Heidi Gardner has added another feature film role to acting her resume.
The Saturday Night Live star will appear in the upcoming indie dark comedy Transcending, Deadline reports.
Transcending stars comedian Tone Bell as a man who seeks refuge from a breakup at a Kansas City bed-and-breakfast, where he falls for his host: a widow (Raleigh Cain) who believes her late husband’s soul has “transcended into the walls of the home.”
Gardner reportedly plays a proud local neighbor with “the spiciest chili on the block.” She joins a cast that also includes comedian Nicole Byer, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Pete Gardner, and musician Kevin Morby.
The project, which recently completed principal photography, was shot in Gardner’s hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. She currently splits her time between Kansas City and New York.
The SNL star will next appear in Nicholas Stoller’s Judgement Day, starring Will Ferrell and Zac Efron. That film, from Amazon MGM Studios, is also in post-production. Her other recent credits include arcs on Apple TV+’s Shrinking, Netflix’s animated reboot of Good Times, and an episode of the Netflix thriller You.
Gardner has sent mixed signals about her future on Saturday Night Live. She made news in February during an appearance on Craig Ferguson’s podcast when she told the host that sketch ideas had stopped coming to her as readily as they once did, and that she’d begun considering what might be next for her. More recently, there’s been at least one encouraging sign that she intends to return for the upcoming season.
Transcending was written by Cain and directed by Mike Luciano, co-creator of the HBO animated series Animals, produced by Jay and Mark Duplass.
