Saturday Night Live: Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, Shane Gillis join cast

Saturday Night Live season 45 now has itself three new featured players, and one of them should be a familiar face to some of you already.

NBC confirmed today that they are promoting writer Bowen Yang, who was a staff writer this past season, to featured player. Yang becomes the show’s first Asian cast member, and he also portrayed Kim Jong-un in a sketch last year.

Joining Yang as a part of the ensemble for the upcoming season are Groundlings performer Chloe Fineman as well as Shane Gillis. The two of them (like most other new additions to SNL over the years) are entering the show as relative unknowns in the mainstream comedy world. Yet, SNL has proven time and time again how exceptional they are when it comes to finding great talent and cultivating it. Typically, it takes some time for newcomers to make their presence felt on the series; Kate McKinnon is one of the rare exceptions of a new cast member who becomes almost notable right away. Heidi Gardner has had a similar trajectory since joining, but maybe not on the same level.

For some more SNL video discussion, be sure to watch our reaction video on the finale below! Remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and also visit our full playlist. We’ll be bringing more SNL coverage to you all season long (new videos will be posted after the episode airs on Saturday nights).

These cast members are all coming on board SNL following the departure of notable cast member Leslie Jones, who started off as a writer herself before breaking onto the scene on Weekend Update. We immediately wonder if these multiple hires are a way to compensate for losing someone of Jones’ caliber — it is a lot of talent to throw onto the show all at once, leading us to wonder if there are going to be too many cooks in the comedy kitchen? Yet, sometimes you have to experiment with the right ingredients sometimes in order to get a good sense of what the end result of it is.

Related News – Leslie Jones’ departure and what she could be doing next

What do you think about these new people being brought on board to Saturday Night Live?

Do you think there are too many cast members? Be sure to share in the comments, and remember to stick around to get some more news. (Photo: NBC.)