Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | News | August 25, 2025
Lorne Michaels said in an interview last week that we should expect some big shakeups at SNL, as several cast exits are expected to be announced. It’s unclear who will be leaving, but Michaels hinted at a “reinvention” of the show after the 50th anniversary.
We’ve already got our first departure, though it’s not a cast member but a writer. Last night, Celeste Yim announced that they would be leaving the series. Yim joined the writing staff in 2020 during season 46 and was the first out trans writer ever to work on SNL (though they joked that Chevy Chase is non-binary).
In their Instagram post announcing their departure, they thanked the writing staff, crew, and various cast members, but singled out Bowen Yang twice, writing at one point, “Thank you Bowen for changing my life and for making me feel normal.”
Now, this is pure speculation on my part, but there have been suggestions that Bowen Yang might leave the show. Yang is a breakout star, with a busy acting and writing career outside of the series. He co-hosts a popular weekly podcast, the Las Culturistas Culture Awards have broken into the mainstream, and he’s got the second half of Wicked coming this December. He’s busy, even without SNL.
It’s also true that Bowen Yang and Celeste Yim have collaborated on many sketches over the last five seasons. A glance through Yim’s credits (via Reddit) shows frequent collaborations with writers Jasmine Pierce and Anna Drezen, and with cast members Aidy Bryant and Bowen Yang. The first three are gone, and if Bowen Yang were to leave, Yim may have felt it was the right time to make their own exit, too.
Again, that’s pure speculation on my part, but it’s educated speculation. We should know for sure sometime this week.
