<\/p>\n
Some beloved longtime “Saturday Night Live” cast members won’t be returning for Season 51, including eight-season veteran Heidi Gardner.<\/p>\n
“SNL” creator Lorne Michaels told Puck<\/a> he’d shake things up ahead of the next season of the iconic comedy sketch series.<\/p>\n Cast members Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow and Emil Wakim, as well as writer Celeste Yim, have also announced they\u2019re leaving the coveted comedy stage.<\/p>\n Here’s who’s leaving:<\/p>\n Gardner won’t be returning after an epic eight-year run on the “Saturday Night Live” stage, NBC News has learned. Variety first reported her departure<\/a>.<\/p>\n NBC didn’t comment publicly on Gardner\u2019s departure. Gardner hasn’t spoken about her exit. She made her \u201cSNL\u201d debut in 2017 in Season 43.<\/p>\n She was the longest-tenured female cast member during Season 50, according to Rolling Stone<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gardner appeared in a variety of sketches and was known for her “Weekend Update” characters “Bailey Gismert<\/a>,” a cringey teenage film critic, and “Angel, Every Boxer\u2019s Girlfriend from Every Movie About Boxing Ever<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Gardner also has a flourishing career outside of 30 Rock, appearing in the Apple TV+ series \u201cShrinking\u201d and the films \u201cHustle,\u201d \u201cLife of the Party\u201d and \u201cTrust Fall.\u201d<\/p>\n Walker announced his departure Monday on Instagram<\/a>, with the caption: \u201cme and baby broke up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, jobs in this industry feel like a bunch of little marriages. Some of em last for a long time if we\u2019re lucky, but most of them are fleeting,\u201d he wrote. \u201cMe and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool. Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction.\u201d<\/p>\n Longfellow called his tenure \u201cthe best three years of my life so far.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWill not be returning for a 4th season at SNL. Wish I was but, so it goes,\u201d he wrote Thursday on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cI feel nothing but gratitude for the experience and everyone there. Lorne, you gave me the greatest job in the world and changed my life. You even put my mom on TV. Thank you doesnt begin to cover it, but thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n Wakim, a featured player on the show, said Wednesday \u201cit was a gut punch of a call\u201d to learn he won’t return for “SNL’s” next season.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time i scanned into the building i would think how insane it is to get to work there. it was the most terrifying, thrilling, and rewarding experience of my life and i will miss it dearly and all the brilliant people that work there that made it feel like a home,\u201d Wakim wrote on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201ci was so lucky to bring some of myself in there and say things i believed in and i\u2019m excited for whatever chapter comes next. here\u2019s to making more art without compromise,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Yim bade farewell to the show after five seasons as a writer, saying the job \u201cliterally made all of my dreams come true BUT it was also grueling.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI loved it and I laughed every day and it\u2019s where I grew up,\u201d Yim wrote Sunday on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yim also noted that they are the \u201cfirst ever out trans person to be a writer for SNL.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201dI always felt honored to be working within the long tradition of queer writing at the show,\u201d Yim wrote. \u201cI feel so powerless to protect trans people in the world but writing connects us and makes us permanent, so it\u2019s what I will continue to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Season 51 premieres Oct. 4 on NBC.<\/p>\n This article was originally published on NBCNews.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\nHeidi Gardner<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Devon Walker<\/h2>\n
Michael Longfellow<\/h2>\n
Emil Wakim<\/h2>\n
Celeste Yim<\/h2>\n