The cast and crew of Saturday Night Live have long signaled major staff turnover after the 50th season, and now we have our first major departure. Celeste Yim, a writer behind sketches such as “Troye Sivan Sleep Demon,” “L’Eggs,” and “College Panel,” has announced they are leaving the show after five seasons. Sharing the news on Instagram, Yim wrote, “Lorne [Michaels] hired me over the phone when I was 23 and the job literally made all of my dreams come true BUT it was also grueling and I slept in my office every week BUT my friends helped me with everything BUT I got yelled at by random famous men BUT some famous girls too BUT I loved it and I laughed every day and it’s where I grew up.”
There haven’t been many shake-ups to the SNL cast in the last few years, at least in front of the camera. That was partially by design, as Michaels persuaded popular cast members to stay through the 50th anniversary. “I wanted people coming back and being part of [the 50th season]. So when Kate [McKinnon] hosted, Kristen [Wiig] and Maya [Rudolph] came back for it. And that meant there couldn’t be those kind of disruptions [to the cast], or anything that was going to take the focus off [the 50th season]. And we had an election,” he explained to Matthew Belloni of Puck in an interview published August 22. While he confirmed that James Austin Johnson will return as Trump, Michaels admitted that he “for sure” feels pressure to reinvent the series following the anniversary, hinting that changes will “be announced in a week or so.”
As for Celeste Yim, they thanked the fans, their friends, and colleagues in their goodbye post, particularly singling out frequent collaborator Bowen Yang “for changing my life and for making me feel normal.” (Yang has also hinted at a possible departure.) “I hate when other people say this but it’s true that I was the first ever out trans person to be a writer for SNL. I always felt honored to be working within the long tradition of queer writing at the show. Many don’t know this but Chevy is non-binary!” Yim joked. “I feel so powerless to protect trans people in the world but writing connects us and makes us permanent, so it’s what I will continue to do.”
