Samay Raina (born 26 October 1997) is an Indian
stand-up comedian
Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehear ...
and
YouTuber
A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...
. He was the co-winner of the stand-up comedy contest ''
Comicstaan 2'' (2019). Since 2024, he has hosted the comedy talent show ''
India's Got Latent
India's Got Latent was an Indian Hindi-language talent show hosted by Samay Raina on YouTube from 2024 to 2025. Inspired by the international ''Got Talent'' franchise and ''Kill Tony,'' it featured a wide variety of acts including singing, danc ...
''.
Early life
Raina was born in
Jammu
Jammu () is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute ...
city of the erstwhile
Indian state
India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...
of
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir may refer to:
* Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019
* Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019
* Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...
into a conservative
Kashmiri Pandit
The Kashmiri Pandits (also known as Kashmiri Brahmins) are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmin group from the Kashmir Valley, located within the In ...
family. He enrolled in a print engineering course at
Vidhyarthi Griha's College of Engineering and Technology in
Pune, Maharashtra
Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
, which he said was a waste of time, and started doing
open mic events and eventually became a regular in the local comedy scene.
Career
Stand-up
After performing at multiple
open mic
An open mic or open mike (shortened from "open microphone") is a live show at a venue such as a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, or pub, often taking place at night (an open mic night), in which audience members may perform on ...
s since 27 August 2017, Raina began
opening
Opening may refer to:
Types of openings
* Hole
* A title sequence or opening credits
* Grand opening of a business or other institution
* Inauguration
* Keynote
* Opening sentence
* Opening sequence
* Opening statement, a beginning statemen ...
for well-known comedians like Anirban Dasgupta and Abhishek Upmanyu in
Pune
Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
. As he gained recognition, he moved to
Mumbai
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and gave several successful shows in Mumbai and several cities across the nation.
Comicstaan 2
Eventually, he joined
Comicstaan 2 from a suggestion from his co-winner
Aakash Gupta
Aakash Gupta is an Indian comic, actor, performer YouTuber and theatre artist. He was the co-winner of the second season of the stand-up comedy competition television series Comicstaan along with Samay Raina. He is trained in performing arts and ...
. Later, he became the joint winner of
Comicstaan 2 with Aakash Gupta, aired on
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...
.
YouTube
During the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
pandemic
A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...
, the government cancelled all outdoor events, and thus, Raina could no longer perform stand-up comedy. He then began streaming chess games on his YouTube channel at the fellow comedian
Tanmay Bhat
Tanmay Bhat (born 23 June 1987) is an Indian YouTuber, comedian, scriptwriter, actor, performer and producer. He is the co-founder and former CEO/CFO/Driver of the creative agency '' All India Bakchod'' (AIB) along with Gursimran Khamba. In 20 ...
's suggestion.
His viewership boosted when he invited
YouTuber
A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...
Antonio Radić
Antonio Radić (born 16 June 1987), better known as agadmator (), is a Croatian YouTuber and chess player. He has one of the most popular chess channels on YouTube, and was the most subscribed chess YouTuber from 2018 to late 2021, when he was su ...
, popularly known as Agadmator, to his channel. In response to this, Indian
GM Vidit Gujrathi
Vidit Gujrathi (born 24 October 1994) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Gujrathi attained the title of grandmaster in January 2013, becoming the 30th player from India to do so. He is the fourth Indian player to have crossed the Elo rating of 27 ...
tweeted that he would like to join Raina on his track. Eventually, Gujrathi appeared on Raina's channel, giving another boost to Raina's viewership. Since then, the two have fostered a strong relationship and frequently feature on each other's channels. Gujrathi attributes his moving from
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...
to
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
to Raina's suggestion.
According to many chess proponents, including GMs
Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...
, Vidit Gujrathi,
Anish Giri
Anish Kumar Giri (; ; born 28 June 1994) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on ...
,
Teimour Radjabov
Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov (also spelled Teymur Rajabov; , ; born 12 March 1987) is an Azerbaijani Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster.
A former child prodigy, he earned the title of Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster in March 2001 at age 14, ...
,
Baskaran Adhiban
Adhiban Baskaran (born 15 August 1992) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He was the 2008 World Under-16 Champion and the 2009 Indian champion. He is currently the 21st highest rated player in India.
Career
In 2007 he won the Asian under-16 ...
,
Emil Sutovsky
Emil Sutovsky (; born 19 September 1977) is an Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1996. Sutovsky is the FIDE CEO since 2022. Previously, he served as FIDE Director-General (2018-22). He was the president of th ...
and
IMs Ims is a Norwegian surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Gry Tofte Ims (born 1986), Norwegian footballer
* Rolf Anker Ims (born 1958), Norwegian ecologist
See also
* IMS (disambiguation) Ims is a Norwegian surname
Heritable famil ...
Tania Sachdev
Tania Sachdev (born 20 August 1986) is an Indian chess player, who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a two-time Indian women's chess champion in 2006 and 2007, one-time Asian women's chess c ...
and
Sagar Shah
Sagar Shah (born 28 January 1990) is an Indian chess player, journalist, commentator, and YouTuber who holds the title of International Master (IM).
He co-founded ChessBase India in late 2015 with his wife Amruta Mokal. Professionally a chart ...
, Raina has been instrumental in popularising chess in India through his channel. Raina tries to make the game of chess more appealing to the masses through his humour which, according to many, has helped him reach a larger audience.
Several well-known chess personalities like
Pentala Harikrishna
Pentala Harikrishna (born 10 May 1986) is an Indian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. He achieved a peak world ranking of 10 in November 2016, and a peak Elo rating system, Elo rating of 2770 in December 2016.
