Meet Trevor Noah, the new host of “The Daily Show.” There’s no set date for when he’ll start hosting for good, but Jon Stewart is expected to step down sometime between July and December of this year. In the meantime, we’ve got six-or-so months to get to know Noah, the 31-year-old South African comedian readying to take Stewart’s place. Here are the basics:
He’s been a “Daily Show” correspondent since December 2014.
Noah has only appeared in three segments in his four months at the “Daily Show,” including his first bit, “Spot The Africa,” which you can watch above. He also appeared on Jan. 22 to report on Boko Haram and March 19, to play chess with Stewart.
He was the first South African comedian to perform on “The Tonight Show” and “The Late Show With David Letterman.”
He’s known for riffing on race and politics, and often brings up his multiracial background in routines.
His comedy tour, “Born A Crime,” highlighted this as he joked that he was “born a crime” because his mother is a black South African woman and his father a white Swiss man. Their relationship was considered illegal in South Africa during Apartheid. “My mother had to be very clandestine about who my father was,” Noah told the Times. “He couldn’t be on my birth certificate.”
His stand-up comedy has been celebrated for years in South Africa.
Shows like “The Blacks Only Comedy Show” and the “Jozi Comedy Festival” began supporting him early on, but his specials, “That’s Racist,” “It’s My Culture” and “Trevor Noah: African American” (which appeared on Showtime), got him more traction with American audiences.
He was the subject of a 2012 documentary, “You Laugh But It’s True.”
It’s a solid primer on the early stages of Noah’s career in comedy. It’s on Netflix.
Noah is expected to bring a young, international perspective to Comedy Central.
“He brings such a unique worldview and a deep understanding of human nature, which makes his comedy so insightful,” Michele Ganeless, the Comedy Central president, told the New York Times. “He’s truly a student of the world.” It doesn’t hurt that Noah speaks six languages and can deliver bits about hip-hop censorship, tacos and Oscar Pistorius with ease.
