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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. We've been hoping to get Bowen Yang on our show for a long time, and today it's actually happening. The timing is great. He's nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performances as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. This is his fourth time being nominated. The first time was in 2021 for his first year as a

performer. He started on the show as a writer. Back in 2016, a couple of years before he

joined SNL, he and his good friend Matt Rogers started the podcast, Las Culturistas, which is on

Time magazine's recent list of the 100 Best Podcasts ever.

That show features Bowen and Matt giving their take on what's happening in pop culture

and what's happening in their lives.

In 2022, they started doing a mock award show, the Las Culturistas Culture Awards,

which Rogers has described as a comedy show disguised as an award show.

Earlier this month, the ceremony was televised for the first time on Bravo,

and it was one of the most entertaining award shows I've ever seen.

It's streaming now on Peacock.

More about that later.

Bowen also starred in the movies Fire Island,

this year's remake of the Wedding Banquet, and he was in Wicked. Bowen Yang's in the movies Fire Island, this year's remake of the wedding banquet,

and he was in Wicked.

Bowen Yang's parents are Chinese immigrants.

His father is from a remote region of Inner Mongolia.

Bowen flew there right after the Las Culturista's award show.

We'll get to that later too.

Bowen is the first Asian-American cast member of SNL and the third openly gay male cast member.

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