The actors, who went from roommates to creative partners after first crossing paths in 2004, have since gone their separate ways. But one half of the Key & Peele duo recently opened up about how much they have drifted apart.
"We don't see each other that often anymore," Key told PEOPLE in a new interview. "Which is, to me, a tragedy."
He added, "Your lives start to evolve and move in different directions." Peele lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Chelsea Peretti, while Key and his wife, Elle Key, are based in New York City. Geography aside, Key also pointed to their disparate creative pursuits as a reason why they see less of each other.
"Our evolution, I think, is tied to both of what our desires are," said the Transformers One star of him and Peele. "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 closing the book on Key & Peele, the comedians each "jumped to another platform," with Peele writing and directing the films Get Out, Us, and Nope, while Key starred in series and films including Friends From College, Schmigadoon, and Wonka. Their leap, Key noted, would not have been possible without "that first platform," a show they built together.
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After previously training at Chicago's Second City together, the duo eventually began "sharing a mind" on Fox's MadTV starting in 2004. Their comedic dynamic would give them the legs to launch their titular sketch comedy series, Key & Peele, which ran from 2012 to 2015 and picked up two Emmys along the way.
Key said throughout that period the pair "shared a creative language," adding, "When we were on camera, it was alchemy. It was just like, 'Why is this working?'"
He also argued that their roles in the sketch series foreshadowed their later career choices. "I was playing the clown more and doing more physical comedy in the beginning of our time together, and then I found myself evolving into playing more of the straight roles and teeing up Jordan to play the clown," he said.
In 2016, after snagging Key & Peele's final Emmys win for Best Variety Sketch Series, they promised that future collaborations lie ahead.
"We definitely want to make movies together, and we want to make movies apart from each other, because it just makes it even better when we get back together," Peele said backstage at the awards show.
"It's like you had a dance partner for years and years and years," Key said in 2022. "You come back, learn a new routine, but then you know you're not gonna do the routine again for another five months... It's that riding-a-bike feeling."
He added, "When you spend that much time with somebody, especially a person that you lived with, there is a real connection and there are times when it gets downright symbiotic. It was just locking those pieces in again."