Bowen Yang
Bowen Yang (photo by Sam Buriss)

Brooklyn's Bowen Yang joins SNL staff, along with Ego Nwodim & more

As recently mentioned, Saturday Night Live‘s 44th season premieres on September 29 with host Adam Driver and musical guest Kanye West. Around the time that news broke, it was also revealed that Mikey Day, Melissa Villaseñor, and Alex Moffat were promoted from featured to repertory players, and there were rumors that a new cast member would be added. Now it’s confirmed: Ego Nwodim is joining the cast. She was a regular at UCB in LA for years, and she’s also been on 2 Broke Girls, Law & Order True Crime, and more.

Luke Null is departing the cast (he was let go over the summer), and four new writers were hired: Alan Linic, Alison Gates, Eli Mandel and Bowen Yang.

https://twitter.com/MattRogersTho/status/1043205375133147136

Three of the new writers are from the Chicago improv scene, but Bowen Yang is based in Brooklyn. Maybe you know him from his lip sync videos. He’s also a regular performer at local comedy shows. He has two of his own recurring live comedy shows in the area, Live On Broadgay at Littlefield and Lake Homo High at The Annoyance. He’s also written for cool TV shows like Broad City, High Maintenance, and The Outs.

Bowen is also part of the Las Culturistas podcast with Matt Rogers, who just did a live event at Brooklyn Comedy Festival this past weekend, and who maybe you caught at the Brooklyn Podcast Festival.

It’s hard to keep track of a NYC comedian’s schedule with so much always going on all over the city, but some of Bowen’s next scheduled shows are Tessa Skara‘s ‘High Notes’ at Union Hall on October 2 with Larry Owens, Eudora Peterson, Ruby McCollister, Arti Gollapudi, Amanda Duarte, and The Rock Goddess Band, and Friends Who Folk & Friends: Album Release at Union Hall on October 14, and ‘Queer EyeRL’ at The Bell House on October 18.

Meanwhile, SNL’s longest running cast member Kenan Thompson could finally be leaving the show, as he was tapped to start in NBC comedy Saving Larry. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Should Saving Larry move to series, Thompson would likely exit Saturday Night Live. Sources close to NBC and SNL stress that no decision has been made about Thompson’s future.”

Stay tuned for SNL season 44 and watch a couple Bowen Yang videos below…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4HXeJdrb2E