Bowen Yang Is Leaving Saturday Night Live

It appears to be the end of an era: Bowen Yang is planning to leave Saturday Night Live, most likely after this Saturday’s episode hosted by his Wicked costar Ariana Grande with musical guest Cher. A source with knowledge informed VF that this episode may be Yang’s last—though Deadline asserts it as fact. Representatives for Yang and the show did not respond to requests for comment.

Yang joined Saturday Night Live as a writer in 2018, appearing infrequently onscreen. He was promoted to featured player the following season, then full repertory player in 2021—becoming one of the show’s marquee faces, and earning four primetime Emmy nominations for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series.

In an April interview, Yang indicated that he'd started to think about moving on. The star-studded events around SNL's 50th anniversary helped him realize “what life after the show is like and how beautiful it is," he said then. The lauded sketch comedy show is “this growing, living thing where new people come in and you do have to sort of make way for them and to grow and to keep elevating themselves. And that inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point.”

Yang was born in Australia to parents who immigrated to that country from China before moving to first Canada and then the US. He is the first person of Asian descent named to SNL’s cast, though Fred Armisen, a cast member from 2008-2013, discovered years later that his grandfather was Korean during an episode of PBS ancestry series Finding Your Roots.

During his time on the show, Bowen Yang also appeared on the small screen in shows including Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, as well as films including Bros, The Wedding Banquet, and the Wicked series. He also continued to record podcast La Culturistas with co-host Matt Rogers.

Speaking with Vanity Fair in 2020, Yang laid out his hopes for his non-SNL life. Citing then-co-star Aidy Bryant, Yang said, "She understood this is a business where not everything is handed to you and you have to make your own work. I’m not setting too many expectations for myself. I’m just trying to create opportunities for something interesting.”