Ronny Chieng

Born in Malaysia, raised in the US and Singapore and tertiary educated in Australia, former Melbourne Law School graduate Ronny Chieng is now a very successful stand-up comedian and actor whose fame is growing rapidly.

Ronny broke into comedy in his final year at university when he signed up for the annual campus comedy competition, stepped on stage for the first time in his life, did his five minutes and won.

In 2012 Ronny won Best Newcomer Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for his debut stand-up special The Ron Way and sold out his entire festival season, including extra shows.

Ronny then sold out the entire month-long season of his second comedy show Can you do this? No you can’t in advance at the MICF and twice had to move to larger venues, culminating in a 1400-seat show in the Melbourne Town Hall.

In 2013, Ronny, a fan of absurdist humour, was named one of the top 10 rising comedians in Australia by The Age, the Herald Sun and the Sydney Morning Herald. Just a year later, Ronny won the prestigious Directors’ Choice Award at the 2014 Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Best of the Fest (Local) at the Sydney Comedy Festival.

Ronny’s 2014 show, Chieng Reaction, has also had sell-out seasons in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Ronny Chieng is also finding success as an actor. His growing TV credits include Peter Helliar’s acclaimed ABC1 comedy series, It’s a Date, panel shows Tractor Monkeys, Dirty Laundry Live and Have You Been Paying Attention, Sam Simmons’ ABC1 sketch series, Problems, ABC2’s This is Littleton, and Legally Brown on SBS, as well as stand-up comedy specials including Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala on Channel Ten in 2012 and 2013, Wil Anderson’s Just for Laughs Festival 2013, Stand up at Bella Union on SBS and the Sydney Comedy Festival Gala on the Comedy Channel.

Ronnie’s string of successes continued as he started as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Trevor Noah in 2015. In 2016 he co-wrote and starred in his own television comedy series Ronny Chieng: International Student, which aired on the ABC in Australia, the BBC, Comedy Central Asia and Comedy Central in the US. He appeared on the big screen in the massively successful Crazy Rich Asians in 2017.

Although Ronny Chieng enjoys playing the stereotypical Asian, he’d rather be known as the funny comedian rather than the funny Chinese comedian. Judging by his many and frequent successes, he’s going to get his wish.