In The Job Interview, visionaries and innovators reflect on lessons learned that have helped them reach the heights of their careers.
Saturday Night Live’s Kenan Thompson and Heidi Gardner sit down for The Job Interview with WSJ. Magazine to interview each other about their early careers, comedy and favorite times on NBC’s SNL.
Kenan discusses his early days on Nickelodeon with the sketch-comedy show ‘Kenan & Kel,’ getting cast in his first movie ‘D2: The Mighty Ducks’ and his longevity on SNL.
Heidi talks about how her time as a hairstylist influenced her characters on SNL, her days at ‘The Groundlings’ and her love for Jack Black.
Thompson’s hosting experience also includes some of his most popular characters on SNL including Diondre Cole, the singing talk show host of What Up With That, his Steve Harvey impersonation on Family Feud, and Black Jeopardy host Darnell Hayes. Additionally, Thompson served as producer and judge on NBC’s comedy competition series Bring the Funny.
He also recently executive produced and starred as the title character in the NBC comedy series Kenan, served as an executive producer on Nickelodeon’s 2019 All That reboot and appeared in Season 2 of HBO Max’s That Damn Michael Che and Prime Video’s The Kids in the Hall.
Heidi Gardner: Heidi Gardner is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She has been a cast member on Saturday Night Live since 2017, beginning in season 43. Gardner was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She grew up with an older brother, Justin. Growing up, Gardner worked part-time at the Tivoli Theater, where she did everything “from selling tickets to making popcorn.” She later credited the theater as “setting the tone in her life.” Gardner was not interested in acting as a child, only performing on stage as a flutist for the school band and doing comedy sketches in school talent shows. Gardner graduated from the all-girls Catholic high school Notre Dame DE Sion in 2001.
