Celeste Yim

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From left to right, Josette Mankin, Naomi McPherson, Katie Gaskin, Celeste Yim sitting on couches on stage.
Yim (right) with the band MUNA in 2024

Celeste Yim is a Korean-Canadian comedian and writer.[1][2]

Career

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Yim's career began in the mid-2010s, in indie stand-up shows in Toronto. They were named to the Bob Curry fellowship for The Second City and worked as a juror for the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival.[3][4] In 2017, Flare named them one of Canada's Top 100 Notable Women.[5] They have written on topics of Korean-Canadian identity and racism in pop culture for publications including Vice and The Globe and Mail.[6][7][8]

In 2019, Yim was awarded the Canadian Women Artists' Award by the New York Foundation for the Arts.[9] In May of that year, their play Not Only Is Everyone As Wonderful was produced at the National MFA Playwrights Festival.[10] In 2021, Yim became a Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow.[11]

In 2020, Yim was hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live, becoming the show's first writer to identify as non-binary.[12] In 2023, during the second half of season 48, they became a writing supervisor for the show.[13] In 2025, they announced they had left the show after five seasons.[14]

Personal life

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Yim uses they/them pronouns.[15][16] They graduated from Toronto French School in 2013.[17] They have a bachelor's degree in media, gender and English from the University of Toronto and a Master of Fine Arts from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.[18]

References

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  1. ^ "Toronto playwright Celeste Yim joins Saturday Night Live | CBC Comedy".
  2. ^ "What Kind Of Sponge Is Spongebob SquarePants? A Tweet Has Sparked A Massive Debate About The Iconic Character". Bustle. 23 May 2018.
  3. ^ Nestruck, J. Kelly (18 June 2021). "Bonjour-Hi, Celeste Yim! Meet the Toronto writer behind SNL's most hilarious, heartfelt and curiously Canadian pandemic moments". The Globe and Mail.
  4. ^ Nelson, Jenny (10 March 2017). "Celeste Yim (@celestrogen) on Activism and Bits". Vulture.
  5. ^ "#HowIMadeIt: Celeste Yim, Comedian". Flare. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Why People Who Know Better Still Laugh at Asian Accents". Vice. 8 June 2017.
  7. ^ Yim, Celeste (25 November 2016). "Queen's U: Race-based costumes are always terrible - and damaging". The Globe and Mail.
  8. ^ "Celeste Yim". The Strand.
  9. ^ Milligan, Kaitlin. "Playwright and Screenwriter Celeste Yim Receives 2019 Canadian Women Artists' Award". BroadwayWorld.
  10. ^ "Introducing | Playwright and Screenwriter Celeste Yim Receives 2019 Canadian Women Artists' Award". Nyfa. 20 August 2019.
  11. ^ Admin, Lambda (6 July 2021). "Introducing Lambda Literary's 2021 Emerging Writer's Retreat Fellows & Writers-in-Residence". Lambda Literary. Retrieved 26 August 2025.
  12. ^ "Meet 'SNL' writer Celeste Yim, Emmy nominee behind 'It Gets Better' and more memorable sketches". EW.com.
  13. ^ "Pedro Pascal/Coldplay". Saturday Night Live. Season 48. Episode 12. 4 February 2023. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.
  14. ^ "SNL's First Ever Out Trans Writer Is Leaving the Show". MSN. 25 August 2025. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
  15. ^ "21 LGBTQ artists bringing IDGAF queer energy into mainstream culture in 2021 | CBC Arts".
  16. ^ "Bio". Celeste Yim.
  17. ^ "The Official Toronto French School Alumni Page on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 27 April 2022.[user-generated source]
  18. ^ Macdonald, Cynthia (3 January 2018). "The Serious Business of Being Funny". University of Toronto Magazine.
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