- - Bowen Yang to Exit “Saturday Night Live ”After 7 Seasons (Sources)

Esther Kang, Julia MooreDecember 20, 2025 at 3:30 AM

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Will Heath/NBC via Getty

Bowen Yang during the "Epstein Whitehouse Briefing" Cold Open on Saturday, November 15, 2025 on SNL -

Bowen Yang is leaving Saturday Night Live after seven years on the show

His good friend and Wicked costar Ariana Grande will host his final episode on the cast

Yang made history when he joined the cast in season 45 as the first Chinese-American cast member and one of the show's first openly gay stars

Bowen Yang is moving on from Saturday Night Live.

After seven seasons on the late-night sketch comedy show, PEOPLE has learned through multiple sources that the comedian's last appearance as a cast member will take place on Saturday, Dec. 20.

His exit will coincide as close friend and Wicked costar, Ariana Grande, hosts the final show of the year, alongside musical guest Cher.

Representatives for Yang and the show did not respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Rosalind O'Connor/NBC via Getty

Cher, host Ariana Grande, and Bowen Yang during SNL promos

A five-time Emmy nominee, Yang became SNL's first Chinese American cast member when he joined in 2019 and one of its first openly gay stars.

There was speculation that he would exit the show before season 51 began earlier this year, but he told PEOPLE in September that he knew it wasn't his time yet.

“I've always gone by the instinct of, do I have more to do? And I feel like I do,” he said. “Even [creator] Lorne [Michaels] and I talked about it, and Lorne was like, ‘You have more to do,’ and that means a lot, because I even confessed to him. I was like, ‘I feel the audience is maybe getting sick of me.’ And he was like, ‘That's not true. There's more for you to do. I need you.’”

Michaels' vote of confidence meant a lot. “That man has changed my life, and I owe a lot of my life to that show," Yang said. "And I love working there, the people are the best. I really love each of them so much.”

Still, he's been open about the fact that he never intended to stay at SNL forever.

He described the show as "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."

"That inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point — but I don't know what the vision is yet," he told PEOPLE in April.

Will Heath/NBC via Getty

Bowen Yang as Moo Dang the hippo and Colin Jost during Weekend Update on Saturday, September 28, 2024

During his stint on Saturday Night Live, Yang made his mark with multiple sketches that went viral.

In one "Weekend Update" segment, Yang brought attention to anti-Asian hate crimes that occurred throughout the U.S., specifically spotlighting a 75-year-old Asian American woman named Xiao Zhen Xie, who used a wooden board to fight back after she was punched by a white man in San Francisco on March 17.

He ended his powerful monologue with some humor, rallying the crowd by saying, "So everyone get in, buckle up, it's no pee breaks. We ride at dawn, grandmas!"

Another unforgettable character featured Yang as the iceberg who famously sank the Titanic. The Iceberg came on "Weekend Update" to defend himself from years of unfair slander — and to promote his music career.

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In 2021, Yang told PEOPLE that he was inspired by the performers he saw on SNL when he was an aspiring comedian as a kid.

"The female cast of SNL in the late '90s and early '00s. Will Ferrell and Andy Samberg," he said.

He also praised comedian Margaret Cho. "Someone who was queer, Asian and doing something that you did not immediately associate with an Asian person. There's a dearth of representation when it comes to queer people or Asian people, but I have to give credit to the people who have been out here doing it, and that's definitely Margaret."

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”