Born a Crime Trivia Quiz

Because Trevor Noah's mother Patricia was a Xhosa woman, and his father Robert Noah was Swiss-German, their relationship was illegal in 1984, when he was born. His father's name could not appear on his birth certificate, and they had to meet clandestinely. Even when the relationship became legal, it was still highly disapproved, and his Black mother experienced significant hardship on its account.

As a mixed-race person, Trevor was classified as Coloured under South Africa's Apartheid system. He was raised primarily by his mother and grandmother, although his father did maintain a relationship as best he could at the time. When Robert moved away in 1997, he lost contact with Trevor and Patricia; it was not until he was 24 that Trevor and his father were reunited, and could begin to catch up on each other's life in the interim.

The entertainment industry provided Trevor Noah with a way out of the poverty of his upbringing in Soweto - but he brought those experiences along with him, as an important part of his public persona. This first media appearance was followed by a period hosting a radio show in the youth-radio station YFM, which he continued until his subsequent stand-up work demanded too much time.

This stage of his career started in 2005, when his friends dared him to perform at an open-mike event. That's when things really took off. As well as gaining increased recognition on the stand-up circuit, he continued television work as host of 'Run the Adventure' (2004-2006), adding 'The Real Goboza' (a gossip show) and 'Siyadlala' (a sports show) to his SABC work in 2007.

By 2008, Trevor Noah was enough of a celebrity to be selected as a contestant in the fourth season of this reality TV show. His professional partner was Hayley Hammond, who had won the second season of the show as partner to television handyman Riann Venter. The fourth season was won by actor Emmanuel Castis and his partner Lindsey Muckle, whose final day score was 110, five points better than the runner-up score of 105 over three dances. The week before, they had to complete a dance-off (as the lowest-scoring team, dancing against the second-lowest team) in order to make the grand final.

His other media work at this stage of his career included hosting the 3rd Annual South Africa film and Television Awards (2009), co-hosting the reality competition show 'The Axe Sweet Life' (2009), hosting the 16th annual South African Music Awards (2010) and 'Tonight with Trevor Noah' (first season 2010). All this while continuing to work the comedy circuit. A documentary titled 'You Laugh But It's True' (aka 'From Township to the Stage)' was filmed in 2008 by David Paul Meyer that followed the process of getting a new comedy routine staged for the first time, accompanied by reflections on the role of comedy in South Africa's path of leaving apartheid in its past. It was released in 2012.

With South African media nicely under his belt, it was time to move on to further fields, and he moved to the United States. According to evidence presented at his ex-stepfather's sentencing for the 2009 attempted murder of his mother, one of his major motivations was escaping from the perceived danger still posed by Ngisaveni Shingange. Noah's 2016 autobiography records years of domestic violence, culminating in this attack.

The move to the USA brought him to the attention of a much larger audience. In 2012 he became the first South African stand-up comedian to appear on 'The Tonight Show' (then hosted by Jay Leno) and in 2013 he was the first to perform on 'Late Show with David Letterman'.

The 2008 documentary 'You Laugh But It's True' was released in 2012, the same year he performed the comedy show 'Trevor Noah: The Racist', based on the earlier South African show being prepared in the documentary, to sold-out crowds at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The 2013 Showtime special 'Trevor Noah: African American' similarly dealt with the perceptions raised by words. He has stated that he is bemused by the use of the term African American to describe people who are born and raised as Americans, unlike those like himself who are actually African while living in the US.

Success at the Edinburgh Fringe gave him some exposure in the United Kingdom that led to a couple of guest spots on British shows that feature a panel of celebrities, often comedians. The first of these was QI in October 2013, a show where (according to their slogan) being interesting is more important than being right. He was indeed interesting, in fact Quite Interesting, as he displayed some of his linguistic skills, including his mother's Xhosa language, famous for its use of clicks, and Afrikaans. English, of course, was the major language; Zuku, Tswana and Southern Sotho were mentioned but not displayed.

