Bowen Yang

Bowen Yang (Chinese: 楊伯文; born November 6, 1990) is an Australian-born American actor, comedian, writer, and podcaster based in New York City. Yang was hired to join the writing staff of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live in September 2018, ahead of its 44th season. In September 2019, Yang was promoted to on-air cast member for SNL's 45th season as a featured player, becoming its first Chinese-American, first Australian-American, third openly gay male,[a] and fourth-ever cast member of Asian descent.[b] He made history becoming the first SNL featured player to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2021. He was promoted to repertory status before the 47th season. He co-hosts a comedy pop-culture podcast, Las Culturistas, with Matt Rogers. Yang has appeared in the television series Girls5Eva, Ziwe, and The Other Two, and is a cast member on Awkwafina is Nora from Queens. He is also known for his appearances in the LGBTQ romantic comedies Fire Island and Bros, both released in 2022. Yang was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, to a family that had emigrated from China in the 1980s. 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. Ruilin's parents were illiterate, but he read books for hours by candlelight and eventually got into university. Yang's mother is an obstetrician-gynaecologist. The couple moved to Brisbane so Ruilin could earn his doctorate in mining explosives.