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'Saturday Night Live's' Bowen Yang breaks ground as 1st East Asian cast member

6:27
News headlines today: Dec. 23, 2020
FilmMagic/Getty Images, FILE
Michael Rothman
ByMichael Rothman
September 12, 2019, 8:28 PM

"Saturday Night Live" just made some serious history, announcing that Bowen Yang has been promoted from writer to full-time cast member.

The show tweeted out the news Thursday, along with two other additions to the show.

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Writer Bowen Yang as Kim Jong Un, backstage at "Saturday Night Live," March 30, 2019.
NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images, FILE

But Yang, of Chinese descent, becomes the first East Asian cast member in more than 40 years of the storied sketch show.

Other alums of Asian descent including Fred Armisen, who's a quarter Korean.

Some of Yang's envelope-pushing work on the sketch show include a turn as Kim Jong Un last season, which is also when he started as a writer for "SNL."

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Yang, in addition to working on "SNL," has been working on TV series for the better part of a decade, including "Broad City," "Isn't It Romantic" and "The Outs."

He also started the "Las Culturistas" podcast with his friend Mat Rogers.

"SNL" returns with new episodes later this month.

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