‘SNL’ castmember Bowen Yang on ‘Wicked’ and ‘Las Culturistas’ : NPR

Bowen Yang poses for photographers upon arrival on the BFI Flare Opening Gala for the movie The Wedding Banquet in London, March 19, 2025.

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For Bowen Yang, becoming a member of SNL as a author in 2018, after which turning into a castmember the next yr, was the achievement of a prophesy: throughout his senior yr of highschool, Yang had been voted “Most Likely to be on SNL.” Looking again now, although, he insists that the superlative was “totally incidental.”

“It’s like their way of calling me a hammy kid, basically, which I was,” he says. “I never ever ever set my sights on SNL, but I was only the most enthusiastic fan. I would bring VHS tapes to school … and just, like, show people when there was a substitute teacher in class.”

SNL wasn’t the one present that left its mark on Yang; he initially studied chemistry and pre-med in faculty after turning into “obsessed” with Sandra Oh’s character on Grey’s Anatomy, Yang says. “And then, after graduating … I was like, ‘Wait, I made a mistake. I actually wanted to be someone who was on TV.'”

Yang says he by no means thought SNL would rent “an effeminate Asian man” for that present, however he was pleased to be confirmed incorrect. He’s presently nominated for an Emmy for excellent supporting actor in a comedy collection for his performances on the present. Looking again now, he says being employed as a author quite than a forged member initially helped pave the best way for his on-screen success.

“My first season of writing on the show was probably so helpful in terms of understanding all of these non-verbal cues,” he says. “Sit[ting] next to [SNL creator and executive producer] Lorne [Michaels] each week and hav[ing] him give notes on your sketch at dress rehearsal, you really develop this internal sense of, ‘OK, I understand how the show works in this very underpinned way.'”

In addition to his work on SNL, Yang had an element in Wicked, and is co-host of the favored podcast Las Culturistas together with his good friend Matt Rogers. The two hosted a satirical awards present — the Las Culturistas Culture Awards — on Bravo/Peacock.

Interview highlights

On rising up because the youngster of Chinese immigrants, and being obsessive about popular culture

As a closeted Canadian child who then moved to the States … it was this huge shock to maneuver from French Canada — to maneuver from Quebec — to Colorado, the place I used to be talking primarily French at college and Mandarin in the home, and out of the blue I needed to fast-track to English.

Pop tradition was this expedited approach for me to get on board with what individuals had been speaking about at college and what individuals had been speaking about at a party or the reveals that we’d watch after we would have playdates or one thing like that. SNL was this crash course in popular culture for me each week. The factor that made me love tradition was the best way that it will get digested, which occurs to be what SNL form of is.

On his SNL auditions

I shudder to look at them now. … They had been making documentaries within the lead-up to the fiftieth anniversary they usually performed my auditions to me and filmed my reactions. … I had this visceral response to not wanting to look at that model of myself, like the one that, earlier than he went down the chute of working at SNL, had no concept what the present was on the lookout for. And I feel I form of should re-evaluate that, as a result of that individual is particular. He has one thing. He has gumption to simply throw no matter on the wall and see what sticks. Whereas now I really feel a lot extra prudent in my concepts.

On portraying JD Vance on SNL

This was a couple of yr in the past in August, proper when the season was beginning up. Lorne had reached out and form of had his plan for the way he wished to forged the primary gamers within the normal election, and I used to be fairly resistant at first, and after a couple of extra conversations, I feel I dutifully acquiesced, after which I form of went about it in probably the most child-of-immigrants approach, the place I employed a dialect coach, and I requested a display check the place I attempted out totally different contact lenses, as a result of I felt like a lot of JD Vance’s form of visible eeriness was in his eyes. And I used to be like, “We have to get that down.” And then we tried facial hair choices. And I took it as a severe cost, which can or might not have been the appropriate technique to go about it, nevertheless it’s been an fascinating journey.

On creating the Las Culturistas podcast and awards together with his good friend Matt Rogers

We by no means thought that the podcast would get any listenership. This form of summarizes the entire premise of the podcast. It’s nothing mildew breaking. It’s two mates speaking to one another. It was simply an excuse for Matt and I to have a playdate each week, however we had accomplished a variety of comedy collectively within the years main as much as it. …

The awards form of budded out of this one summer time, I feel in 2021, after we did not have a visitor booked that week … and that was not a typical factor on the time. And so we simply form of made a stream of consciousness record of nominees and classes for theoretical Las Culturistas tradition awards. And this awards issues from everywhere in the tapestry of human expertise, from theme park points of interest, to breakfast meals, to scenes from ’90s tv, to clothes. It was simply utterly maximalist and world and overwhelming. It’s meant to be nonsensical, nearly, and it is meant form of be atemporal, like “Song of the Summer” nominees are songs from 4 years in the past. There aren’t any guidelines. …

Then one yr in 2022, we threw an outside present and it was free. We had been overwhelmed by the crowds. We needed to flip individuals away. And so, then from that first yr, we had been like, “OK, so the goal is to get this televised so that everyone can opt into this.”

On mendacity as a child that he’d seen Wicked

Growing up it was this factor of like, properly, in case you did not see Wicked then you don’t have any enterprise being a theater child. When it got here out, it was such a phenomenon. Around 2003, I used to be in highschool and I keep in mind going to the library, getting the unique Broadway forged recording, and it was life-changing even [with] that entry level. And the factor that I’d embellish, particularly round late highschool, I used to be similar to, “Yeah, I saw like the national tour of it!” I by no means did, Terry. I feel I simply made up this lie. Because it felt like the appropriate factor to say to be able to justify this ardour that I had for musical theater.

I noticed it lastly for the primary time on the West End in London in 2022, I’d say, or 2021. It was actually loopy how I used to be like, wow, that is all culminating into this second the place I’m lastly seeing the present that has nonetheless meant a lot to me. And I knew it entrance to again. …

I do not need it to make it seem to be I used to be, or nonetheless am like somebody who would not inform the reality. It was simply this factor that I felt the stress to have some form of social proof. … We had been simply not a theater-going household. We simply did not have that entry. Like thank goodness for public libraries. I went to the library and I sought it out and I saved that CD in my Walkman for weeks. Like, I actually ran the overdue cost on it!

On a bit of “cultural contraband” from his youth

The solely factor that I ever needed to cover was a hardcover copy of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, as a result of it was my sister’s ebook. And clearly she was allowed to love that, nevertheless it was cultural contraband for a teenage boy like me to have any curiosity in that. So I simply keep in mind loving studying these books after which hiding it beneath my mattress … as if it was pornography. And by the best way, I imply, wow, pre-smartphone days! I used to be having a sexual awakening to classical artwork books and I extremely advocate immediately’s youth go about it the identical approach, since you had been studying about artwork and also you had been figuring your self out. And I do not suppose the youngsters have that anymore.

On his father’s life within the area of China often called Inner Mongolia

My dad has all of those tales of him transferring out of Inner Mongolia to the town to go to highschool, like he had $11 in his pocket on the prepare station, tried fish for the primary time at 22, like, he was simply consuming potatoes and lamb for the primary 22 years of his life. Like, he simply had no idea of how the world was so expansive. Like, to him, his world was simply nonetheless many miles throughout the radius of his city. … It is that this actually overwhelming factor that I really feel anytime I take into consideration how charmed my very own life is, I’m similar to: none of this was without any consideration.

Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Jay Vanasco tailored it for the online.