Meet Saturday Night Live’s new cast additions for its upcoming 45th season. Chloe Fineman, Shane Gillis and Bowen Yang have been tapped as new featured players on NBC’s venerable late-night sketch comedy program.Yang joined SNL as a staff writer last season and is co-host of the Las Culturistas podcast.

The promotion of Yang, son of Chinese immigrants, marks a milestone for representation on the program where he will be the first full-time East Asian cast member. (SNL alum Fred Armisen is a quarter Japanese, and fellow former SNL-er. Rob Schneider is a quarter Filipino.)The deficiency, which led to SNL production designer Akira Yoshimura being recruited to play Asian Star Trek character Sulu in a 2017 Star Trek skit featuring Chris Pine, was addressed on the show by then-new cast member Melissa Villaseñor in a sketch about the 2016 Vice-Presidential debate. “Hello, I’m the new Hispanic cast member,” she said in the skit, “and I’ll be playing Asian moderator Elaine Quijano. Because baby steps.”

Fineman was a New Face at the 2018 Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal and has been a regular performer at the Groundlings.

Gillis was recently recognized as a New Face at the 2019 Just for Laughs Festival.

The cast additions follow the news that SNL mainstay Leslie Jones is leaving after five seasons. Fineman, Gillis and Yang will join returning veteran SNL cast members Kate McKinnon, who is returning for an eighth season, along with the rest of the troupe, led by McKinnon and fellow veterans Kenan Thompson, Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong.Season 45 of SNL premieres on September 28 with Woody Harrelson, in his fourth appearance as host, and musical guest Billie Eilish.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is responding to Shane Gillis, one of three new featured players on "Saturday Night Live," after a 2018 video resurfaced of him using a racial slur.In a clip from an episode of his "Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast," Gillis made derogatory remarks about Asians while chatting with comedian co-host Matt McCusker."Chinatown’s (expletive) nuts," Gillis said. "Let the (expletive) live there," he added, using a racial slur.Page Six and Vice also report Gillis used the slur in reference to Yang, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate of East Asian descent, in a May episode of "Real A-- Podcast."

The video of the episode has since been taken down. Gillis issued an apology for the remarks on Thursday."I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss," he wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. "I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said." On Saturday, Yang shared Gillis' apology on his Twitter account along with a message."Shane - I prefer comedy that makes people think and doesn’t take cheap shots. But I’m happy to sit down and talk with you if you’d like," Yang wrote.

In a follow-up tweet, Yang clarified that he doesn't think the comedian should be fired from his new gig with "SNL.""For the record, I do not think he should lose his job," he tweeted. "We would benefit from being more forgiving rather than punitive. We are all human."