Ron Taylor

Why watch Ron

From 2015 to 2023, Ron Taylor lived in a van so he could do stand-up full-time. People say comedy is a calling. For Taylor it was also a housing plan. Eight years later he won the first season of Netflix’s Funny AF with Kevin Hart, which came with a Netflix stand-up special and a spot on The Roast of Kevin Hart. He has said he planned for everything except winning, which is the most comedian sentence ever spoken.

Taylor was born and raised in Detroit. Classmates and teammates in high school were the first to tell him he was funny, which is how it usually starts. Less usually, he went on to study engineering, robotics and advanced mathematics, and he has said that background shapes the way he writes. You can hear it. His sets are built: he takes a premise, stretches it further than seems wise, then holds it there until it pays off.

Netflix described him as the comic known for putting a “silly flair on serious things,” and that’s about right. His most-watched set, “School is Bullsh*t” for Don’t Tell Comedy, has more than four million views and is a decent sample of the method: an argument you half-agree with, delivered by a guy who clearly did the homework.

The years in the van weren’t idle. He performed at Kevin Hart’s LOL Live showcase in 2017, was named a New Face at Just For Laughs in Montreal in 2018, appeared on BET’s Apollo Live and Fox’s Laughs, and was handpicked by Bill Burr for Comedy Central’s The Ringers. He acted in FX’s Oh Jerome, No and the film Old Dads. In April 2024 he released his debut hour, Avalanche, through Comedy Dynamics. He is a paid regular at the Comedy Store in Hollywood and the Comedy Mothership in Austin.

Then Funny AF. The 2026 competition ran through showcases and callbacks in clubs across the country, judged by a panel including Hart, Tom Segura, Nikki Glaser, Chelsea Handler and Kumail Nanjiani, and decided in the finale by a live vote of Netflix viewers. Taylor beat Caitlin Peluffo, Usama Siddiquee and Reg Thomas.

He lists Bernie Mac, Patrice O’Neal, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Paul Mooney and Richard Pryor among his influences, which is a lot of weight to carry. So far he’s carrying it fine. Why watch him now: the special is coming, the tour is booked through New Year’s, and this is the last stretch when you’ll be able to say you saw him in a club.