Australian Comedy: International Appeal

Press release time!

Ronny Chieng: International Student airs on ABC this June

Friday, May 5, 2017 — The ABC’s highly anticipated new comedy series Ronny Chieng: International Student will premiere on Wednesday, 7 June at 9pm on the ABC and iview. The show, produced by Sticky Pictures, is the ABC’s first co-production with Comedy Central, where Ronny Chieng is a series regular on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and will air on its flagship channel later this year in the USA.

Originally one of six comedy pilots that aired on ABC in 2016 as part of the AACTA award-winning Comedy Showroom (a joint initiative between the ABC and Screen Australia), Ronny Chieng: International Student is the first show to be green lit to full series, based on overwhelmingly positive audience response.

In the show (as in real life), Ronny is a Malaysian student who’s come to Australia to study law. Though smart, driven and competitive, he’s also blunt and barbed, so it’s not long before Ronny is at odds with most people on campus. Adding to Ronny’s rollercoaster is his relationship with his Malaysia-based mum, which veers between affection and agitation, often in the space of a single conversation, and a friendship with all-Australian classmate Asher (Molly Daniels) that could mean something more – if Ronny can ever work up the courage.

Rick Kalowski, ABC Head of Comedy and series Executive Producer, says: “I couldn’t be more excited to launch Ronny Chieng: International Student. Joyously funny and perfectly on point for these tricky times in Australian cultural identity, the show is a sheer delight from start to finish”.

Donna Andrews, Sticky Pictures’ CEO and Producer of the series says,” Ronny Chieng: International Student is a riotous exploration of the life of a university student, not only through the eyes of an international student, but from Ronny’s unique comedic perspective.  This series is full of surprises!”

As long as one of those surprises* is “it’s funny”, we’re in!

 

*don’t worry, the press release does reveal the real news, though they bury it right down the bottom: “Production Credits: A Sticky Pictures production, with funding from ABC TV, Screen Australia, Film Victoria and Comedy Central.” Gotta have that US funding – uh, we mean “overwhelmingly positive audience response” – to make it in Australia these days…

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