‘SNL’ to add 3 new cast members, including show’s only Asian

By Bethonie Butler / The Washington Post

“Saturday Night Live” has added three new featured players to its cast for its 45th season: Chloe Fineman, Shane Gillis and Bowen Yang.

Yang has already established a presence on “SNL” — he joined the show as a writer last season, and appeared as Kim Jong Un in a March sketch with Sandra Oh. Outside of Studio 8H, he co-hosts the “Las Culturistas” podcast, and has earned fans through oddball videos featuring him expertly lip-syncing dialogue from movies and viral videos.

Yang, who is Chinese American, is a particularly celebrated addition to the sketch comedy series. As noted by Vanity Fair, “SNL” has featured so few cast members (not to mention hosts) of Asian descent over the years that the show has intermittently recruited Akira Yoshimura, its longtime production designer, to portray “Star Trek”’s Sulu. (Yoshimura first appeared as the character in a 1976 sketch; he reprised it as recently as 2017.)

Yang is also openly gay, and has explored queer culture in his comedy. Last season, he co-penned the well-received “GP Yasss,” which affably riffed on the appropriation of gay and drag culture.

Fineman has performed with the Groundlings, the Los Angeles-based comedy troupe known for churning out “SNL” players including Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer, Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig. She has posted videos of herself impersonating tween-favorite YouTube star JoJo Siwa, actor/fashion plate Timothée Chalamet and her own mom on Instagram, where she goes by chloeiscrazy.

Gillis was recently featured in Comedy Central’s annual “Up Next” showcase. One profanity-laced routine posted to the network’s YouTube account pokes fun at his rural upbringing — and the culture shock he felt moving to Philadelphia and, later, New York. “I took Skoal out of my mouth to come up here, and I didn’t vote for Donald Trump,” he jokes. “That makes me like the Nelson Mandela of Central Pennsylvania.”

“SNL’s” 45th season kicked off Saturday. It notably was missing Leslie Jones, who announced last month that she would be leaving after five seasons on the sketch comedy series.

Also in the cast: Beck Bennett, Aidy Bryant, Michael Che, Pete Davidson, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Colin Jost, Kate McKinnon, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Ego Nwodim, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson and Melissa Villaseñor.