Ronny Chieng Biography

Born Ronny Xin Yi Chieng, Ronny is a Chinese-Malaysian comedian and actor. He currently stars as a senior correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show.

Chieng spent his early years in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, but later moved to Singapore before settling down in New Hampshire, United States. When he lived in Johor Bahru, he attended Fuchun Primary School in nearby Singapore, before moving on to Pioneer Secondary School and Pioneer Junior College in the city state.

He would then go on to attend the University of Melbourne in Australia, graduating in 2009 with a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) and Bachelor of Laws. In 2012 he obtained a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Australian National University.

It was during his time at Melbourne that Chieng would meet and later perform with Trevor Noah at a comedy festival in 2013. Following this debut Chieng was brought in to audition for the correspondent role on The Daily Show, and Noah later became the host of the show.

Chieng’s popularity would skyrocket following his response to a Jesse Watters Fox News segment in 2016. In his response, Chieng laid out an expletive laden criticism of the segment, which was deemed to be incredibly racist by many. Conducting his own interviews in the same area of New York City’s Chinatown that Watters was in, Chieng’s video ended up going viral and was covered by other news outlets such as The Washington Post.

On the acting front, Chieng co-wrote and starred in the Sitcom called Ronny Chieng: International Student, based on his own experiences as an international student in Australia. The series ran on Comedy Central in America and ABC TV in Australia in 2017.

A year later he would make his Hollywood feature debut with a supporting role in the hit film Crazy Rich Asians (2018). In 2019 he partnered with Netflix to produce his own stand-up special, Asian Comedy Destroys America!

As the pandemic had a lull in 2021, it was a busy time for the comedian with minor roles in the films Wish Dragon, Bliss, Long Story Short, Trust, Godzilla vs. Kong and he can also be seen in regular roles on the TV series Young Rock and I Am Frenchie.

Most recently, Chieng played Jon Jon in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021).