Bowen Yang
November 6, 1990
American
New York University (BA)
- Actor
- comedian
- writer
- podcaster
2013–present
楊伯文
杨伯文
Yáng Bówén
Yáng Bówén
Early life and education[edit]
Yang was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to a family that had emigrated from China in the 1980s.[4][6][7] His father, Ruilin, was raised in a rural part of the Inner Mongolia region of mainland China, growing up in a straw and mud hut.[8] Ruilin's parents were illiterate, but he read books for hours by candlelight and eventually got into university. Yang's mother is an obstetrician-gynaecologist.[8][9] The couple moved to Brisbane so Ruilin could earn his doctorate in mining explosives.[8]
Yang has an older sister, Yang Yang. The children spoke Mandarin in their home, and attended Chinese Sunday school.[8] When Yang was six months old, the family moved to Canada and eventually settled in Montreal,[10] where Bowen first discovered Saturday Night Live (SNL). When he was nine, they moved again to Aurora, Colorado.[6][8][11] As a child, he was drawn to late-night comedians and hosts David Letterman and Conan O'Brien.[9]
Yang's high school calculus teacher, Adrian Holguin, was also his coach for Smoky Hill High School's improvisational comedy group, Spontaneous Combustion.[12] Yang got a near perfect score on the ACT (a 35) and a 2200 on his SAT, and graduated from high school in 2008.[13][14] He was named homecoming king and also voted "Most Likely to Be a Cast Member on Saturday Night Live" in his high school's yearbook.[14][15]
When he was seventeen, Yang's father found out his son was gay from an "open chat window" on the family's computer.[9] His parents were not receptive to the news, stating that such things "did not happen in China".[16] Yang's father cried often over the revelation and, being non-religious but wanting to "solve problems", arranged for him to attend eight sessions of gay conversion therapy.[9][16] Bowen attended the conversion therapy to appease his parents, and recalls being immediately alarmed by the counselor's mix of religion and use of pseudo-scientific reasoning to explain away positive homosexual manifestations.[8][9] In an interview for The New York Times, Maureen Dowd questioned why his parents, both scientists, did not see the disconnection.[8] Bowen said, "It was a cultural thing for them, this cultural value around masculinity, around keeping the family line going, keeping certain things holy and sacred," he said "It was me wanting to meet them halfway but realizing it had to be pretty absolute. It was an either-or thing."[8]
Yang moved to New York in 2008 to attend New York University (NYU) like his older sister. His father assigned her to chaperone him during this period as Bowen tried "straightness on for size and failing miserably."[16][17] He came to accept being gay, incorporating it into his comedy, and hoped his parents would learn to accept that aspect of him.[16] They have since found a truce and enjoy a "great relationship."[9] At NYU, he was in the improv group Dangerbox, and he occasionally performed with Stephanie Hsu, a member of the school's sketch comedy group.[18][19]
Yang was inspired by Sandra Oh's character Cristina Yang on Grey's Anatomy for her neurotic and relentless pursuits, and aspired to be a doctor.[8][20] He went to pre-med classes and graduated from NYU with a bachelor's degree in chemistry.[8][21][12] After realizing he was actually inspired by Oh for her acting ability, he decided to pursue a career in comedy instead.[20] At NYU, he met Matt Rogers, with whom he started Las Culturistas, a weekly comedy podcast where Yang "unapologetically expresses his personality, story and himself by sharing his experiences as a member of the LGBTQ community".[7][20]
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
Yang taught himself Adobe Photoshop and graphic design software and later worked at One Kings Lane, a luxury interior and home design website, from 2013 to 2018 as a graphic designer.[8][22] The company was flexible with Yang's time-off needs for comedy.[8] Yang has also performed improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade.[23] During this time, Yang designed graphics for his own shows and for his friends' comedy shows.[22]
The podcast that Yang co-hosts with Matt Rogers, Las Culturistas, is described by Vulture as both "delightfully screwy" and a "two-headed snark routine".[24] The podcast premiered in 2016 and as of September 2019, has over 300 episodes.[25] Each one opens with an interview with a pop culture guest, then goes to one-minute rounds of "I Don't Think So, Honey!" (IDTSH) where the hosts and guests each expound on pet peeves.[24] IDTSH has also morphed into its own live show.[24] Yang credits the Las Culturistas podcast with Rogers for building his fanbase. In 2018 it was nominated for a Shorty Award recognizing the best in social media.[4][26][27]
Yang appeared in shows such as Comedy Central's Broad City, a Vimeo web series The Outs, and the HBO web comedy High Maintenance.[28][29][30] He was a supporting cast member in the 2019 film Isn't It Romantic. Yang performed stand-up on HBO's 2 Dope Queens.[29] He played fashion designer Alexander Wang in a sketch series on Comedy Central, Up Next.[31] In 2019, Yang received press coverage for his viral Twitter posts consisting of "expertly-timed lip-sync videos of famous movie scenes", in which he "reproduces dialogue from diva scenes" and well-known moments in popular culture. Past videos featured a monologue by Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, Tyra Banks yelling at contestant Tiffany Richardson on America's Next Top Model, and a viral video of Cardi B talking about the 2019 government shutdown.[8][20] Each garnered thousands of likes and retweets.[5][32]
In January 2019, he was named to Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment list.[28]