![\"SATURDAY](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780049064_772_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Ashley Padilla, right, with castmates Tommy Brennan and Jane Wickline in the \u201cSNL\u201d sketch \u201cMom Confession.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Will Heath\/NBC)<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want to be able to stop and take that pause at the beginning [of a sketch], which are the quickest things to cut because you\u2019re trying to save time: \u2018Let\u2019s get rid of when you enter,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cWhat roots me as an actor is a little breath. Before we get to the jokes, let the audience see me live in it for a second. I think I\u2019ve proven that [those pauses are] not going to suck the air out of the room. It\u2019s actually going to assist in the blowup that we\u2019re waiting for.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Padilla lived in L.A., she adored her Los Feliz neighborhood, so on this late April afternoon she confesses to some disorientation at doing press on the Westside. Still, memories keep creeping up unexpectedly. \u201cI\u2019ll see a coffee shop, and you remember how you were feeling: \u2018Will I ever make it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There were encouraging moments that kept her going. One dispiriting day, she was on Melrose Avenue walking to the Groundlings. \u201cIn my head I went, \u2018Will I ever be on television?\u2019 Just then, a car passes with the girl rolling down the window going, \u2018I\u2019ve seen you perform! You\u2019re going to be on television!\u2019 It\u2019s literally like someone answered my cry inside and went, \u2018Calm down, it\u2019s going to be OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Optimism came through other channels too, such as her job as Diane Keaton\u2019s assistant, eventually co-creating her 2024 book \u201cFashion First.\u201d Padilla adored the late actor and filmmaker, grateful for her endless sense of wonder, which inspired Padilla to see the world differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe would stare at a tree: \u2018Look at the way the sun goes through the branches,\u2019\u201d Padilla says, marveling. \u201cI have a voicemail that I listen to whenever I\u2019m feeling a little sad or I miss her \u2014 she\u2019s just like, \u2018Hey, Ash, how are you doing? I\u2019m just checking in.\u2019 And she stops and goes, \u2018The blue sky. Wow.\u2019 And I\u2019m just like, \u2018You are someone we all want to be around.\u2019 It\u2019s why she is so massive in people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Before](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1780049064_497_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Before \u2018SNL,\u2019 Padilla had stints at the Groundlings and as Diane Keaton\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n
(Sela Shiloni \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
Since girlhood, Padilla has loved to write, which was valuable once she joined the Groundlings, doing seven shows a week. \u201cYou don\u2019t get onstage unless you write your own stuff,\u201d she says. Her viral \u201cSNL\u201d sketch \u201cHaircut\u201d \u2014 in which Padilla goes to dinner with friends, disturbing them with her atrocious haircut \u2014 was created at Groundlings, where it killed. But pitching it at \u201cSNL\u201d revealed the differences between the stage and live television.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Haircut\u2019 started as a \u2018[Weekend] Update\u2019 [feature], and I was unwilling to get rid of some stuff in there because I knew it worked at Groundlings,\u201d she recalls. Padilla credits her frequent \u201cSNL\u201d co-writers Alison Gates and Kent Sublette for helping her understand the program\u2019s rhythms. \u201cThey made it punchier and snappier. I definitely need the other writers \u2014 they make it so much better. At the Groundlings, there\u2019s no camera cuts, there\u2019s no time limit \u2014 you can mosey and do behavioral stuff. But [\u2018SNL\u2019 sketches] need to look good on television. These writers are so good \u2014 they\u2019ll say a joke that I go, \u2018You\u2019ve just said everything I was trying to do in a whole page.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Padilla\u2019s peculiar but grounded characters may make you wait to see what they have in store, but she isn\u2019t wasting any time. Last summer, wanting to distract herself from wondering whether she\u2019d be asked back to \u201cSNL,\u201d Padilla wrote a screenplay, which is now being backed by Oscar-winning \u201cMoonlight\u201d producer Adele Romanski. Padilla won\u2019t say much about the project, but you can bet she included a part for herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018I want to be on television? OK, write your sketches. I want to be in movies? I wrote a movie,\u201d\u2019 she explains. \u201cI don\u2019t want to wait around for someone to give me a role. I hope I get to work with great people, but I also want to control my own career \u2014 and my own happiness as well. I want to be creative all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In her early 20s, Ashley Padilla moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, hoping to make a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1872,112201,139193,139192,67050,48,52,51,79682,47,50,49,63,139195,45408,139194,47941,11393,4424,4509,315],"class_list":["post-337313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-actor","tag-ashley-padilla","tag-good-sketch","tag-groundlings","tag-haircut","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-long-way","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-other-writer","tag-padilla","tag-quiet-little-freak","tag-second-season","tag-snl","tag-success","tag-television","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}