David Paul Meyer interview: ‘The Daily Show with Trevor Noah’ director

“It’s been a crazy 15 years, honestly,” says “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” director David Paul Meyer as he reflects back on his partnership with the talk show host. The two originally met when Meyer traveled to South Africa as a film student to film his master’s thesis about the budding comedy scene in Africa. “From being a film school student to being the director of a show. And from Trevor Noah being a standup comic in South Africa to being one of the most powerful voices in social and cultural commentary in the U.S. Quite a journey.” We talked to Meyer as part of our “Meet the Experts” TV directors panel. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

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As COVID-19 halted in-studio productions and live audiences, “The Daily Show” had to adjust. And as their live audience returns, they’ve adjusted again. “A year ago we were still doing shows from Trevor’s apartment,” Meyer explains. “Then we did an interim step where we went back into a studio with no audience and we did that for about six months. Now, only in April did we relaunch with a live studio audience again. We’ve had to rethink the show three different times. Credit to everybody at ‘The Daily Show’ figuring that out because there’s no roadmap for that.”

“The Daily Show” is comedy news show featuring humorous takes on top stories and was hosted by Jon Stewart from January 11, 1999, until August 6, 2015. Stewart was succeeded by Noah, whose first episode premiered on Comedy Central on September 28, 2015. Since Noah took over, the series has been nominated for 14 Emmy Awards, including three for Meyer: One for directing and two for producing.