Trevor Noah Biography

Trevor Noah was born on February 20, 1984, in Johannesburg, South Africa, to a white Swiss-German father and a Black Xhosa mother during the later years of apartheid. Since interracial sexual relations were illegal under apartheid until 1985, Noah’s mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, kept him hidden for the first few years of his life to avoid them being separated by the authorities. Having grown up in poverty, Patricia attended secretarial school and was given one of the first few jobs that were made available to nonwhites during the dismantling of apartheid so she could provide for her son.

Noah began his comedy career in Johannesburg as a way to have fun one night, and the audience loved it. Within a few years he was performing in front of sold-out audiences around South Africa and began appearing on television programs and hosting awards shows. He hosted his own late-night talk show, Tonight with Trevor Noah. In 2012, he decided it was time to try the United States with the Stand-Up Revolution tour. He was a guest on The Tonight Show and The Late Show with David Letterman and created several comedy specials and sold out shows across five continents. Noah has hosted The Daily Show, a late-night talk and news satire show on Comedy Central, since 2015, winning an Emmy award in 2017.

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood was a #1 New York Times bestseller. In 2017 it won the Thurber Prize for American Humor along with NAACP Image awards for Outstanding Literary Work in the Autobiography and Debut Author categories.