{"id":258140,"date":"2025-10-29T06:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T06:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258140\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T06:18:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T06:18:12","slug":"heidi-gardner-ego-nwodim-have-emotional-reunion-after-snl-exits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/258140\/","title":{"rendered":"Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim Have Emotional Reunion After ‘SNL’ Exits"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter Heidi Gardner<\/a> and Ego Nwodim<\/a> exited Saturday Night Live<\/a> ahead of the show\u2019s 51st season<\/a>, the pair has reunited to reminisce on their friendship and time on the NBC sketch comedy series.<\/p>\n

\n\tGardner recently stopped by Nwodim\u2019s Thanks Dad podcast<\/a>, where the former SNL<\/a> castmembers recalled how they bonded instantly after Nwodim joined the show in 2018, a year after Gardner, and they shared a dressing room.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo have to share such an intimate space together for hours on end on Saturdays and Thursdays and Fridays, whenever we were rehearsing, yeah, it made us close quick,\u201d Nwodim said. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t have to work that way. It could also not make you close. It can make you not like each other. It can make you feel whatever mutually, \u2018I\u2019m sharing a space with this person.\u2019 But I\u2019m so grateful we got so close.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGardner added, \u201cI\u2019m so honored that we worked so hard there, and then we also worked on our friendship so hard, which wasn\u2019t hard, by the way. I just mean we\u2019re human, so we have egos, we want things for ourselves, we want to succeed. There weren\u2019t a lot of times we were able to succeed the way we wanted at the exact same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLater during their conversation, Gardner recalled a specific SNL episode that \u201cwas beautiful to watch\u201d with Nwodim. She was referring to her friend\u2019s viral \u201cMiss Eggy\u201d segment during the April 5, 2025, episode hosted by Jack Black.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat Jack Black week, it was everything to me because it was my hero. I could\u2019ve never imagined a week like that, and I got to do so much in the show. And so you kind of feel selfish in that way,\u201d she shared before getting emotional. \u201cAnd then I can honestly say my best friend had the moment of the year, you know? I\u2019m just being really vulnerable. There\u2019s a part of me, if I think about it, I\u2019m like, but wait, I should want that for me, but you had it, and it was fucking awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGardner continued, \u201cAnd I got to go out there and watch it and to have you have it with my favorite person in the world and you\u2019re my favorite person in the world, it\u2019s like, what is my life, this is so beautiful, and we wanted it. We knew how special that was, and I knew how important it was to you and the people who\u2026 everyone loves you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNwodim shared a similar sentiment, noting that there were \u201cso many times being like, why can\u2019t we be able to be winning together at the same time, so it could feel like a full celebration and not one of us mourning or frustrated and one of us like on cloud nine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe also mentioned that SNL\u00a0was \u201cnot the easiest place to work\u201d, but went on to praise Gardner as being \u201csuch a light in what can be such a challenging place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe sketches, they come, they go, they\u2019re really fun,\u201d Nwodim said. \u201cThey can be hard, they can be things you\u2019re not into, whatever. But I\u2019m like, if you can leave \u2014 in a place where it can get so competitive and you can become so self involved, if you can leave and be still remarkably lovely and such a light and still pouring into other people like you, I think you succeeded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Gardner has yet to address her departure from SNL<\/a> ahead of the season 51 premiere in October, Nwodim had announced her exit<\/a> on Instagram in September.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe hardest part of a great party is knowing when to say goodnight,\u201d she wrote at the time. \u201cBut after seven unforgettable seasons, I have decided to leave\u00a0SNL. I am immensely grateful to Lorne for the opportunity, to my castmates, the writers, and the crew for their brilliance, support and friendship. Week after week on that stage taught me more than I could have ever imagined, and I will carry those memories (and that laughter) with me always.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim exited Saturday Night Live ahead of the show\u2019s 51st season, the pair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[93404,88,75715,12015,12016,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-258140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-ego-nwodim","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-heidi-gardner","11":"tag-saturday-night-live","12":"tag-snl","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}