Trevor Noah: The Host of the Daily Show and How He Came to Be
Zoya Musharraf
7/8 Writer's Workshop D
The Daily Show has been running since 1996 and has had three hosts in its time: Craig Kilborn, Jon Stewart, and now Trevor Noah. Trevor is a South African comedian who has been the host of the Daily Show since 2015. He is a change maker because he takes current events and adds humor to it, which makes it more digestible for most Americans.
Trevor Noah was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1984 during apartheid. Apartheid was a time in South Africa where black people and white people were seperated. Commerce between the two was illegal. Trevor’s mom was black, and his dad was white, therefore making him a broken law. As a younger kid, he would get to visit his dad occasionally but could not walk on the same side of the street as him, or say hello to him. His mom would have to let go of his hand each time the police walked by, pretending he wasn’t her kid.
Trevor’s book, Born A Crime, talked about his childhood and often turned things that could be considered quite sad, into hilarious stories. Trevor published Born A Crime in November of 2016 as his writing debut. He writes stories from his childhood, growing up in South Africa. Trevor also had his own Netflix special movie, Afraid of the Dark. It was released February of 2017, and filmed in New York at the Beacon Theatre, which sold out very quickly. He talked about his experience with sexism, racism, colonization, and life in general. Mid sentence he broke down laughing!
Trevor had never pictured himself being a comedian. He started one night when a few friends encouraged him to go up at an open mic. He enjoyed it, he said he felt like it came naturally to him. After that, he gradually started performing at more places, bringing more and more attention to himself. Later in his life, he learned that his dad had been following his success and actually kept a book with clips of newspapers and things that Trevor had accomplished. Of course the biggest excitement was 2014 when Trevor was hired by Jon Stewart as a senior correspondent.
Trevor Noah began hosting The Daily Show in 2015, just a year after Jon Stewart hired him as a correspondent. Trevor did a few segments now and then, but it was announced in April of 2015, it was announced that he would be actually taking over the show when Jon Stewart left. Many people had mixed feelings about this, and he faced some backlash about some previous tweets. He has now won over almost all Daily Show fans after hosting for almost three years now. Now, most of his humor on the show is centered around the white house.
To conclude, Trevor Noah is a role model, engaging people in the news and making it fun, he has been able to make people laugh even in times like this. He is someone to be admired for his ability to make people happy, even when they are not.
SOURCE
Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood. W F Howes, 2017.
