Who is Jo Koy? The comedian and last-minute host of the Golden Globes

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Awards season is underneath approach with the 81st Golden Globes – Oscar’s boozier sibling – happening this weekend. On Sunday, Hollywood’s best will descend upon the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles to toast the best contributions to screens each massive and small. It’ll be a veritable who’s who of A-listers, with Robert DeNiro, Margot Robbie and Jeffrey Wright amongst the nominees up for one of the many shiny celestial trophies. One face that’ll be much less acquainted, although, is that of Jo Koy, the comedian requested to host at the final minute.

Arguably, the Globes host hasn’t been related for a very long time. The ceremonies in current reminiscence have handed by forgettably, not least as a result of 2022’s awards present was devoid of each stars and cameras because of the controversy surrounding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – the organisation behind the Globes – over accusations of corruption and an absence of variety. Koy, in his first main internet hosting gig, has fairly the process forward of him.

The 52-year-old Filipino-American comedian – born Joseph Glenn Herbert Sr – was requested to host solely two weeks in the past. “When they asked me, it was an immediate yes. I couldn’t believe this was happening – and then I woke up and went, ‘Wait a minute, I have two weeks to write jokes!’” he advised Variety. “Actually, I think I had less than two weeks because I didn’t get my writers until five days later.” To put it into perspective, earlier hosts – like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and, most infamously, Ricky Gervais – obtained months to arrange. “It’s been a crash course in hosting,” Koy mentioned.

He’s no new child on the block, although. Over the years, Koy’s model of comedy – which is conversational, story-based and takes its cues from Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg – has gained over throngs of followers, two million of whom observe him on Instagram. He lower his enamel on the Nineties stand-up circuit in Las Vegas and has since had a number of well-received comedy specials air on Comedy Central and Netflix, most just lately 2020’s Jo Koy: In His Elements, which shone a lightweight on the native expertise in Manila, Philippines. He’s just lately inked a cope with the streaming big for 2 extra specials. On display, Koy led the 2022 comedy movie Easter Sunday and appeared on this 12 months’s Haunted Mansion reboot, which additionally starred LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish and Danny DeVito.

Late-night followers may even recognise Koy as a visitor on exhibits like The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Last Call with Carson Daly. Most regularly, although, Koy appeared as a season common on Chelsea Handler’s speak present Chelsea Lately earlier than it was cancelled in 2014. He and Handler later dated for a 12 months in 2021 earlier than saying their “beautiful” break up in 2022.

As Kevin Hart as soon as put it, Koy is “a guy who has earned his f***ing stripes”. He was promoting footwear at Nordstrom Rack, a reduction division retailer, when he obtained his first massive break in 2005: a stand-up gig on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Koy was a success. Still right this moment, he is one of only some comedians to have obtained a standing ovation on the present. Speaking to Hart in 2021 on the podcast Gold Minds with Kevin Hart, Koy recalled how he went into work the subsequent day to seek out prospects applauding his hilarious set – “and then they’d ask, ‘Can I have this in a size eight?’” From The Tonight Show got here a profitable industrial cope with the cellphone service firm Amp’d Mobile and issues “snowballed” from there.

“That was the last time I had a part-time job,” mentioned Koy, who labored 17 years in stand-up earlier than feeling financially safe sufficient to go away his day job. “I always wanted to make sure I had some type of money, some type of income.”

Born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1971, Koy, collectively together with his dad and mom and three siblings, moved to Las Vegas after highschool to look after his sick grandmother. While he had enrolled at college in Vegas, Koy ultimately dropped out to pursue stand-up comedy – a call made to the preliminary despair of his mom Josie Harrison, who has since turn out to be a beloved mainstay in Koy’s comedy units. A YouTube video of Harrison reacting to her son’s jokes about her has been seen greater than 2.5 million occasions.

Koy’s father, who served in the US Air Force, met his mom when stationed in the Philippines. Throughout his profession, Koy has spoken about the struggles his household confronted rising up in America. During an occasion to advertise his 2022 movie Easter Sunday, Koy recounted one time in his childhood when his household stuffed out “a thousand” raffle tickets at the division retailer Sears in the hopes of successful a TV as a result of they couldn’t afford to purchase one themselves. “We won. We won the f***ing TV! And then we went up the escalator, it’s like 1985, and my mom loves little kids,” he mentioned. “My mum sees this little kid and she’s like, ‘Hi, what’s your name?’ The kid turns around and pulls his eyes back and [giggles]. I [didn’t] understand that type of normalisation. Why would that be funny?”

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While there’s little doubt that the Globes is one other enormous alternative for Koy, he sees it additionally as an essential duty. “This is everything,” Koy advised Variety. “You hear that a lot right now, but it means a lot for someone that looks like me. There’s a kid that’s Asian out there, or that’s half white/half Asian, any ethnicity. Being able to see this, it will indirectly inspire them. This is one of those ‘finally’ moments. I don’t want to address that when I’m on stage, but I think me just being on stage is enough.”

As for whether or not he’ll go down the much-loved Gervais route of roasting his viewers, Koy pointed to the current strikes that halted Hollywood for months. “I’m going to poke fun, but I want to do it in a way where we’re still celebrating. The industry got hit hard. Hollywood got shook. Everyone got shook. It wasn’t just the writers. It wasn’t just the actors… So, let’s celebrate,” he mentioned. “Let’s enjoy this. We have a great gig. That’s the approach I want to have on this one. This is a great moment for all of us.” Whether it’s an entertaining one for us at dwelling is nonetheless to be seen.