Bowen Yang

Bowen Yang (; born November 6, 1990) is an American comedian, actor, podcaster, and writer. Yang joined the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live as a staff writer in 2018, and was cast member for seven seasons from 2019 until his departure in 2025. He became the first SNL featured player to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award (in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category) in 2021, the same year he was promoted to repertory status.

Yang has appeared in the television series Girls5Eva, Ziwe, and The Other Two, and was recurring on Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens. He is also known for his appearances in the LGBTQ romantic comedies Fire Island and Bros, both released in 2022, and in the musical fantasy films Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025). He co-hosts a comedy pop-culture podcast, Las Culturistas, with Matt Rogers. In January 2019, he was named to Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment list. His father, Ruilin Yang, was raised in a rural village of Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, growing up in a straw and mud hut. Yang's mother, Meng Su, is a retired physician from Shenyang who was an obstetrician-gynecologist before working in diagnostics. where Yang first discovered Saturday Night Live (SNL). As a child, he was drawn to late-night comedians and hosts David Letterman and Conan O'Brien. At Smoky Hill High School, Yang's calculus teacher, Adrian Holguin, was also his coach for the school's improvisational comedy group, Spontaneous Combustion. He was named homecoming king and also voted "Most Likely to Be a Cast Member on Saturday Night Live". Yang graduated in 2008.

When he was seventeen, Yang's father found out his son was gay from an "open chat window" on the family's computer. Yang's father cried often over the revelation and, being non-religious but wanting to "solve problems", arranged for him to attend eight sessions of gay conversion therapy. He came to accept being gay, incorporating it into his comedy, and hoped his parents would learn to accept that aspect of him.

Yang was inspired by Sandra Oh's character Cristina Yang on Grey's Anatomy for her neurotic and relentless pursuits, and aspired to be a doctor. He went to pre-med classes and graduated from NYU with a bachelor's degree in chemistry . The company was flexible with Yang's time-off needs for comedy. During this time, Yang designed graphics for his own shows and for his friends' comedy shows. The podcast premiered in 2016 and , has over 300 episodes.

Yang appeared in shows such as Comedy Central's Broad City, a Vimeo web series The Outs, and the HBO web comedy High Maintenance. He was a supporting cast member in the 2019 film Isn't It Romantic. Yang performed stand-up on HBO's 2 Dope Queens. In 2019, Yang received press coverage for his viral Twitter posts consisting of "expertly-timed lip-sync videos of famous movie scenes", in which he "reproduces dialogue from diva scenes" and well-known moments in popular culture. Past videos featured a monologue by Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, Tyra Banks yelling at contestant Tiffany Richardson on America's Next Top Model, and a viral video of Cardi B talking about the 2019 government shutdown.

Saturday Night Live Staff writer: 2018 In 2018, Yang was hired as a staff writer on Saturday Night Live for the show's 44th season. His writing included: "GP Yass", a play on a vehicle's GPS navigation device that utilizes drag queens to deliver driving directions; and two sketches co-written with Julio Torres, which features Yang's talent for infusing "drama, tension, and exquisite backstory" into an everyday activity like paying bills in "Cheques" with Sandra Oh, and an actress doing a cameo in a gay pornography film, "The Actress" with Emma Stone. "The Actress" was hailed by Out as the "gayest SNL sketch of all time", and featured Stone as an earnest method actress taking her role as a cheated-on housewife too seriously alongside real-life gay porn actor Ty Mitchell. The pre-tape—so-called as it is filmed days ahead rather than acted live—was championed by Stone to be included on air.

On-air cast: 2019–2025 In September 2019, Yang was promoted to featured player for the 45th season, alongside improviser Chloe Fineman, both of whom were promoted to repertory status at the start of the show's 47th season in September 2021.

