Ronny Chieng's sitcom picked up for series

To air in the US and Australia

Ronny Chieng’s sitcom has been picked up for a full series in Australia and America, following a successful pilot.

International Student was based on the comedian's teenage life as as a Malaysian student who came to Australia to study law.

It was one of six pilots that on Australia’s ABC channel in April as part of a Comedy Showroom strand.

Now Chieng – currently a correspondent on The Daily Show – has revealed that it has been picked up for a full run, while being interviewed by fellow comic Des Bishop on his podcast.

Asked about his background as an immigrant to Australia, Chieng said: ‘Tune it to ABC or Comedy Central US. June 2017. My new series addresses it.’

The pilot, which he co-wrote with Declan Fay, featured the comic playing a younger version of himself, ‘exaggerated for comic effect’ who gets irritated with his fellow students while maintaining a tetchy relationship with his demanding mum.

Producers Sticky Pictures said: ’As a genuine outsider, Ronny is super suspicious of any group that wants him as a member, be it the beer-drinking Australians, the Mahjong playing Asians or the pompous blazer-wearing idiots.’

Speaking to The Guardian at the time of the pilot, Chieng said: ‘University characters are prime for parody, you know — the self-entitled rich kids to the self-important protestors to the international students.’

On Bishop’s podcast, Chieng said that he had to dumb down and present a simplified version of himself to American audiences.

He said: ‘Well, I shouldn’t be saying this, but… People have been asking me to give an international perspective but what America really wants is what America THINKS an international perspective is. You give them what your real perspective is, it’s too much nuance and they can’t get it.

‘When I go, “I was born in Malaysia but I’,m ethnically Chinese and grew up in Singapore but spent ten years in Australia going to law school and doing comedy.” That’s too many things.You’ve just gotta be Asian. You can’t be doing nuance, that’s to fucking complicated.’

Here’s the trailer for the International Student pilot: