Bowen Yang is leaving ‘Saturday Night Live’

This undated image released by NBC shows Bowen Yang who, along with Chloe Fineman and Shane Gillis, will join the cast of "Saturday Night Live," premiering its 45th season on Sept. 28. (Alex Schaefer/NBC via AP)

Bowen Yang is leaving “Saturday Night Live” after this weekend’s Christmas show, in the middle of Season 51.

“He has been there for seven years — time to move on,” said a person familiar with Yang’s decision to depart the long-running NBC sketch show.

Yang first came on board at “SNL” as a writer in 2018, before joining the cast one year later. He has been nominated for five Primetime Emmys thanks to his involvement in the show, once for writing and four times for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series.

Yang has portrayed many celebrated characters on “SNL,” including the Moo Deng baby hippo and Charli XCX.

Ahead of the start of this season of “SNL,” several of Yang’s previous costars announced their departure. These included Devon Walker, Ego Nwodim, Heidi Gardner, Emil Wakim and several more.

This weekend’s “SNL” host is Ariana Grande, who co-starred with Yang in this year’s “Wicked: For Good” as well as last year’s Oscar-winning first film “Wicked.”

Cher is the musical guest on the episode, the last of the year for “SNL.”

Dan Heching, CNN