Ashley Padilla has been on “Saturday Night Live” for less than two seasons (a blip in Kenan Thompson Years), but she’s already amassing accolades usually reserved for the likes of Maya Rudolph or Will Ferrell. Vulture compared her to a young Tom Brady, the New York Times recently published a frame-by-frame breakdown of her comic timing, and Glamour declared the dawning of the Ashley Padilla Era. The 32-year-old is also the latest in a long line of Bay Area-born “SNL” cast members — a list that includes Will Forte, Rob Schneider, Andy Samberg (plus his Lonely Island bandmates) and Padilla’s current castmate, Chloe Fineman.

Padilla spent most of her childhood in Livermore, an outer suburb that isn’t known as a hotbed for burgeoning comedians. But that could change.

“Maybe it will be now?” mused Padilla during a phone call with SFGATE earlier this month.

Before moving to Livermore, Padilla lived in Oakland and went to the Montclair Elementary School, where she was partial to the gone-but-not-forgotten Montclair Malt Shop. Padilla is one of four children, all raised by her single mom.

“She worked her way up at a company, and she just did it all without going to college,” Padilla said.

When Padilla was 10, the family relocated to Livermore to be closer to her grandparents. Her grandmother was a teacher’s aide, and her grandfather worked for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Despite her eventual career path, Padilla was not a theater kid. She was in one play — a rendition of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” — but didn’t have many other outlets to harness her creativity and drive to perform.

“That was the only thing I really did, other than being annoying,” Padilla said.

To help out her single mom, Padilla started working at a Livermore movie theater while still a teenager, though “working” may be phrasing it generously.

“I was a very bad employee … I didn’t know that the schedule was like, your schedule. I thought it was more of a decision on your own behalf,” Padilla admitted.

She spends most of her time in New York City these days, but Padilla still has ties to the Bay Area. Her grandfather lives in the East Bay and still volunteers with the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory’s “Fun with Science” education program, and her sister Samantha is a tattoo artist at Mirage Tattoo in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood.

“If you ever need a tattoo, she’s your girl,” Padilla told me.

Padilla moved to Los Angeles after high school, but she wasn’t chasing any specific dream just yet.

“I was lost as hell. And my mom was like, ‘You’re pretty funny. You could try, you know, taking some comedy classes,’” Padilla said. According to the comedian, Padilla’s mother literally just Googled “comedy class.” This eventually led her to start taking classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade and the Groundlings, two improv schools that are both established pipelines to “SNL.” Padilla worked her way up to the Groundlings’ main company, where she was noticed by talent manager Naomi Odenkirk (Bob Odenkirk’s wife), who recommended she audition for “SNL.”

In an interview with Vulture, Padilla said Lorne Michaels told her, “We don’t have room.” So she was pleasantly surprised when she learned she’d been hired shortly thereafter.

Padilla became an instant hit at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Whether she’s playing an office worker with serious gas, dancing with Domingo, attempting not to break next to Ryan Gosling, or being killed by Olivia Rodrigo, Padilla has become one of the more widely used cast members. Her humor shines most when her characters are trying their hardest to maintain a sense of normalcy amid increasingly absurd circumstances. 

Padilla hopes to incorporate personalities and experiences from her Bay Area upbringing in the future. But for now, most of her characters are a reflection of herself.

“I’m more pulling from like, ‘What idiot lives inside me that I want to make fun of?’” she explained. 

With her increased appearances on the show, Padilla has started to be recognized more and more — and has learned she’s a favorite of a certain demographic that’s near and dear to her heart.

“I love talking to people, so it’s definitely allowed me to talk to more people. I love nothing more than when a fan or something is like, ‘My mom loves you.’ It’s my favorite thing in the world. I don’t know why, I have moms on my side,” Padilla said. 

And that was before she threw her biggest fans a bone with her most recent sketch “Mom Movie Trailer.”

Like many “SNL” cast members before her, Padilla hopes to use her success on the show to break into film. She’s currently working on a movie with Pastel, the studio behind 2016 best picture-winner “Moonlight” and 2025 indie hit “Sorry, Baby.”

“I want to make something where it’s just funny women trying to get things in the world, but maybe they’re not so capable,” Padilla said.

As she broadens her comedy portfolio, Padilla’s cross-generational and cross-coastal appeal is sure to pay dividends. Thus far, Padilla hasn’t found that there’s much difference between making New Yorkers laugh versus the Californians she grew up with.

“We all want to laugh, and my form of comedy is like, ‘Laugh at me, I’m an idiot,’” Padilla said. “So I love performing kind of a dumbass. I think that that makes people all over laugh. Thank god, it’s not really niche to California or New York. It’s just like, ‘Are you a person who has experienced embarrassment? Then you’ll love this.’”