For Variety’s latest issue, we asked Gayle King to write a tribute to Trevor Noah, one of 50 people to make our New Power of New York list. Here’s why Noah, the host of “The Daily Show,” represents a new generation of movers and shakers that capture the best of Manhattan. For the full list, click here.

Trevor who? That was the question in September of 2015, when a 31-year-old comic from Soweto who had made only a handful of appearances as a “Daily Show” correspondent suddenly became its host.

Like that new guy who buys the house two doors down after a beloved neighbor moves away, Noah took some getting used to; our feelings ran the gamut from resistance to resentment. But having to prove himself to gain acceptance, that’s the stuff he’s dealt with all his life.

The title of Noah’s remarkable autobiography is “Born a Crime.” He writes of being a boy whose mixed-race heritage literally violated the law of apartheid in South Africa: “Where most children are proof of their parents’ love, I was the proof of their criminality.”

But what didn’t kill Trevor Noah seems to have made him funnier. He has become a sworn enemy of the hypocritical, the phony and the power-hungry. His particular brand of fake news comes from somewhere very real, and his stinging satire is must-see TV for millions of viewers in search of a little sanity or maybe just a few laughs before calling it a night. He may have been “born a crime,” but he’s living a life of defiant achievement. And nobody is asking, “Trevor who?” anymore!

Iveta Karpathyova for Variety

Gayle King is the co-anchor of “CBS This Morning” and editor-at-large of O, The Oprah Magazine. Read the rest of our New Power of New York list.