How to be Black author joins Trevor Noah

This announcement was made yesterday by Comedy Central President Michelle Ganeless. With this new initiative, fans of The Daily Show will have access to more original content presented across multiple platforms, giving them an increasingly robust user experience wherever they consume content. In this evolution of The Daily Show under new host Trevor Noah, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series will produce an ongoing flow of original content that will resonate with fans who increasingly seek content on multiple devices.

The creation and production of platform-specific original content will be spearheaded by Thurston, who will be working with Noah and the show’s executive producers to execute the multiplatform strategy, keeping it organic to The Daily Show mission while expanding the series’ footprint across all digital and social platforms.

“Baratunde brings a very unique set of skills to The Daily Show. We’ve been admirers of his comedic work on all platforms for a long time,” said Ganeless. “We’re thrilled he is joining the team and can’t wait to see what he and the team create for the show under Trevor Noah.”

“This must be what it’s like to have Nick Fury call and welcome you to The Avengers. I’m honoured and floored, and so many other verbs,” said Thurston.

“Also, I really love that quote by Michele Ganeless because she makes me sound like Liam Neeson. I will definitely be sharing that on multiple digital and social outlets.”

Baratunde Thurston is the president and co-founder of Cultivated Wit and co-host of the podcast About Race. He wrote The New York Times bestseller How To Be Black and served for five years as director of digital for the satirical news outlet The Onion. For the past several years he has delivered keynote addresses at schools and gatherings such as SXSW and TED, written the back page column for Fast Company magazine and served as a director’s fellow at the MIT Media Lab.

Thurston has advised the Obama White House and has more than 10 years’ experience in stand-up comedy. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah premieres on Monday, September 28. South Africa will be able to catch the show at the same time as America on Comedy Central.