Meet the 3 New Cast Members of Saturday Night Live

The new cast includes Bowen Yang, who's been promoted from writer to the show's first full-time Asian cast member

By Lauren Piester Sep 12, 2019 5:42 PMTags
Chloe Fineman, Shane Gillis, and Bowen YangChloe instagram, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for Clusterfest, Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Vulture Festival

SNL is adding to its roster of funny people. 

Three new cast members were announced on Thursday, adding Chloe Fineman, Shane Gillis, and Bowen Yang to the cast for season 45. Yang was hired as a writer in 2018, and has now been promoted to featured player, making the Chinese second-generation immigrant one of the first Asian cast members in the show's history. As noted in Deadline, Rob Schneider is a quarter Filipino and Fred Armisen is a quarter Japanese. 

Pre SNL, Yang was known for his funny lip sync videos on Twitter, including one where he emulated Tyra Banks' famous speech to Tiffany Richardson about how we were all rooting for her on ANTM

Even Tyra Banks said it was "genius!" 

Fineman, also known as Chloeiscrazy, has already been perfecting her impressions on Instagram, including one pretty incredible one of Jojo Siwa. 

Shane Gillis is a stand up comedian who appeared at Clusterfest's 2019 Up Next Showcase, which you can see below! 

After the recent departure of Leslie Jones, the season 45 cast also includes Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Beck Bennett, Pete Davidson, Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Melissa Villasenor, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, and Chris Redd

Season 45 premieres on September 28 with Woody Harrelson and Billie Eilish, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Taylor Swift on October 5, David Harbour hosting on October 12, Kristen Stewart taking the stage on November 2, and Eddie Murphy making his triumphant return to the show on December 21. 

SNL airs on NBC. 

E! and NBC are both part of the NBC Universal family.