Last Updated:December 20, 2025, 13:05 IST

Bowen Yang is set to leave Saturday Night Live after his final appearance in the latest episode, hosted by his Wicked co-star Ariana Grande.

Bowen Yang joined the show in 2018 as a writer. (Photo Credit: X)

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is set for a major change as one of its most popular faces is preparing to say goodbye. Bowen Yang, one of the strongest and fan favourite performers, will leave the long-running show after his final appearance in the latest episode, hosted by his Wicked co-star Ariana Grande. His exit comes at a time when the show has already seen several cast members depart ahead of season 51.

He first joined the show in 2018 as a writer and stepped in front of the camera a year later. The news did not come as a total surprise, as Yang had earlier shared that he was thinking about the right time to step aside. According to him, the show must keep changing as new talents are coming in and at some point, older cast members need to step aside.

Bowen Yang Set To Exit Saturday Night Live

Bowen Yang, who has received five Emmy nominations, made history in 2019 as SNL’s first Chinese American cast member and one of the show’s openly gay performers. Before his departure, several others had also left the series, including Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, John Higgins, Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker and Emil Wakim.

Hinting about his exit, Bowen Yang had told People, “SNL, it’s just this moving, living, breathing thing. 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. And then with SNL, as I said, it’s 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, but I don’t know what the vision is yet.”

“The new season of SNL, I’m just like, ‘Oh, right. My time isn’t my own.’ And I tell my friends, ‘I’m not going to really see you guys until June.’ And people that I’ve gone on a couple solid dates with, I’m like, ‘Hey, it’s not for lack of interest. My time is really slipping away from me and I’m so sorry and it’s not a you thing, it’s a me thing,” Yang added.

Apart From SNL

Outside SNL, Bowen Yang stayed busy with TV shows and films, like Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, Bros, The Wedding Banquet and The Wicked. He also worked on his podcast La Culturistas with Matt Rogers.