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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jocelyn Chia (born 1979/1980 (age 43–44))^[1] is an American stand-up comedian.

Early life and education

Chia was born in Boston, United States.^[2] She studied in St Nicholas Girls’ School and National Junior College in Singapore. She then went back to United States for her college degree.^[1]

Career

Early career

After graduating from college, Chia worked for 3 years as a corporate lawyer between 2006 and 2009.^[1]

Stand-up comedy

Chia then entered the stand-up comedy circuit.^[when?]

She was the head of corporate events at The Magnet Theater in 2014.^[3]

In 2016, she won the Ladies of Laughter competition, and was also a finalist at the 2017 New York’s Funniest.^[1]

In 2017, she received the Rising Star Award – Comedy at the Asian American Television & Film Festival,^[4] and made her Comedy Central debut in 2018.^[1]

On 7 June 2023, a video clip of Chia making remarks about the retrospective effects of Malaysia’s expulsion of Singapore and the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in an audience interaction during a stand-up routine, performed at Comedy Cellar in New York City, became viral on social networks.^[5] The clip threw heavy criticisms from citizens, celebrities,^[6] diplomats, and politicians particularly from Malaysia, who deemed it “crude” or “insulting”.^[5] TikTok removed it for “breach[ing] community guidelines and depicting discriminatory content”.^[5] 100 protesters from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) protested outside the United States Embassy in Kuala Lumpur in response to Chia’s performance and called to ban her from Malaysia.^[7] The Singaporean ambassador to Malaysia has apologised for the comments. Vivian Balakrishnan, Singaporean Foreign Minister, called Chia’s joke “horrendous statements”.^[8]

Chia responded that the clips lacked the necessary context, and that it was performed at the comedy club for more than 100 times without issues.^[9] A few days later, the Royal Malaysia Police stated that they would be making an application with Interpol to seek for Chia’s full identity and whereabouts, without providing further details.^[10]

Personal life

Chia is an American.^[11] She held joint American-Singaporean citizenship until adulthood.^[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_Chia

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