Travis Kelce's "SNL" Appearance Was Years in the Making

In March 2023, Travis Kelce hosted Saturday Night Live. He was far from the first prominent athlete to do so, but he had a significant advantage over most of the professional athletes who have hosted SNL: a combination of onscreen charisma and excellent comic timing. (I’m particularly fond of his appearance in a Please Don’t Destroy video as a self-esteem instructor.)

In retrospect, Kelce’s hosting gig seems to be the opening move in a push to enshrine him as the rare pro athlete who can make a reasonably smooth shift into an acting career. And apparently, he had a behind-the-scenes connection advocating for his comic chops as a potential SNL host: cast member Heidi Gardner. Gardner’s hometown is, in fact, Kansas City, and she spent several years talking Kelce up to SNL‘s Lorne Michaels.

As The Hollywood Reporter‘s Kimberly Nordyke reports, Gardner shared the story on an episode of the podcast Not Skinny But Not Fat. According to her, the process of getting Kelce on the show “took a couple [of] years.”

“I don’t want to take full credit from the show and the talent department — but I’m just, obviously a big Chiefs fan, and I had seen him do like other little acting gigs and appearances, and I was like, ‘He’s funny, he’s charming,’” Gardner recalled.

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Since that SNL appearance, Kelce has also starred in the series Grotesquerie, for which several of his onscreen colleagues praised his on-set attitude. His next role as an actor is in the forthcoming Happy Gilmore 2, whose trailer has already amassed over three million views on YouTube since its release earlier this week. Hopefully we’ll see the return of his Kurt Lightning character before long as well.