Heidi Gardner is leaving Saturday Night Live after eight seasons, exiting ahead of the show’s next cycle as NBC resets parts of the cast coming off its milestone 50th season. Multiple outlets reported the departure around late August 2025, with reports describing it as part of a wider shake-up heading into Season 51.
Gardner joined SNL in 2017 (Season 43) and later became a repertory player, settling into a long run where she built a reputation for character-driven performances and reliable sketch work. In the months before the exit news, she’d also spoken publicly about the grind of the job, describing a kind of “sketch fatigue” and hinting at interest in projects where she could co-write and co-star around a specific character/world, which fits the usual “time to do the next thing” pattern for long-tenured cast members.
Her departure also landed in the middle of broader turnover. Reporting tied her exit to other cast and staffing changes ahead of Season 51, reinforcing that this isn’t just one person moving on—it’s the show cycling into a new mix of voices.
What matters next is what she does immediately after SNL, because that’s where you see whether an exit is voluntary momentum or an awkward landing. She already has forward motion: Entertainment Weekly reported she’s set to appear in NBC’s The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins (with Tracy Morgan and Daniel Radcliffe), which is a pretty clear signal she’s not disappearing—she’s pivoting into scripted comedy work right away.
