Daliso Chaponda

Daliso Chaponda (born 29 November 1979) is a Zambian-born Malawian stand-up comedian living in England. In 2017, he became a finalist in the variety show Britain’s Got Talent, finishing third overall. In 2018 he launched a BBC Radio 4 series Daliso Chaponda: Citizen of Nowhere.^[2]

Chaponda was born in Zambia in 1979 and spent several years between multiple African countries before going to Malawi at the age of 11.^[3] His parents were from Malawi, but had fled the country due to the dictatorship of Hastings Banda. His father George Chaponda worked as a lawyer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, so the family lived in various countries such as Thailand, Australia and Switzerland. His family later returned to Malawi, and George Chaponda was eventually appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Education by Bingu wa Mutharika.

Daliso Chaponda attended Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa, and went on to further education at McGill University and Concordia University in Canada, where he studied computer programming and English literature.^[4][5]