On 17 August 2001, he bec ...
,
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the Strong (chess), strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years ...
, former
world chess champion
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...
s
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...
,
Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...
and
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...
have appeared on Raina's channel. He also organised chess tournaments featuring Indian celebrities such as cricketer
Yuzvendra Chahal
Yuzvendra Chahal (born 23 July 1990) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the India national cricket team in white ball cricket as a leg spin bowler. He also represents Haryana in domestic cricket, Punjab Kings in the Indian Premi ...
, and played chess with actor
Aamir Khan
Mohammed Aamir Hussain Khan (; born 14 March 1965) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, and television personality who works in Bollywood, Hindi films. Referred to as "Mr. Perfectionist" in the media, he is known for his work in a variety of film g ...
.
In addition to chess, he also live streams many other games on his YouTube channel.
Chess
Samay plays on Chess.com as samayraina. , Raina has a rating of 1621 at
rapid chess
Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. A ...
on
chess.com
Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...
, while the highest recorded rating was 1942 on 3 August 2023. On 5 May 2021, Raina won the $10,000 Botez Bullet Invitational, a one-hour amateur bullet arena tournament sponsored by Chess.com and hosted by the
Botez sisters. He was the only Indian streamer competing among some of the top international Twitch streamers and earned $4000.
Comedians on Board (COB)
He started organising online chess tournaments on his channel to attract the online audience to chess, called Comedians On Board (COB), inviting many of his comedian friends and other celebrities.
Chess Super League (CSL)
Raina with
ChessBase
ChessBase is a German company that develops and sells chess software, maintains a chess news site, and operates an internet chess server for online chess. Founded in 1986, it maintains and sells large-scale databases containing the moves of recor ...
India and Nodwin Gaming organised an online chess league called
Chess Super League consisting of some of the Top International and Indian Grandmasters, International Masters and Indian Junior Players, competing in six teams of six players each. For the prize pool of . The entire event was streamed on Raina's YouTube Channel.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, he began streaming chess games along with multiple comedians and chess masters. He has raised substantial amounts of money for various causes through his YouTube channel, including help for
waste picker
A waste picker also known as waste collector or garbage collector is a person who salvages reusable or recyclable materials thrown away by others to sell or for personal consumption. There are millions of waste pickers worldwide, predominantly ...
s, and relief for
West Bengal
West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...
and
Assam
Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...
flood victims.
''India’s Got Latent''
In June 2024, Samay Raina launched India's Got Latent, a reality show focused on uncovering hidden talents. The show, which blends comedy and performance, features a unique format where participants are evaluated not only on their talents but also on their self-awareness, with comedic commentary and celebrity guest judges contributing to the evaluation process. Hosted on Raina's YouTube channel, the show quickly garnered attention and positive reception, particularly among younger audiences, for its distinctive, humour-driven approach to talent discovery.
He then ventured into the tech and entertainment space with the launch of his app India's Got Latent, inspired by his YouTube show. Raina said he aims to eventually transition the platform into a full-fledged OTT service, featuring shows across genres such as
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
,
rap
Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...
, and
reality TV
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...
. Within hours of launch, the app reached top of the charts on
Apple App Store
The App Store is an app marketplace developed and maintained by Apple, for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS SDK. Apps can be download ...
and
Google Play Store.
Controversies
Ranveer Allahbadia's controversial remark on ''India's Got Latent''
On 10 February 2025, The
Chief Minister of Assam
The chief minister of Assam, an Indian state, is the head of the Government of Assam. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is the state's ''de jure'' head, but '' de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following e ...
Himanta Biswa Sarma
Himanta Biswa Sarma (born 1 February 1969) is an Indian politician and lawyer serving as the 15th and current Chief Minister of Assam since 2021. A former member of the Indian National Congress, Sarma joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on 23 Au ...
tweeted
A tweet (officially known as a post since 2023) is a short status update on the social networking site Twitter (officially known as X since 2023) which can include images, videos, GIFs, straw polls, hashtags, mentions, and hyperlinks. Around ...
that the Guwahati Police had registered an
FIR
Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus ''Abies'' () in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Eurasia, and North Africa. The genu ...
against Raina as well as other YouTubers, including, Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh, Apoorva Makhija, Ranveer Allahbadia, for promoting obscenity and engaging in sexually explicit and vulgar discussions on ''
India's Got Latent
India's Got Latent was an Indian Hindi-language talent show hosted by Samay Raina on YouTube from 2024 to 2025. Inspired by the international ''Got Talent'' franchise and ''Kill Tony,'' it featured a wide variety of acts including singing, danc ...
''. Sarma also informed that the Guwahati Crime Branch had filed the case under various sections of
BNS 2023, the IT Act, 2000, the Cinematograph Act, 1952, and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986. He added that the police investigation into the matter was ongoing. The issue was also raised in the Zero Hour of
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, with concerns raised about regulating platforms like
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. Later, the video was removed following objections from the
National Human Rights Commission
A human rights commission, also known as a human relations commission, is a body set up to investigate, promote or protect human rights.
The term may refer to international, national or subnational bodies set up for this purpose, such as nationa ...
(NHRC). The
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis
Devendra Gangadharrao Fadnavis (born 22 July 1970) is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra since 5 December 2024 with Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar as his deputies, and previously held this positi ...
condemned the YouTuber's comment. This concluded in the removal of his show from YouTube.
Filmography
References
External links
*
Samay Rainamember profile at
Chess.com
Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raina, Samay
1997 births
Living people
Kashmiri Pandits
Indian stand-up comedians
Indian male comedians
Indian YouTubers
Comedy YouTubers