In 2012, South African comedian Trevor Noah made his US television debut on The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Receiving rave reviews and gaining a large
international fan base in the years following, Noah went on to join The Daily Show
with Jon Stewart as a contributor in 2014.
Fast forward one year, on 31 March 2015, Comedy Central announced that the 31-
year-old comedian was to be the next host of the Emmy® and Peabody® award-
winning The Daily Show. Noah is to be the first non-white, non-American to host the
show.
Born in South Africa to a white Swiss-German father and a black South African
mother, Noah has used his cultural heritage and experiences as a mixed-race child
growing up in Soweto, in apartheid South Africa, to successfully become the African
continent’s top comedian.
“Trevor is not the first African comic to have had overseas success…but he is
certainly the first comedian from Africa to headline a classic late night franchise
like The Daily Show and as we saw, it was a global news event,’ comments Evert
van der Veer, head of Comedy Central Africa. “Trevor got the gig because he was
bold, smart and funny with a razor sharp wit and a distinct and authoritative voice –
but also, I think, because Comedy Central wanted to try something different and
exciting with the show.’
“When you hear that a South African comedian is going to replace Jon Stewart as
the host of the most trusted satirical comedy show in the world, you know it’s a
great day for Trevor Noah and an extraordinary milestone for African comedy,’
says Van der Veer.
While South Africa and the African continent as a whole were ecstatic at the news of
Noah’s appointment, it took all of 24 hours before he came under fire over a series
of offensive tweets he had previously posted about Jewish people and women.
Social media users, more specifically in America, labelled the comedian anti-
Semitic and a male chauvinist. Noah responded to the allegations on Twitter,
saying: “To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn’t land is not a true
reflection of my character, nor my evolution as a comedian.’
Comedy Central defended the comedian in a statement saying: “Like many
comedians, Trevor Noah pushes boundaries; he is provocative and spares no one,
himself included…To judge him or his comedy based on a handful of jokes is unfair.
Trevor is a talented comedian with a bright future at Comedy Central.’
Noah was the subject of David Paul Meyer’s award-winning documentary film You
Laugh But It’s True, which chronicles the story of his successful career as a
comedian in post-apartheid South Africa. At the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe, Noah’s one-
man show The Racist was a sold out run that became one of the most talked about
shows at the festival that year. More recently, Noah performed in front of the
British royal family at the Royal Variety Performance.
Noah’s The Daily Show premiere will be announced at a later date.
