Bowen Yang’s banner year has been more than two decades in the making.
The comedian, 34, who is celebrating his sixth season as a Saturday Night Live cast member, also stars alongside Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey in the highly anticipated film adaption of Wicked as one of Glinda’s trusty sidekicks, Pfannee.
Ahead of the film’s Nov. 22 premiere, Yang tells PEOPLE that he first watched the final cut of the film alongside his SNL castmates during a special screening earlier this year, the same week that Grande, 31, hosted the show.
And though he hesitated at first, it was ultimately the most fitting group to surround him for his inaugural viewing.
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“I was so adamant about not going [to the screening], because I was like, I think I need to see this for the first time with other friends that aren’t professionally involved, and I just need to have a pure experience,” he recalls.
However, Yang’s mind changed after he remembered how intertwined both projects have been for him since he was young.
“My first trip to New York when I was 13, Wicked had just come out, but I begged my parents to go to the Gershwin just so I could touch the glass and look inside the lobby,” he remembers of the original Broadway production that opened in 2003. “We couldn’t afford tickets, but I just wanted to feel it in my hand, just look at the signs.”
“And then, that same day, we went to 30 Rock at NBC and did the studio tour, and I sat in the seats at SNL,” Yang continues. “So, I was like, ‘If those two things happened on the same day, I need them to intersect just one more time.’ ”
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Yang says the experience was “so special” as he was able to introduce the film to his “SNL family” — some of whom weren’t familiar with the show at all.
“All of us were in shambles by the end,” he says. “Sarah Sherman was sobbing, and she was like, ‘I didn’t expect to love it this much.’ It will get you. It flattens every demographic. Everyone gets bowled over no matter what they’re going into it with, and I’ve never been a part of something like that. I don’t think I’ve seen a movie … have this universal impact.”
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In addition to his stacked résumé as an actor, for the last eight years, Yang has also stepped behind the mic to host the Las Culturistas podcast with best friend Matt Rogers, where they talk all things pop culture.
To get into the holiday spirit, and give back to their devoted fans, Yang and Rogers, 34, curated a special gift guide with Pinterest filled with all of their favorite things, from celebrity memoirs to vinyls.
When it came to figuring out what exactly to include, Bowen says it took no time at all to determine what the first item would be: “The Meaning of Mariah Carey, her excellent memoir,” he says.
“And then, everything else fell into place from there, where it it was like, ‘Oh, what’s part of the lore of the podcast?’ And then, we filled that out,” Yang continues.
New episodes of Las Culturistas drop every Wednesday wherever podcasts are available.
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