Loyiso Gola

Loyiso Gola (born 16 May 1983 in the Cape Town township of Gugulethu) is a South African stand-up and TV comedian. He is Xhosa, moved away from Gugulethu at the age of 14, and attended Zonnebloem Nest Senior School in Woodstock. After performing a stand-up opening act for comedian Marc Lottering at his high school, his drama teacher introduced him to the Cape Comedy Collective at the age of 17, and he began performing on stage regularly with the group. He matriculated in 2002 and won the Sprite Soul Comedy Tour that December, after which he relocated from Cape Town to Johannesburg. His younger brother Lazola Gola is also a comedian.

Gola's television career began with appearances on SABC 1's Phat Joe Live in 2002 and the Pure Monate Show in 2003. In 2007 he co-hosted the SABC 2 talk show Dinner with the President, created by Pieter-Dirk Uys, and in 2010 he became the co-creator and anchor of the late-night satirical news series Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola, which aired on e.tv and eNCA. He has performed stand-up comedy in various one-man shows on the South African circuit since 2006, as well as at several international comedy festivals, and on 21 January 2022 he appeared on the BBC One programme Would I Lie To You?.

Gola won the Best Breakthrough Comedy Act South African Comedy Award for his 2007 one-man show Loyiso Gola for President. In 2012 he was named one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans in the Media & Film category, and in 2014 he won The Savanna SA Comic's Choice Award for Comic of the Year. Late Nite News was nominated for an International Emmy Award for best comedy series in 2013. His one-man shows include Professional Black (2012) and State of the Nation Address (2014).