Bowen Yang

Yang taught himself Adobe Photoshop, graphic design software, and landed work designing graphics at One Kings Lane (OKL), a luxury interior and home design website, from 2013 to 2018.[5] The company was woman-centered, and was flexible with Yang's time-off needs for comedy.[5] He was on the improv team Dangerbox.[15] Yang has also performed improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade.[16]

The podcast Yang co-hosts with Matt Rogers, Las Culturistas, is described by Vulture as both "delightfully screwy" and a "two-headed snark routine".[17] As of September 2019, the podcast has 170 episodes.[18] 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.[17] IDTSH has also morphed into its own live show.[17] 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.[1][19][20] Yang appeared in shows such as Comedy Central's Broad City, a Vimeo web series The Outs, and the HBO web comedy High Maintenance.[21][22][23] He was a supporting cast member in the 2019 film Isn't It Romantic. Yang performed stand-up on HBO's 2 Dope Queens.[22] He played fashion designer Alexander Wang in a sketch series on Comedy Central, Up Next.[24]

Yang also is known for his posts of "expertly-timed lip-sync videos of famous movie scenes", where he "reproduces dialogue from diva scenes" to Twitter and well-known moments in popular culture, such as a monologue by Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, Tyra Banks yelling at contestant Tiffany Richardson on America's Next Top Model, and a viral video of Cardi B talking about the 2019 government shutdown.[5][12] Each garnered thousands of likes and retweets.[2][25]

In January 2019, he was named to Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment list.[21]

Yang plays Nora Lin's (portrayed by Awkwafina) mobile app-developer cousin, both being raised by her dad (BD Wong) and grandmother (Lori Tan Chinn) in the Comedy Central sitcom Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, picked up in 2018, and premiered in January 2020; and renewed for a second season.[26][27][28]

In 2018, Yang was hired as a staff writer on Saturday Night Live for the show's 44th season.[6] 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".[29] Yang has writing credits on twenty-one episodes of the show for the 2018–2019 season.[18] 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.[22] "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.[30][31] The pre-tape—so-called as it is filmed days ahead rather than acted live—was championed by Stone to be included on air.[30][31] SNL creator Lorne Michaels knew Yang would be an on-air talent but wanted him to be comfortable on their stage first.[6] Yang made a cameo appearance during the Sandra Oh/Tame Impala episode as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un while Oh played his translator.[32]

In September 2019, Yang was promoted to featured cast member for the 45th season, alongside improviser Chloe Fineman.[33] Yang is the show's first ever Chinese-American cast member, and third openly gay male cast member after Terry Sweeney and John Milhiser.[34][35]

SNL has had "little representation from Asian actors, as cast members or hosts" over several decades.[12][32] Up until Yang's promotion there had been only three cast members,[lower-alpha 3] and six hosts who were of Asian descent.[lower-alpha 4][12][29] 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".[36] 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 openly gay male, and sixth LGBTQ cast member.[lower-alpha 5] News of the Chinese and openly gay Yang's new job was reported internationally, but within hours was overshadowed by revelations that comedian Shane Gillis, who had been hired at the same time, aired homophobic and anti-Asian jokes.[42][43] Gillis issued a non-apology apology, but within days was let go by SNL.[44][43]

Yang's first show as a regular cast member was the season's opening show September 28, 2019, with host Woody Harrelson.[45] 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.[45] 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.[45] 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".[46][5] 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.[47] 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".[5]

• Andrew Yang
• Fran Lebowitz