Samay Raina Height, Age, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Samay Raina

• Samay Raina was brought up by his parents in a middle-class Kashmiri family.
  

  Samay Raina’s childhood photo

• In 2013, Samay created his YouTube channel and started posting his comedy videos and live streams of many games on his YouTube channel. He holds more than 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube (as of 2024).

• Samay always regretted joining college in Pune and started doing open mic events where he experimented in trying to play the guitar, poetry and open mic comedy during his time at college and eventually became a regular stand-up comedian in Pune.

• One day, he received a food pass worth Rs. 15,000 from a hotel that hosted open mics and events on a regular basis in Pune. This is how he decided that he wanted to pursue comedy as a full-time profession.

• In 2017, Raina began opening for well-known comedians like Anirban Dasgupta and Abhishek Upmanyu in Pune.

• Soon after, Samay moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and has given several successful shows in Mumbai and several cities across the nation as well as internationally.

• During his initial days in comedy, he didn’t receive support from his family as he belonged to a conservative family. Samay Raina was quoted saying in an interview that
  

  I come from a conservative Kashmiri Pandit family so one can imagine the doubts which arise.”

• In 2019, at the suggestion of the comedian Aakash Gupta, Samay Raina participated in the second season of the Indian stand-up comedy competition television series titled ‘Comicstaan.’ Samay and Aakash Gupta became the joint winners of ‘Comicstaan 2.’ The TV series was aired on the Amazon Prime Video.
  

  Samay Raina (second from right) receiving the winning trophy of the standup comedy competition TV series titled ‘Comicstaan 2’ (2019)

• In 2020, Samay Raina made a donation of Rs. 2 Lakh to one of India’s largest independent youth volunteer non-profit organisations named ‘Bhumi.’
  

  Samay Raina’s Instagram post about his donation to the ‘Bhumi’ NGO in 2020

• In the same year, Samay Raina couldn’t perform live comedy shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic and comedian Tanmay Bhat suggested him to start streaming chess on his YouTube channel.

• Samay then decided to bring together professional chess players to play with other stand-up comedians virtually in an online chess charity event named ‘Chess For Charity’ and the money raised from this tournament was used for people below the poverty line.

• Many famous people took part in the event and some of them were Viswanathan Anand, Yuvzendra Chahal, Vidit Gujrathi, Croatia’s Antonio Radic, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Abhishek Upamanyu, and Aakash Mehta and they were able to raise Rs. 8.86 lakh for the waste-picker community. The funds raised also provided the community with safety kits.
  

  Samay Raina’s Instagram post about the funds raised through chess charity event titled ‘Chess For Charity’ (2020)

• In the same year, Samay Raina started organising online chess tournaments on his YouTube channel to attract an online audience to Chess called ‘Comedians On Board’ (COB). Many of his comedian friends and other celebrities used to take part in the tournament.
  

  Samay Raina (fourth from right) on the poster of the online chess tournament titled ‘Comedians On Board’ (COB) (2020)

• He organized ‘Comedians On Board’ (COB) from 2020 to 2022 and ended up winning the 4th and 5th tournaments.

• In 2021, Samay Raina was cast in the Hindi Netflix “reality-meets-stand-up-meets-variety show” series titled ‘Comedy Premium League’ in which he was part of the ‘Lovable Langoors’ team which had other members like Amit Tandon, Aadar Malik, and Rytasha Rathore.
  

  Samay Raina (extreme right) in a still from the standup comedy Netflix series titled ‘Comedy Premium League’ (2021)

• In the same year, Raina won the 10,000-dollar Botez Bullet Invitational which is a one-hour amateur bullet arena tournament which is sponsored by Chess.com and hosted by the Botez sisters who are American-Candian chess players.

• He was the only Indian streamer competing in Botez Bullet Invitational which is a chess tournament. Samay Raina played among some of the top international Twitch streamers and earned $4000.
  

  Samay Raina (with the hand on his chin) on the poster of the ‘Botez Bullet’ chess tournament (2021)

• In 2021, Samay in collaboration with ChessBase India and Nodwin Gaming organised an online chess league titled ‘Chess Super League.’ The league consisted of some of the Top International and Indian Grandmasters, International Masters and Indian Junior Players, competing in six teams for a prize pool of Rs. 40 lakh (US$48,000).
  

  Samay Raina (left) on the poster of the online chess league titled ‘Chess Super League’ (2021)

• The entire ‘Chess Super League’ was streamed on Samay Raina’s YouTube channel.

• Samay Raina is a close friend of the comedian Tanmay Bhat.
  

  Samay Raina (left) with Tanmay Bhat

• In 2021, Samay Raina took part in season 2 of the Indian standup comedy television show series titled ‘One Mic Stand’ which was aired on Amazon Prime Video. Samay was highlighted as a guest comedian in episode 5 of season 2 which also featured the Indian rapper Raftaar.
  

  Samay Raina (bottom, third from left) on the poster of the standup comedy TV series titled ‘One Mic Stand’ (2021)

• In 2022, Raina had a rating of 1660 at rapid chess on chess.com while the highest recorded rating was 1942.