SNL has had "little representation from Asian actors, as cast members or hosts" over several decades. A 2016 study of SNL revealed that 90% of 1975–2016's show hosts (826 total) were white, 6.8% were black, 1.2% were Hispanic, and 1.1% were labelled "other". Similarly, SNL has had comparatively low representation of LGBTQ on-air cast and guest hosts since the series started in 1975. Yang is the third gay male, and sixth LGBTQ cast member. The announcement of Yang's casting on Saturday Night Live was reported internationally, and within hours was overshadowed by revelations that comedian Shane Gillis, who had been hired at the same time, aired homophobic and anti-Asian jokes. Gillis issued an apology, but within days was fired by SNL. Notably he was included in the show's cold open playing Kim Jong-un giving advice to Trump on handling the Ukraine controversy including the whistleblower who helped trigger the 2019 impeachment hearings. Perhaps his "filthiest" sketch, also co-written with friend Julio Torres, was for guest host Harry Styles as an incompetent Sara Lee Corporation social media manager who mixes up his own gay BDSM account on Instagram with the company's "wholesome bread brand". The same year, Yang was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He is the first featured player to ever be nominated. He also played NBA hall-of-famer Yao Ming in January 2022. Yang also played embattled Congressman George Santos in multiple sketches in which he received critical praise.

In 2021, Yang was applauded for speaking out on the recent surge in violence against Asian-Americans during a Weekend Update segment. He told audiences to "fuel up" (using the Chinese cheer Jiayou) and do more for Asian Americans. Also in 2021, he appeared on the Time 100, Times annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Yang departed the SNL cast in the show's 51st season, In June 2026, Yang revealed that he was initially going to leave the show after the conclusion of its 50th season but show creator/showrunner Lorne Michaels asked him to stay on due to several cast members leaving and many new cast members joining. Asking Yang to mentor the new cast members.

Other work Yang plays Nora Lin's mobile app-developer cousin in the Comedy Central sitcom Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, which premiered in January 2020 and was renewed for a third season in 2022. Yang is a writer on the Apple TV+ musical comedy series Schmigadoon!, which stars his former SNL castmate Cecily Strong. In September 2021, he appeared as a guest on the NPR news quiz Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! In 2022 he starred in Fire Island, written by and co-starring his close friend Joel Kim Booster, whom he met at the beginning of his comedy career. He appeared in the 2022 film Bros and is part of the cast of Dicks: The Musical with Aaron Jackson, Josh Sharp, and Megan Thee Stallion. Yang appears as Pfannee in the first part, released in 2024, of the two-part film adaptation of the musical Wicked.

Yang is a signatory of the Film Workers for Palestine boycott pledge, which was published in September 2025.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes 2019 Isn't It Romantic Donny's Guy 2020 CicadaHudson 2022 The Lost CityRay the Moderator Fire Island Howie Bros Lawrence Grape Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again Ronnie Voice role 2023 The Monkey KingDragon King Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain Deetch Nordwind Good Burger 2Himself 2024 The Tiger's Apprentice Sidney Voice role 2025 The Wedding Banquet Chris Wicked: For Good Pfannee 2026 Tangles Dale Voice role The Cat in the Hat

Television

Accolades In 2025, he became the most-nominated Asian male performer in Emmy history with his fourth nomination for NBC's Saturday Night Live. Only Sandra Oh has more Emmy nominations among Asian performers. 2019 – Forbes 30 Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment list 2020 – Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award 2021 – People Sexiest Man Alive 2021 – Variety Power of Pride list 2025 – Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Vantage Award

+ Awards nominations Year Association Work Category Result 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards Saturday Night Live Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series 2021 Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series 2025 2019 Writers Guild of America Awards Comedy/Variety Sketch Series 2020 Best TV Musical Performance "Pride Month Song" Critics Choice Awards Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Gotham Awards Fire Island Ensemble Tribute 2023 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards Las Culturistas Podcast of the Year Best Comedy Podcast 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards Wicked Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture 2026 Tony Awards Titanique Best Musical