Bowen Yang: From SNL's Writers' Room to Wicked and Broadway
A chemistry graduate turned podcast host, SNL's first Chinese-American cast member, and a character comedian who makes inanimate objects sound like celebrities. A guide to Bowen Yang.
Bowen Yang is the comedian who played the iceberg that sank the Titanic as a misunderstood celebrity on a press tour, and made it one of the most-shared Saturday Night Live bits of its era. He spent seven years at SNL, first as a writer and then as its first Chinese-American cast member, while co-hosting the hit podcast Las Culturistas. Since leaving the show in December 2025 he has moved into film and theatre, including Wicked and a Broadway run in Oh, Mary!.
Chemistry, graphic design and comedy
Yang was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1990 to parents who had emigrated from China. The family lived in Canada and then moved to Aurora, Colorado, when he was nine. He studied chemistry at New York University, on a pre-med track, before committing to comedy. For several years he worked as a graphic designer while doing improv and sketch in New York, with small parts in Broad City and High Maintenance.
Las Culturistas (2016-present)
In 2016 Yang and his friend Matt Rogers launched Las Culturistas, a podcast about pop culture, gossip and the art of having opinions. Its trademarks include fierce, funny rants, recurring segments such as "I Don't Think So, Honey!", in which a guest gets a minute to tear into something, and the annual Culture Awards, a deliberately grandiose ceremony that grew into a televised special in 2025.
The show matters to his career because it built an audience for his voice before SNL did. Listeners already knew his taste, his references and his sense of humour. It won Podcast of the Year at the 2023 iHeartPodcast Awards, and it is one of the best entry points into the queer, pop-literate comedy scene of 2010s New York. For more shows in that vein, see our list of the best comedy podcasts of all time.
Saturday Night Live (2018-2025)
Yang joined SNL as a staff writer for its 44th season in 2018, and the following year was promoted to the cast as a featured player, the first Chinese-American cast member in the show's history. He became a repertory player in 2021.
His SNL career broke several barriers. In 2021 he became the first featured player to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy for acting on the show, and he was nominated again in 2022, 2024 and 2025, making him the most-nominated Asian male performer in Emmy history. He left during the 51st season, with a farewell in December 2025.
The characters
- The iceberg: on Weekend Update, Yang played the iceberg that sank the Titanic as a celebrity doing damage control, insisting it was there to talk about its music. The joke is a whole essay about celebrity press cycles, delivered in a costume.
- Chen Biao: a Chinese trade official, nicknamed "Trade Daddy", who appeared on Weekend Update to discuss US-China relations with delighted contempt.
- Impressions: his roster included Kim Jong-un, Yao Ming and the congressman George Santos, whose real-life fabrications made him an ideal subject for Yang's flamboyant, self-pitying style.
What links them is a talent for giving an absurd concept a fully realised celebrity ego. Yang's characters are always performing for an imagined audience, which makes them a natural fit for an institution like SNL. His Weekend Update desk pieces stand comparison with Sarah Sherman's very different appearances at the same desk.
| Year | SNL milestone |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Joins as a staff writer (season 44) |
| 2019 | Becomes a featured player (season 45); writing Emmy nomination shared with the staff |
| 2021 | Promoted to repertory; first featured player nominated for an acting Emmy |
| 2022, 2024, 2025 | Further Emmy nominations for supporting actor in a comedy series |
| December 2025 | Leaves the cast during season 51 |
How his comedy works
Yang's comedy is built on status. His characters, whether a block of ice, a trade official or a disgraced politician, believe they are the most fabulous person in the room, and the scene is about the world refusing to agree. He plays the delusion with total sincerity and lets the audience see the hurt underneath, which is why even his broadest characters have a sad edge.
He is also a very precise writer. Years in the SNL writers' room show in the economy of his desk pieces: a single, clear premise, escalated in tight steps, with a callback to land it. That discipline is what separates his work from the riffing of the podcast, where the pleasure is the opposite, loose opinions and tangents.
Fire Island and the film career
Yang's first big film role was in Fire Island (2022), Joel Kim Booster's gay reworking of Pride and Prejudice, set over a week on the famous Long Island vacation spot. He plays Howie, the romantic best friend, and gives the film much of its heart. The same year he appeared in Bros and The Lost City.
He played Pfannee, one of Galinda's sycophantic friends, in Jon M. Chu's Wicked (2024) and its sequel, Wicked: For Good (2025), and co-starred in Andrew Ahn's 2025 remake of The Wedding Banquet. Other credits include Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, Girls5eva, The Other Two, Dicks: The Musical (2023) and a voice role in The Garfield Movie (2024).
Broadway: Oh, Mary!
In September 2026 Yang made his Broadway debut as Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola's comedy Oh, Mary!, for a twelve-week engagement starting September 15. The role, a drunk, thwarted, cabaret-obsessed First Lady, suits his flair for grandiose characters with fragile egos, and puts him in the line of comedians who have taken over the part since Escola originated it.
Why Bowen Yang matters here
Yang is a mainstream star, so why profile him on an alt comedy site? Because his sensibility comes from the alternative scene: the downtown New York of queer cabaret, character comedy and podcasts that also produced John Early and Catherine Cohen. He took that sensibility into the most establishment comedy show in America and made it work at scale.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bowen Yang still on SNL?
No. Yang left Saturday Night Live during its 51st season, with a farewell in December 2025. He had joined as a writer in 2018 and became a cast member in 2019.
Who does Bowen Yang play in Wicked?
Pfannee, one of Galinda's hangers-on at Shiz University, in both Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025).
What is Las Culturistas?
A pop-culture podcast Bowen Yang has co-hosted with his friend Matt Rogers since 2016, known for its rants, its 'I don't think so, honey!' segment and its annual Culture Awards. It won Podcast of the Year at the 2023 iHeartPodcast Awards.
Was Bowen Yang the first Chinese-American SNL cast member?
Yes. When he joined the cast in 2019 he became the show's first Chinese-American cast member, and in 2021 he became the first featured player to be nominated for an acting Emmy for SNL.