The biggest comedian to come from Africa, Trevor Noah has performed sold-out tours across five continents as well as become a late-night talk show star in the United States. For a boy who grew up as the ultimate outsider, his is a true success story. Noah was born in Johannesburg, South Africa during apartheid to a white Swiss father and black Xhosa mother. At that time interracial marriage was illegal, so he spent most of his childhood tucked away inside while his family hid their secret from the outside world. In addition to being poor, another of Noah’s challenges was that he self-identified as Black, but was seen by others as mixed race. Noah first used humour to help bridge that divide. In his late teens, he dabbled at deejaying and acted in a soap opera, but then in his early 20s, he was pushed onstage during comedy night at a Johannesburg bar. Without any training, Noah began telling stories and received rapturous applause. He launched his career as a stand-up and TV presenter in earnest in 2002, landing several hosting roles with the South African Broadcasting Corporation. In 2010, he created and starred in two series of the South African television talk show Tonight With Trevor Noah.