Silverman first received national attention in the 1993–94 season of Saturday Night Live, as a writer and featured player. She was fired after one season because only one of the sketches she wrote survived to dress rehearsal, and none aired. Bob Odenkirk, a former SNL writer explained:

Silverman claims being fired by SNL via fax upset her greatly. She parodied the situation when she appeared on The Larry Sanders Show episode "The New Writer" (1996), playing Sanders' new staff writer, whose jokes are not used because of the chauvinism and bias of the male chief comedy writer, who favors the jokes of his male co-writers. She had a recurring role on Larry Sanders for its last two seasons.

Silverman was a featured performer on the HBO sketch comedy show Mr. Show (1995-97). She made TV program guest appearances on Seinfeld, in the episode "The Money" (1997); on Star Trek: Voyager, in the two-part time travel episode "Future's End" (1996); on Greg the Bunny as a series regul