Updated December 20, 2025 at 8:57 PM EST
Comedian Bowen Yang is leaving Saturday Night Live midway through the season, his eighth with the long-running NBC late-night sketch comedy series. The performer is scheduled to participate in his final show Saturday, which will be hosted by Wicked star Ariana Grande. Cher is the musical guest.
Yang has not publicly shared the reason for his abrupt departure from SNL. In a social media post on Saturday, the comedian thanked the team and expressed gratitude for "every minute" of his time with the show.
"I loved working at SNL, and most of all I loved the people," Yang wrote. "I was there at a time when many things in the world started to seem futile, but working at 30 Rock taught me the value in showing up anyway when people make it worthwhile."
Yang, 35, was one of SNL's most prominent recent cast members.
His most famous work on the show includes "The Iceberg That Sank the Titanic," a "Weekend Update" segment where Yang personifies the infamous iceberg; a commercial spoof co-starring Travis Kelce — "Straight Male Friend" — advertising the benefits of low-stakes friendships; and his recurring impression of expelled congressman George Santos. At one point, Yang also performed a sketch in which he played an intern on NPR's Tiny Desk concert series.
Yang has been nominated for five Emmy Awards for his work on the series. Beyond SNL, the performer's credits include the 2022 romantic comedy Fire Island, the musical Wicked (2024) as well as its sequel, Wicked: For Good (2025), and the remake of The Wedding Banquet (2025). He also co-hosts the Las Culturistas podcast with actor and comedian Matt Rogers.
Yang, the show's first Chinese American cast member, rose through SNL's ranks after joining the show as a staff writer in 2018. A year later, he was promoted to on-air talent and eventually became a series regular.
Yang talked about the natural turnover at SNL and hinted at life beyond the show in an interview with People earlier this year. "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," he said. "And that inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point — but I don't know what the vision is yet."
He joins other cast members who have recently left the show. Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim and Devon Walker are among those who departed ahead of the 51st season, which launched in October.
Yang's reps did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment. The series' network, NBCUniversal, referenced Yang's social media post, but provided no further comment.
Though uncommon, there have been a few other mid-season SNL departures in the past, including Cecily Strong, Dana Carvey and Eddie Murphy.
Fellow entertainers have commented on Yang's departure on social media. "Iconic. (Understatement)" wrote actor Evan Ross Katz on Instagram in response to Yang's post. "Congrats!" wrote comedian Amber Ruffin. "Please make more The Wedding Banquets."
NPR critic-at-large Eric Deggans called Yang's departure, even if inevitable, a setback for the show.
"SNL thrives when it has a large crop of utility players who can pull comedic gold from the dodgiest sketch ideas," Deggans said, counting Yang among the most talented in recent seasons of the show's cast to fill that role.
"No matter what he was asked to do, from playing the iceberg that sunk the Titanic to playing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, he was able to wring maximum laughs and patch up SNL's historic lack of representation regarding Asian performers," he added.
But Yang, Deggans noted, may have reached an apex of what he could achieve on the show, "and it might be time for him to leave, while his star is still ascending and there are opportunities beyond the program available to him which might not be around for long."
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