# Heidi Gardner

Heidi Lynn Gardner (born July 27, 1983) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She has been a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live since season 43 in 2017, when she debuted as a featured player. She was promoted to repertory status on the show in 2019.

## Early life

Gardner was born and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She has an older brother, Justin.
Heidi Gardner worked part-time at the Tivoli Theater in Kansas City as a child, where she did everything "from selling tickets to making popcorn". She later credited the theater as "setting the tone in her life". She was not interested in acting as a teenager, only performing on stage as a flautist for the school band and doing comedy sketches in school talent shows. She graduated from the all-girls Catholic high school Notre Dame de Sion in southern Kansas City in 2001. In her senior year, her classmates voted her "most likely to be a cast member of Saturday Night Live". After graduation, Gardner followed in a friend's footsteps and enrolled at the University of Kansas for two years before transferring to the University of Missouri for a semester. At the time she was uninterested in school and often skipped classes, but discovered a fondness for haircutting.

## Career

At age 21, Gardner dropped out of college and left Kansas City for Los Angeles, where she worked at a hair salon for nine years. Before moving, she saved $600 over one summer. A friend encouraged her to attend a performance at The Groundlings theater, where she became inspired to become an actress. Lacking acting experience, Gardner enrolled in community workshops to learn the basics of improvisation. Once she was comfortable performing, Gardner auditioned for the Groundlings basic class and was accepted.
In 2014, Gardner joined the Sunday Company and a year later after a promotion to the Main Company, she quit her job as a hairstylist to focus on acting. During that time, she became a voice actress, regularly appearing on animated series including Bratz, SuperMansion, and Mike Tyson Mysteries. In 2017, she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (SNL) along with Luke Null and Chris Redd for its forty-third season.
After her first year on SNL, Gardner was hired to play Leonor in the Ben Falcone-directed film Life of the Party, alongside Melissa McCarthy, Falcone's wife. On August 28, 2019, TVLine reported that Gardner would have a guest role on the NBC comedy series Superstore, playing Dina Fox's nemesis Colleen who is transferred to Store 1217 after Cloud 9's Bel-Ridge location is shut down. In 2019, Gardner made her stage debut in Michael Frayn's Noises Off at The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.
Gardner, who had never broken character in seven seasons on SNL, cracked while playing NewsNation host Bobbi Moore in a Beavis and Butt-Head-centered sketch on April 13, 2024. Vulture magazine described the moment as breaking in "spectacularly charming fashion".

### Recurring characters on Saturday Night Live

* Angel (Every Boxer's Girlfriend from Every Movie About Boxing Ever), a distressed woman who tries to give "Weekend Update's Good News Report" but inevitably derails into melodramatic rants about her boyfriend's dangerous boxing career
* Bailey Gismert, a teen film critic who gives awkward reviews
* Brie Bacardi, one half of a shallow couple always on the brink of an argument, who runs a relationship-themed Instagram account with her boyfriend Nico Slobkin (Mikey Day)
* Baskin Johns, a woman who works for Goop and gets worried that she will be fired by Gwyneth Paltrow
* Mandy, a cousin of a celebrity who shames their movie careers
* Sandy, a joyful cook on a baking reality competition show who is qualified and skilled but often gets passed over as a winner for more poorly-constructed and eccentric cakes
* Tamra, an intern who pitches Instagram captions for Mattel's Barbie account
* Deidre, one half of a couple who describes their vacation to their friends, naïvely misinterpreting poor experiences as prestigious culture
* Crystal (Your Co-Worker Who is Extremely Busy Doing Seemingly Nothing), who comes to Weekend Update to complain about her job, although it's unclear what she actually does

## Personal life

Gardner is a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals. From 2010 to 2023, she was married to Marvel Comics creator Zeb Wells, whom she met while she was a member of the Groundlings. She lives in Leawood, Kansas which is south of Kansas City in a mid-century modern home she purchased in 2021.

## Filmography

Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2014 | Dibs! | Erica | |
| 2018 | Life of the Party | Leonor | |
| 2018 | Making Babies | Meg | |
| 2019 | Otherhood | Erin | |
| 2022 | Hustle | Kat Merrick | |
| 2022 | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | Last Baker | Voice role |
| 2023 | Leo | Eli's mom | Voice role |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2017, 2019 | Mike Tyson Mysteries | Old Woman, Jennifer | 2 episodes |
| 2017–present | Saturday Night Live | Various | |
| 2019 | The Other Two | Mona | Episode: "Chase Turns Fourteen" |
| 2019 | Veep | Amanda White | Episode: "Discovery Weekend" |
| 2019 | Alien News Desk | Tuva Van Void (voice) | 12 episodes |
| 2019 | American Dad! | Various voices | Episode: "Lost Boys" |
| 2019 | Superstore | Colleen | Episode: "Forced Hire" |
| 2020 | Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt | Jenny | Special: "Kimmy vs the Reverend" |
| 2021 | Close Enough | Becca (voice) | Episode: "Houseguest From Hell" |
| 2021 | Crank Yankers | Herself (voice) | Episode: "Chelsea Peretti, Heidi Gardner & J.B. Smoove" |
| 2022 | Is It Cake? | Herself (Judge) | Episode: "Toying Around" |
| 2022 | Girls5eva | Cara | Episode: "Album Mode" |
| 2022 | That Damn Michael Che | | Episode: "Higher Power" |
| 2023–2024 | Shrinking | Grace | 10 episodes |
Web
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2015 | Adult Wednesday | Hairdresser | Episode: "The Haircut" |
| 2015 | Bratz | Yasmin (voice) | 8 episodes |
| 2015–19 | SuperMansion | Cooch, Various voices | 46 episodes |
| 2016 | CollegeHumor Originals | Patient | Episode: "Why Are My Nipples Pixelated?" |
Audio
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2020 | Heads Will Roll | Various voices | 10 episodes |
| 2021 | Batman: The Audio Adventures | Harley Quinn, Miss Tuesday | |

## Stage

| Year | Title | Role | Locations |
| 2019 | Noises Off | Brooke Ashton/Vicki | The Cape Playhouse |

## Writing credits

Web
| Year | Title | Notes |
| 2015 | Bratz | 3 episodes |
| 2015–17 | SuperMansion | 11 episodes |