Keegan-Michael Key Says It’s a “Tragedy” He and Jordan Peele “Don’t See Each Other That Often Anymore”

Though Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele were once an iconic duo, they unfortunately “don’t see each other that often anymore.”

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During a recent interview with People magazine , the Wonka actor looked back at his first time meeting Peele, saying, “It was a thrilling time in my life.”

After previously training at Chicago’s Second City together, the pair, known as Key & Peele, were eventually “sharing a mind” on Fox’s MAD TV starting in 2004. Thanks to their comedic dynamic, they later launched their own sketch comedy series, Key & Peele , which ran from 2012-2015 and won two Emmys.

“We lived together for a few months and would write and talk about comedy — who we liked and why we liked them and how that worked in the architecture of what we were trying to build comedically,” Key recalled, adding that they “shared a creative language.”

“When we were on camera, it was alchemy,” the Transformers One voice actor said of Peele. “It was just like, ‘Why is this working?’”

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However, in the near-decade since Key & Peele ended on Comedy Central, Key admitted, “We don’t see each other that often anymore, which is, to me, a tragedy.”

The two actor-producers have teamed up on a handful of projects since their sketch comedy series, including 2016’s Keanu , FX’s Fargo , 2019’s Toy Story 4 and 2022’s Wendell & Wild , however, Key explained that eventually, “your lives start to evolve and move in different directions.” Peele resides in Los Angeles with his wife Chelsea Peretti while Key and his wife Elle Key are based in New York City.

“Our evolution, I think, is tied to both of what our desires are,” Key added. “His desire was to start exploring the horror genre, and my desire was to do more dramatic work like I had been trained in school.” After Key & Peele , “both of us jumped to another platform — but we needed that first platform.”

The Schmigadoon! actor also noted that fans can get a glimpse of their respective futures by watching their evolutions in Key & Peele . “I was playing the clown more and doing more physical comedy in the beginning of our time together,” Key explained, “and then I found myself evolving into playing more of the straight roles and teeing up Jordan to play the clown.”

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