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Shane Gillis and Saturday night He lives He wasn’t exactly part of Good Relations in 2019. Just days after being announced as a new cast member, the Pennsylvania native was fired after offensive remarks from previous podcast appearances surfaced online. But in the years since, Sheen has made a major career comeback with stand-up comedy specials, Netflix specials, and his own hit comedy series. Tires. He later returned to host SNL in 2024 and 2025, and recently made headlines for hosting Netflix Roast Kevin Hart.
So what happened between Shane and… SNLHow did he become one of the biggest names in comedy? Keep reading to learn more about him, his career, and his controversial past through the sketch series.
Shane Gillies played football
Shane is a comedian, comedy writer, and podcaster. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, he played on his high school football team as an offensive tackle. After briefly attending West Point, Shane left during his junior year and played football at Elon University for one year. Eventually, he transferred to West Chester University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
He was a teacher in Europe
After graduating from college, Shane taught English in Spain for six months. He didn’t officially start stand-up until 2012, performing in several cities in his home state, including Harrisburg and Lancaster, eventually moving to Philadelphia.
Shane was named a featured cast member on SNL
Less than 10 years into his comedy career, Sheen has been announced as a featured cast member in 2019 alongside the stars. Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman. However, shortly after the announcement, clips resurfaced on social media of Sheen making controversial comments.
We’ve come a long way… Shane Gillis hosts SNL on February 24th pic.twitter.com/rHApaND9y8
— Kentucky Radio (@KFCradio) February 4, 2024
Sheen was fired from Saturday Night Live
Social media users pointed out clips of Chen using a racial slur to describe people of Asian descent. In an episode of his podcast, “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast” with the comedian Matt McCuskerShen was heard saying, “Let the king live there” and imitating a Chinese accent.
After NBC received information about Sheen’s previous comments, a spokesperson said… SNL They released a statement saying: “After speaking with Shane Gillies, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL. We were not aware of his previous statements that appeared over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We regret that we did not watch these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standards.”
“I’m a comedian and he was funny enough to get on SNL. That can’t be taken away.”
Shane Gillis issued a statement after being fired from #SNL, saying he was “always a crazy TV guy anyway.” Read it here https://t.co/REM19TtXtq pic.twitter.com/B3bp8MH2df
— IndieWire (@IndieWire) September 16, 2019
In response to his firing, Sheen took to X (formerly Twitter) at the time to defend himself.
“I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries. Sometimes I miss,” he wrote. “I am happy to apologize to anyone who was actually offended by anything I said.”
Sheen also wrote, “If you do 10 years of comedy, and most of it is bad, you’ll find a lot of bad mistakes… It’s never my goal to hurt anyone but I’m trying to be the best comedian I can be, and sometimes that requires taking risks.”
He has released his own demos
Despite the career setback, Sheen has released his own comedy specials over the years. In September 2021, he launched his first live show, Shane Gillis: Live in Austinon YouTube. Two years later, his second live broadcast, Shane Gillis: Beautiful dogsIt premiered on Netflix in September 2023.
Sheen has also expanded into scripted television comedy series Tireswhich he co-created, co-wrote, and starred in. The show became successful enough to earn additional seasons on Netflix. Along with his success in live streaming, Shane has had several major hosting opportunities, including returning to host Saturday Night Live After his controversial dismissal, he served as host of the 2025 ESPY Awards. In 2026, he also hosted the Netflix show Roast Kevin Hart.
