One of Saturday Night Live’s biggest breakout stars, Bowen Yang (pictured above, right, with Michael Che, left), 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.
Wicked: For Good, the sequel to 2024’s Wicked, came out on Nov. 21. 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.
