Bowen Yang (born November 6, 1990)[1] is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, and writer. Yang was hired to join the writing staff of the NBCsketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in September 2018, ahead of its 44th season, and a year later was promoted to on-air cast status for SNL's 45th season. He made history becoming the first SNL featured player to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2021.[2] He was promoted to repertory status before the 47th season.[3]
Yang was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, to a family that had emigrated from China in 1986.[4][7][8][9] His father, Ruilin, was raised in a rural part of the Inner Mongolia region of mainland China, growing up in a straw and mud hut.[10] Ruilin's parents were 'English illiterate', but he read books for hours by candlelight and eventually got into university. Yang's mother, from Shenyang, was a highly educated, now retired physician who was an obstetrician-gynecologist in China before working in diagnostics.[9][10][11] The couple moved to Brisbane so Ruilin could earn his doctorate in mining explosives.[10]
Yang has an older sister.[9] The children spoke Mandarin in their home, and attended Chinese Sunday school.[10] When Bowen was six months old, the family moved to Canada and eventually settled in Montreal,[12] where Bowen first discovered Saturday Night Live (SNL). When he was nine, they moved again, to Aurora, Colorado.[7][10][13] As a child, he was drawn to late-night comedians and hosts David Letterman and Conan O'Brien.[11]
Yang's high school calculus teacher, Adrian Holguin, was also his coach for Smoky Hill High School's improvisational comedy group, Spontaneous Combustion.[14] Yang got a near perfect score on the ACT (a 35) and a 2200 on his SAT, and graduated from high school in 2008.[15][16] He was named homecoming king and also voted "Most Likely to Be a Cast Member on Saturday Night Live" in his high school's yearbook.[16][17]
When he was seventeen, Yang's father found out his son was gay from an "open chat window" on the family's computer.[11] His parents were not receptive to the news, stating that such things "did not happen in China".[18] 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.[11][18] He agreed to attend the sessions to appease his parents, who said they would otherwise not allow him to move to New York to attend New York University, which his sister was already attending.[9] He was immediately alarmed by the counselor's mix of religion and use of pseudo-scientific reasoning to explain away positive homosexual manifestations.[10][11] In an interview for The New York Times, Maureen Dowd questioned why his parents, both scientists, did not see the disconnection.[10] Bowen said, "It was a cultural thing for them, this cultural value around masculinity, around keeping the family line going, keeping certain things holy and sacred," he said "It was me wanting to meet them halfway but realizing it had to be pretty absolute. It was an either-or thing."[10]
In 2008, Yang moved to New York City and joined his sister at NYU.[9] His father assigned her to chaperone him during this period as Bowen tried "straightness on for size and fail[ed] miserably."[18][19] He came to accept being gay, incorporating it into his comedy, and hoped his parents would learn to accept that aspect of him.[18] They have since found a truce and enjoy a "great relationship."[11] At NYU, he was in the improv group Dangerbox, and he occasionally performed with Stephanie Hsu, a member of the school's sketch comedy group.[20][21]
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.[10][22] He went to pre-med classes and graduated from NYU with a bachelor's degree in chemistry.[10][23][14] After realizing he was actually inspired by Oh for her acting ability, he decided to pursue a career in comedy instead.[22] At NYU, he met Matt Rogers, with whom he started Las Culturistas, a weekly comedy podcast where Yang "unapologetically expresses his personality, story and himself by sharing his experiences as a member of the LGBTQ community".[8][22]
The podcast that Yang co-hosts with Matt Rogers, Las Culturistas, is described by Vulture as both "delightfully screwy" and a "two-headed snark routine".[26] The podcast premiered in 2016 and as of September 2019[update], has over 300 episodes.[27] Each one opens with an interview with a pop culture guest, then goes to one-minute rounds of "I Don't Think So, Honey!" (IDTSH) where the hosts and guests each expound on pet peeves.[26] IDTSH has also morphed into its own live show.[26] Yang credits the Las Culturistas podcast with Rogers for building his fanbase. In 2018 it was nominated for a Shorty Award recognizing the best in social media.[4][28][29]
In 2018, Yang was hired as a staff writer on Saturday Night Live for the show's 44th season.[11] He said he "always loved SNL growing up, but had trouble imagining himself on the show, because he'd never seen people who looked like him associated with the series".[34] Yang has writing credits on 21 episodes of the show for the 2018–2019 season.[27] 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.[30] "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.[35][36] The pre-tape—so-called as it is filmed days ahead rather than acted live—was championed by Stone to be included on air.[35][36]SNL creator Lorne Michaels knew Yang would be an on-air talent but wanted him to be comfortable on their stage first.[11] Yang made a cameo appearance during the Sandra Oh/Tame Impala episode as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un while Oh played his translator.[37]
As on-air cast: 2019–present
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.[38] Yang is the show's first ever Chinese-American cast member, and third gay male cast member after Terry Sweeney and John Milhiser.[39][40]
SNL has had "little representation from Asian actors, as cast members or hosts" over several decades.[22][37] Up until Yang's promotion there had been only three cast members,[a] and six hosts who were of Asian descent.[b][22][34] A 2016 study of SNL revealed: 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".[41] 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.[c] 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.[47][48] Gillis issued an apology, but within days was fired by SNL.[49][48]
Yang's first episode as a regular cast member was the season's opening episode September 28, 2019, with host Woody Harrelson.[50] 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.[50] In other sketches he portrayed Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang in a parody town hall debate, and was an extra in a mock movie trailer for Downton Abbey.[50] In October 2019, Yang made his debut on Weekend Update (WU), as Chinese trade representative Chen "Trade Daddy" Biao in a segment about Donald Trump's trade war that was "brief, funny and took some clever satirical shots".[51][10] Yang's Biao character returned to WU as the newly appointed health minister for the COVID-19 pandemic which he unconvincingly tries to assure China has in control.[52] 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".[10] He was listed No. 2 in Variety's Power of Pride list of most influential queer artists in Hollywood in 2021.[53] 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.[54] Since 2023 he has also played embattled Congressman George Santos in multiple sketches which have received critical praise.[55][56]
In 2021, Yang was applauded for speaking out on the recent surge in violence against Asian-Americans[57] 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, Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[58]
^Denny Dillon was a cast member during the 1980–1981 season, but was not out at the time.[42] For the 1985–1986 season, Terry Sweeney was their first gay male cast member,[43][44]John Milhiser was second, in the 2013–2014 cast;[45] he was the fourth LGBTQ cast member overall; Danitra Vance was also in the 1985–1986 cast but was in the closet, all three left after one season; Kate McKinnon has been an out lesbian before becoming a cast member in 2012 and has continued to the present.[46]
Sherman, Phillip (1994). Bernstein, Samuel (ed.). Uncommon Heroes: A Celebration of Heroes and Role Models for Gay and Lesbian Americans. Fletcher Press.
