SNL hires three new cast members, including its first Asian cast member

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Bowen Yang, improv performer Chloe Fineman and standup comedian Shane Gillis are joining Saturday Night Live for Season 45 as featured players. Yang, an SNL writer and sketch performer who played Kim Jong-un in a sketch last March, is joining the cast full-time, marking a milestone for the show. The son of Chinese immigrants, Yang becomes the first full-time cast member of Asian descent in SNL's 45 seasons. (Saturday Night Live has previously had cast members of partial Asian descent: Fred Armisen is a quarter Korean and Rob Schneider is a quarter Filipino.) In its early years, SNL would use production designer Akira Yoshimura to play Sulu in a Star Trek sketch. Melissa Villaseñor addressed the lack of Asian representation at the beginning of a 2016 vice-presidential debate sketch. "Hello, I’m the new Hispanic cast member,” she said in the skit, “and I’ll be playing Asian moderator Elaine Quijano. Because baby steps.” Fineman, a Groundlings performer who was a New Face at the 2018 Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, has appeared on Jane the Virgin and Search Party. Gillis is a standup comedian who was recently recognized as a New Face at the 2019 Just for Laughs Festival. ALSO: Bowen Yang is also the third out gay male cast member in SNL history, following Terry Sweeney and John Milhiser.