In November of that year he appeared on the game show '8 out of 10 Cats', hosted by Jimmy Carr. Panellists on this show try to guess the result of a poll that posed some question to members of the public. In 2014 he appeared in the sister show '8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown', in which teams compete in two games: one involves forming the longest possible word out of a selected set, and the other required contestants to use arithmetic operations to come as close as possible to a target number using six blindly-chosen starting numbers. Unlike the original 'Countdown', the emphasis is more on humor than on success. But his team (with team captain Sean Lock) did win, 37-31.

Jon Stewart, then hosting 'The Daily Show', used a number of comedians as featured artists in segments of the show, and in November 2014 Trevor Noah became one of them. The show's format included an opening monologue, followed by reports from correspondents, then an interview with a celebrity guest, and a closing recap segment.

In March 2015 the show's producers announced that Jon Stewart was leaving, and would be replaced by Trevor Noah, starting in September of that year. His tenure as host ran from 28 September 2015 through 8 December 2022. For 2023 the show used a different guest host each week; in 2024 a revised format saw Jon Stewart hosting one night a week, and the team of correspondents rotating host duties the rest of the week.

Using the same technique of commenting on problematic issues through the lens of comedy, Trevor Noah published an account of his childhood in Soweto, growing up under the restrictions that apartheid placed on the child of an interracial couple. He recounts the need to meet with his father only in private, his mother's multiple arrests for the illegal relationship (details supplied by his mother, who is at the centre of the entire story, since he was too young to recall many of these events), and his issues dealing with life as an adolescent who didn't fit in with either the Black or the White cultures which surrounded him.

All of this was compounded by his mother's abusive marriage to Ngisaveni Abel Shingange, who she divorced when Trevor was 12, but who never left their lives. It culminated in his attempt to kill her while she was on her way home from church in 2009, following her remarriage to Sfiso Khoza. The bullet that entered her head managed to avoid all vital areas, and she survived.

This foundation was set up to provide educational opportunities for disadvantaged South African youngsters. The impetus for the project can be seen in this quote from 'Born a Crime' which appears on the foundation's website: "Kids of today are being told to be the leaders of tomorrow, but they're not given the tools. We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited." His own thirst for learning (reflected in his mastery of multiple languages, and his regular trips to take his comedy to new places, where he can experience the local culture and understand their approach to comedy) led him to want to use his success to provide the same opportunities to others, especially those whose local schools are unable to offer high quality educational experiences.

The foundation's projects focus on the local community, by improving the actual infrastructure (building schools), empowering teachers by upgrading their educational skills, and encouraging the entire community to engage in the educational process. Although much of the emphasis is on developing fundamental literacy and numeracy skills, other projects aim to ensure the development of a wide range of skills that will allow for success in the 21st century.

Trevor Noah hosted the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, held in the Los Angeles Convention Centre, on 14 March 2021 (postponed from January due to COVID issues). He was clearly a success - they invited him to repeat for the next five years, through 2026. As of the time when this quiz is being written, details of the 2027 show have not been released, so he may or may not extend his run.

The Grammy Awards are presented by the Recording Academy of the United States, to recognise achievements in a wide range of aspects of music performance - there are currently 96 categories, for performance and production, in genres that include classical, children's and a range of popular music types. In his first stunt as host, Trevor Noah presented four awards: Best Melodic Rap Performance (formerly Best Rap/Sung Performance) went to 'Lockdown' by Anderson Paak; Best Latin Pop or Urban Album was awarded to Bad Bunny's 'YHLQMDLG'; H.E.R. won Song of the Year for 'I Can't Breathe', a protest song inspired by the death of George Floyd.

The first episode of the podcast, titled 'What Now? with Trevor Noah', was released in November of 2023. It features him interacting with a different guest each week. These guests may be entertainment celebrities, athletes, business magnates, personal friends - anyone who can generate a thought-provoking discussion about life and the state of the world.

At the time of writing this quiz, the podcast is still producing regular episodes.