'SNL' Star Kenan Thompson Reveals Health Diagnosis

Kenan Thompson has been one of the biggest and most consistent stars of "Saturday Night Live" since he joined the show back in 2004, but it sounds like he has been dealing with a chronic health condition over the past few years.

Last week, Thompson opened up about his health condition for the first time as he revealed that for the past two years, he had been dealing with painful heartburn that became so frequent that he even struggled to get through workdays at SNL.

“I noticed that I would get hoarse a lot easier when I'm doing the show. Losing my voice quicker, but also uncomfortable sleepless nights because I'm burping up acid, just kind of hiccuping all night,” Thompson said in an interview with People Magazine. “And that can definitely add more stress to an already stressful kind of environment doing a live show like that. So all of those factors, I was like whatever, I'll get over it. But it just started to pile up.”

Thompson noticed that acidic foods seemed to exacerbate the problem, so he tried to avoid certain foods. He also tried some over-the-counter medications, but nothing really brought him total relief.

“I was able to take something and patch it up for the moment, but I got to a point where that didn't work anymore. That's when it got serious,” he explains. “It was a suffering-in-silence situation. I don't know if I was necessarily embarrassed to talk to a doctor — I just didn't know if I needed to.” 

In early 2024, the symptoms finally got so bad that Thompson saw a doctor where he was immediately diagnosed with Gastroesophageal reflux disease — commonly known as GERD. This disease occurs when stomach acid repeatedly flows back into the tube connecting your mouth and stomach (esophagus).

Thompson was prescribed Voquezna, a potassium competitive acid blocker and the first and only FDA-approved treatment of its kind, and it brought him immediate relief that he didn't even know was possible. As a result, Thompson is now partnering with Phathom Pharmaceuticals for the GERD IS NO JOKE campaign to raise awareness for GERD and Voquezna.

Thomspon, of course, is using his humor for the campaign as he portrays a chef in a “Kick Some Acid Cooking Show” in commercials.

“I've had good training with SNL, just trying to take the comedic approach to tougher topics and make it more palatable to discuss,” he continues. “Sometimes you have to massage your way into it a little bit and just be like, alright, don't freak out everybody, I'm doing a medication ad, but we need to do a deep dive on this. So if I throw a character in it, there's some familiarity to go along with the messaging.”

Now, Thompson feels better and he hopes others can find that same relief.