Aidy Bryant has opened up about her decision to leave Saturday Night Live.
The comedian and actor recently left the show – along with co-stars Kate McKinnon and Pete Davidson – at the end of its forty-seventh season.
Bryant was a recurring cast member on the late-night comedy show for 10 years and is known for impersonating the likes of Adele, Rebel Wilson, Meghan McCain and Ted Cruz.
In a new interview with Variety, Bryant explained why she decided to say farewell to SNL.
“If it weren’t for Covid, I probably would have left a few years earlier. But it was such a huge change,” she began.
“When Covid hit, it was so jarring that we were all like, ‘I’m definitely going to come back next year.’”
Bryant added that she “missed a lot” of the last SNL season due to filming Shrill, her comedy series about a plus-sized Portland journalist.
“And then it was like, ‘Well, now I should go back one more.’ I kept trying to seek one last normal year. This year wasn’t the normal year that I hoped for, but it was closer to that,” she continued.
“It was like, ‘OK, it’s really time now.’ And 10 felt like a nice, solid round number.”
The star shared that she was initially “scared” to tell the show’s producer Lorne Michaels the news, however, she said he was understanding.
“I didn’t want it to come off like I was leaving angrily. I am leaving with so much love,” she said.
Bryant is currently developing an animated series for Peacock. Cheeky will be a collection of humorous first-person accounts about the human body.
