Bowen Yang is leaving Saturday Night Live, Variety and other news outlets reported on Friday — and is doing so imminently. The comedian, who was hired as a writer for the NBC sketch series in 2018 before joining the cast the following year, is set to leave the show after Saturday’s episode, which will be hosted by his “Wicked” costar Ariana Grande and features musical guest Cher.

Representatives for Yang and SNL have not commented on the story.

Yang’s exit comes on the heels of a major cast shakeup at SNL. Heidi Gardner, Devon Walker, Ego Nwodim and Michael Longfellow all exited the show this year.

In an interview with People in April, Yang said that he did not plan to stay on SNL long-term.

“SNL, it’s just this moving, living, breathing thing,” he said. “Especially after the 50th, I’m seeing what life after the show is like and how beautiful it is, and how so many people, no matter how long they were at the show, are just with their families and loving their lives and not letting the years take away any of that experience for them.”

In a September interview with People, Yang recalled how he spoke with SNL creator Lorne Michaels about his future on the series.

“Lorne was like, ‘You have more to do,’ and that means a lot, because I even confessed to him. I was like, ‘I feel the audience is maybe getting sick of me,’” Yang said at the time. “And he was like, ‘That's not true. There's more for you to do. I need you.’”

Yang said that at the time it was important for him to “honor that.”

“That man has changed my life, and I owe a lot of my life to that show,” he said. “And I love working there, the people are the best. I really love each of them so much.”

Yang had a historic run on the sketch series. In 2021, Yang became the first featured player on SNL to be nominated for an Emmy. Since then, he was upgraded to main cast member and nominated again in 2022. He is also the show’s first Chinese American cast member.

Outside of SNL, Yang made a name for himself as a podcaster, cohosting Las Culturistas with actor Matt Rogers. In 2025, the podcast hosted its own tongue-in-cheek awards show on Bravo, a tradition it plans to repeat in 2026. He also appeared in the movie musicals Wicked and Wicked: For Good, the latter of which was released in November. He and Rogers also appeared together this year in an episode of Prime Video comedy Overcompensating.