The SNL star of more than two decades shares the health issue that was no laughing matter and how he's staying healthy.
SNL’s Kenan Thompson on Girl Dad Life and Why Late-Night McDonald’s Had To Go
Published on Apr. 03, 2025
After more than two decades on Saturday Night Live, Kenan Thompson has become a comedy institution—and the longest-running cast member in the show’s 50-year history. But between late-night sketches, voiceovers, and dad duties, the beloved funnyman was battling an issue behind the scenes: chronic acid reflux.
“You could probably hear it in certain shows where my voice is cracking, and I sound a lot more hoarse,” Thompson recently told The Healthy by Reader’s Digest. “It can affect work.”
Now, for the first time, Thompson is speaking up about his experience with non-erosive GERD, a condition that affects over 65 million Americans, as part of the “GERD Is No Joke” campaign. His go-to remedy? A medication called VOQUEZNA and—sorry Big Mac, sorry “Good Burger”—cutting back on the late-night drive-thru runs.
These days, Thompson’s health mindset is a little different than it was back in his All That and Kenan & Kel days. Now a dad to two daughters, he’s cycling on weekends, hitting the gym a few times a week, and aiming for something he calls a “multicolored plate.” His weight has fluctuated over the years, something he talks about openly, but he says he finally feels in a good place.
Ahead, Thompson talks to The Healthy about how parenthood made him rethink his life and how he stays healthy with SNL’s schedule—including a no-late-night-eating rule.
The Healthy by Reader’s Digest: Kenan, we know that GERD affects millions of people a year—and yet many don’t realize how serious it is. Could you tell me a little bit about some of the first signs you noticed, and how you realized you wanted to seek help with it?
Kenan Thompson: Anybody who’s had acid reflux, they’re probably familiar with how highly uncomfortable it is, especially if it is happening during your sleep. And that’s the kind of symptoms I was having, overnight, kind of burping up acidy kind of feelings whenever I would eat bad and go to bed on it. But it started to become a recurring kind of thing so then I sought treatment, and thank God, I’m doing much better now.
The Healthy: SNL is known for its fast-paced environment and a ton of late nights, obviously, where sleep is not necessarily the priority. How do you take care of your health and your energy when you’re working at a job like that for as long as you have been?
Kenan Thompson: I mean, you do the best you can, I guess, right? Thank God I have family around me and good teams around me. You do what’s got to be done. Kids gotta get up and go to school, so you gotta get up and take them. You know what I mean? It is what it is.
The Healthy: Speaking of that, how has having kids changed how you think about your own health?
Kenan Thompson: It makes you definitely focus on being outside of thinking just about yourself, basically. You want to make better decisions about every single thing, but you also don’t want to freak yourself out about every single thing at the same time. You don’t want to be so hard on yourself, but kids will make you think, I’m not just out here living for just me anymore. You want to be there. I have girls, so I have this protective feeling, you know what I mean? So I want to be there to protect them, with anything throughout life.
The Healthy: SNL celebrated the 50th anniversary this year, and you are the longest-serving cast member. That’s so impressive! What has it meant to be part of such an iconic show for so long?
Kenan Thompson: It means the world. It’s hard to put into words, you know what I mean? Because you just keep saying the same words over and over again. It’s an honor. It’s humbling. But it really is all of those things.
And since it’s live and it’s sketch, it’s constantly changing. So, all of a sudden it’s like 20 years goes by and it just feels like a blur. Because you’re always present in the moment at that time, and then we have to move on because we have to focus on a whole ‘nother show. You know what I mean? So it just keeps time moving like that. But yeah, I mean, I feel like a little living legend out here.
The Healthy: You are! We know you’ve been asked this a million times in the last couple months, but are there any favorite moments?
Kenan Thompson: There’s a bunch. “What’s Up With That” is one of my favorites. The 50th Anniversary. The whole thing was hyper-special. It was a crazy weekend: the music concert on Friday, and then the show on Sunday and then rehearsal the whole time. It was a crazy week and weekend. That definitely will always be a core memory. The 40th was just as special. I’ve been lucky to be involved in two big milestone specials for that show and actually be in the show. It is all fantastic, in my opinion. No matter what, we’re trying to do a good service to the host and the musical guests and showcase them. But also showcase the brilliance of these writers that we have and celebrate that, and the collaboration between writer and cast member and cast members that write for themselves, too. It’s just celebrating the arts on a weekly basis. It’s really fun.
The Healthy: Being on SNL since 2003, how have you adapted your health habits to working on a show like that where you’re sleeping at weird times and eating around the writer’s room and all of that?
Kenan Thompson: It’s tough because the schedule is so in flux and not normal compared to the average everyday daytime worker or whatever. Later at night, the healthier choices get tougher. But you live and learn basically. In the beginning, I was eating McDonald’s and stuff like that with everybody else in the middle of the night and then going to bed, and then I wonder why I wake up with acid reflux. Now I have my schedule. I don’t eat past a certain time, and if I do, I’ll make sure I eat really, really smart so I don’t pay for it the next day. And yeah, man, I’m happy to be on the healthier side of things.
The Healthy: We talk a lot about how humor and having a purpose—all of these things that you’ve surrounded your entire life with—have such a correlation with longevity and benefits to your health. When you look back on your life, is there anything that you haven’t done that you want to do, or do you feel content with that sense of purpose in spending your life doing something that people wish they could?
Kenan Thompson: I think I’m solid in my sense of purpose and gratefulness and living the dream and all of that good stuff. I definitely have other things I want to accomplish outside of acting, outside of a lot of things just in life. I probably want to hike Mount Everest or something at some point.
The Healthy: Really?
Kenan Thompson: Not really. [laughs] But I got into cycling, and I never thought I’d be riding 40-mile cliffs, but that’s definitely where I’m at now. So you never know. I just want to stay open and stay positive and stay healthy. I don’t want to be one of those people that takes their health for granted for too long and it’s not fixable. I want to just stay focused on being a good person, living a good healthy kind of lifestyle without overly stressing about nitpicky stuff. And thank God if you do have a hiccup along the way, like an acid reflux problem or something, there’s good medicines out there.
The Health: What’s one healthcare ritual that you refuse to skip?
Kenan Thompson: I mean, when you’re on your prescriptions, you shouldn’t skip your prescriptions. On the real journey. You can’t skip anything, you know what I mean? Each meal and decision is imperative. Arguing about whether or not I’m going to work out today or not? All those things are kind of imperative to the journey. There is no skipping anything. You either live righteous or you don’t.
The Healthy: What does your workout and nutrition look like?
Kenan Thompson: I guess for me and my background, low-carb is better for me and higher proteins and stuff like that. Just in general, trying to make a multicolored plate. They always say, you want a colorful plate.
The Healthy: Eat the rainbow!
Kenan Thompson: All those kind of things that we all kind of know already. We have to do it and try to work out. I work out four-ish times a week in the gym and then cycle on the weekend. So yeah, pretty active. My physical appearance definitely shows when I’m active and when I’m not. I definitely can’t just look in the mirror and lie to myself, you know what I’m saying? You can always buy bigger clothes and stuff like that, but when you start to come down, you realize how big your clothes were and what you were really trying to hide, and the level of lying to yourself is sometimes pretty exaggerated. So you try to just keep all of that within balance basically.
The Healthy: Finally, do you have a favorite comfort food that you love?
Kenan Thompson: I grew up on soul food. Those are my things, the mac and cheeses of it all, and the fried chickens and the fried everything basically. But within moderation, you can have whatever you want.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
