One of Saturday Night Live’s biggest breakout stars, Bowen Yang, is departing the series after Saturday’s show. Appropriately, Yang’s final SNL episode as a cast member is being hosted by his Wicked: For Good co-star, Arianna Grande.
Yang joined SNL as a writer in 2018, beginning on the show’s 44th season. He joined the cast as a featured player the following year and became part of the main group for season 47.
Yang hung on a few months longer than many of his fellow cast members. Ahead of the current season, the 51st, Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, John Higgins of Please Don’t Destroy (and the son of Steve Higgins, the longtime SNL producer and writer — and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’s announcer and sometimes sidekick), Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker and Emil Wakim exited. The rest of Please Don’t Destroy stuck around, but in different capacities. Martin Herlihy joined the writing staff as Ben Marshall was upped to a featured player (basically, SNL’s term for sort of a trial cast member).
It is a bit unusual for a cast member to exit midseason, but not without precedent. Cecily Strong did it, as did Molly Shannon, Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey and Janeane Garofalo. The late, great Norm MacDonald also did, though he was unceremoniously fired for making a few too many O.J. Simpson jokes. At the time, Don Ohlmeyer, a close friend of Simpson’s, ran NBC.
Yang foretold his exit, coincidentally or not, in April.
“SNL, it’s just this moving, living, breathing thing,” he told People. “Especially after the 50th, I’m seeing what life after the show is like and how beautiful it is, and how so many people, no matter how long they were at the show, are just with their families and loving their lives and not letting the years take away any of that experience for them.”
Yang on SNL was nominated for an Emmy as a writer in 2019, and for his comedic acting in 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025.
Cher will be Grande’s musical guest on tomorrow’s Christmas episode. Yang’s other acting credits include The Wedding Banquet, Please Don’t Destroy’s The Legend of Foggy Mountain and Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens, as well as a whole lot of voice-acting work. Wicked: For Good, the sequel to 2024’s Wicked, came out on Nov. 21.
Yang co-hosts the popular podcast Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers.
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