Celeste Yim

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

Yim's career began in the mid-2010s, in indie stand-up shows in Toronto. They then 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 also written for a number of publications, especially on topics of Korean-Canadian identity and racism in pop culture, including Vice and The Globe and Mail.[6][7][8]

In 2019, they were awarded the 2019 Canadian Women Artists' Award by the New York Foundation for the Arts.[9] In May that year, their play Not Only Is Everyone As Wonderful was produced at the National MFA Playwrights Festival.[10]

In 2020, they were hired by Saturday Night Live, the only new writer to be hired for the show during that hiring season and the first writer to identify as non-binary (a non-binary cast member wouldn't come until two years later with Molly Kearney).[11] In 2023, within the second half of season 48, Yim became a writing supervisor for the show.[12]

Personal life

Yim uses they/them pronouns.[13][14] They graduated from Toronto French School in 2013.[15] 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.[16]

References

  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 (March 10, 2017). "Celeste Yim (@celestrogen) on Activism and Bits". Vulture.
  5. ^ "#HowIMadeIt: Celeste Yim, Comedian". Flare. Archived from the original on 2021-08-30. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
  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. August 20, 2019.
  11. ^ "Meet 'SNL' writer Celeste Yim, Emmy nominee behind 'It Gets Better' and more memorable sketches". EW.com.
  12. ^ "Pedro Pascal/Coldplay". Saturday Night Live. Season 48. Episode 12. February 4, 2023. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.
  13. ^ "21 LGBTQ artists bringing IDGAF queer energy into mainstream culture in 2021 | CBC Arts".
  14. ^ "Bio". Celeste Yim.
  15. ^ "The Official Toronto French School Alumni Page on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2022-04-27.[user-generated source]
  16. ^ Macdonald, Cynthia (3 January 2018). "The Serious Business of Being Funny". University of Toronto Magazine.