Bowen Yang leaving Saturday Night Live after Saturday's episode — a look back at his best sketches
Ariana Grande, whom Bowen starred alongside in the Wicked movies and become close friends with during production, is hosting, while Cher is the musical guest
Saturday Night Live is losing one of its most talented and beloved actors, as Bowen Yang will reportedly leave the comedy show after the episode airing on December 20th, 2025. Ariana Grande whom Bowen starred alongside in the Wicked movies and became close friends with during production, is hosting, while Cher is the musical guest.
Variety first reported the news. HELLO! contacted NBC and representatives for Bowen for comment but they declined to comment.
Bowen's exit comes ten weeks after season 51 premiered on October 4 on NBC. The long-time sketch show saw Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, Emil Wakim and John Higgins all depart in the weeks before its return.
There was speculation at the time that Bowen may also be leaving but at the 2025 Emmys he told People that he knew it was not his time.
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,'" he said.
However five new cast members signed onto the iconic show while fan favorites like Chloe Fineman, Marcello Hernandez, and Kenan Thompson all returned, while Colin Jost and Michael Che remain on the Weekend Update desk.
Former and current SNL members, Fred Armisen, Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, Bowen , Sarah Sherman, James Austin Johnson, and Chloe Fineman
Bowen joined the series as writer in 2018 but a year later became a featured player and was promoted to join the main cast in 2021.
He has been behind some of the most iconic moments of recent years, with his offbeat and surreal comedy winning over audiences, and changing the face of the guests on Weekend Update by bringing in concepts over impressions, landing him an Emmy nomination.
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He also hosts the hugely popular Las Culturistas podcast with Matt Rogers and has been building his career in movies, appearing in The Cat in the Hat in 2026.
This may be the SNL character I think of first when I think of Bowen. Appearing during the Weekend Update segment with a papier-mâché monstrosity on his head and makeup that made him look like the villain of a superhero movie, it was the perfect visual spectacle – and then Bowen began to speak.
As the iceberg, his rant became iconic as he complained about the Titanic hitting him, how the anniversary is always a "weird time", and wailing how no-one ever blames the water, before the unhinged performance concludes: "That was a really long time ago. I've done a lot of reflecting to try and move past it. It's one very small part of me, but there's so much going on beneath the surface that you can't see."
Bowen is perhaps his best when he gets to dress up as characters from pop culture history, and nowhere was that clearer than when he arrived on the Weekend Update segment as an openly gay Jafar, from Disney's Aladdin, who, with all the inflection you can imagine, reads Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ hideous white cowboy boots to filth.
The most surreal and strange sketch stars Bowen and Ryan as incompentent medical team delivering news of a death to family members.
It's hard to explain just how bizarre this sketch is but perhaps the easiest way is to just remind you that Ryan Gosling is known for breaking during every sketch, and he breaks, fully, in this one making it a joy to watch.
One of Bowen's recurring characters, as Chen Biao, the Chinese trade minister, it's just one hilarious meme rip-off after another with one-liners like: "I'm a savage, classy, bougie, loyal supplicant to the Communist Party."
Remember when the first pictures of Timothée Chalamet in character on the set of Wonka dropped and the internet collectively called him a "twink"?
In what has become Bowen's speciality, he jumped on the moment in pop-culture discourse and appeared that week as "proud gay Oompa Loompa," who is trying to get out the message of workers’ rights and the conditions at the chocolate factory.
No SNL actor has captured the naughty energy of disgraced former congressman George Santos better than Bowen.
There are several moments to choose from but the most recent remains a favorite, as George stops by Weekend Update to discuss the New York City Marathon, how prison changed him, and continued his many, many lies.
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