LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Saturday Night Live" is adding three new cast members for its upcoming 45th season, including the show's only Asian American performer.
Bowen Yang, who joined NBC's "SNL" last season as a staff writer, will be a featured player, NBC said Thursday. Yang is co-host of a podcast, "Las Culturistas."
Also joining the show as featured players are Chloe Fineman and Shane Gillis. Fineman has been a regular performer with the Groundlings improv company, and both she and Gillis were featured as "New Faces" at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal.
"Saturday Night Live" has taken heat over the years for an overall lack of ethnic diversity, with scant Asian representation among its cast members or hosts.
Former players Fred Armisen and Rob Schneider both are one-quarter Asian, but neither has been widely recognized for their Asian ancestry. Among hosts, the long history of "SNL" includes a short list of Asian or Asian Americans, with Awkwafina, Aziz Ansari and Jackie Chan among them.
Change is a constant at "SNL." Leslie Jones, who joined the show after it was criticized in 2013 for the absence of an African American woman among its regular or featured players, is focusing on stand-up and movies and won't be back this season.
The show returns Sept. 28 with host Woody Harrelson and musical guest Billie Eilish.
Sustain our coverage of culture, arts and literature.
In death, Leonard Cohen is having a rebirth. The legendary singer is being remembered by older and younger generations alike…
Alec Baldwin's Western "Rust" had its world premiere Wednesday at a film festival in Poland, three years after the shooting…
In her new collection of columns from The Wall Street Journal, Pulitzer Prize-winner Peggy Noonan takes readers on a journey…
If you've ever wanted to own a piece of Hollywood history, now's your chance. A pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers…
When Centurion was founded, it was the first group of its kind working to overturn wrongful convictions for people facing…
As major American museums reexamine their collections to ensure diversity and inclusion, there's a growing realization that they need more…
As a dancer, choreographer, director and speaker, Jamison's distinguished career leaped over barriers of race and gender.
In the 1980s, about 70 percent of clothes sold in the U.S. were made in the country. Today, it's down…
This is her first time receiving nominations in the country and Americana categories.
For many Muslim and Arab Americans, Israel's wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and the wider Middle East are personal, and so…
A giant in the music and entertainment industry has died. Quincy Jones, known to many as 'Q,' was revered as…
Jones rose from music school dropout to the very heights of show business, becoming one of the first Black executives…
Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in the final days before the presidential election, playing herself…
During the final days of this tense election, we take a look at a project fostering a different type of…
