call to get.”
“It was the most terrifying, thrilling, and rewarding experience of my life,” he added, “and I will miss it dearly and all the brilliant people that work there that made it feel like a home.”
Writers Celeste Yim and Rosebud Baker, too, have revealed their exits from the show.
Yim, who joined the “grueling” program five years ago, was the first to announce their departure over the weekend.
“After five seasons, I’m leaving my job at Saturday Night Live,” they wrote on Instagram on Sunday.The surprising and ongoing “SNL” exodus kicked off shortly after Michaels hinted at the cast changes in an interview with Puck News published Friday, Aug. 22