Samay Raina

Stand-up

After performing at multiple open mics since 27 August 2017, Raina began opening for well-known comedians like Anirban Dasgupta and Abhishek Upmanyu in Pune. As he gained recognition, he moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and gave several successful shows in Mumbai and several cities across the nation.^[4]

In 2023, Raina performed at the launch party of American DJ KSHMR's album KARAM, at antiSOCIAL in Mumbai.^[5]

In 2025, he announced a nationwide tour across India, "Still Alive And Unfiltered", which was touted as a comeback, following the controversy surrounding his show, India's Got Latent. The tour commenced in Bengaluru on 15 August and ended in Delhi on 5 October.^[6][7] In 2026, he became one of the youngest Indian comedians to perform at Madison Square Garden, closing his global leg of the tour.^[8]

Comicstaan 2

Eventually, he joined Comicstaan 2 from a suggestion from his co-winner Aakash Gupta. Later, he became the joint winner of Comicstaan 2 with Aakash Gupta, aired on Amazon Prime Video.^[9][10]

YouTube

During the COVID-19 pandemic, 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's suggestion.^[11] His viewership boosted when he invited YouTuber Antonio Radić, popularly known as Agadmator, to his channel. In response to this, Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi 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 to YouTube to Raina's suggestion.^{[citation needed]} He has also appeared in the music videos for Seedhe Maut's "11K"^[12] as well as KRSNA's "Sensitive".^[13]

According to many chess proponents, including GMs Viswanathan Anand, Vidit Gujrathi, Anish Giri, Teimour Radjabov, Baskaran Adhiban, Emil Sutovsky and IMs Tania Sachdev and Sagar Shah, Raina has been instrumental in popularising chess in India through his channel.^[14] 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.^[11]

Several well-known chess personalities like Pentala Harikrishna, Judit Polgár, former world chess champions Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen have appeared on Raina's channel.^[15][16][17] He also organised chess tournaments featuring Indian celebrities such as cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal,^[18] and played chess with actor Aamir Khan.^[19]

In addition to chess, he also live streams many other games on his YouTube channel.

Chess

Samay plays on Chess.com as samayraina. As of 6 December 2024^[update], Raina has a rating of 1621 at rapid chess on chess.com, while the highest recorded rating was 1942 on 3 August 2023.^[20] 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.^[21] In December 2025, he won the SuperPogChamps tournament hosted by chess.com, which featured 12 influencers from all over the world, including Andrea Botez and Sardoche. By winning the title, Samay earned $10,000 (Rs 8.9 lakh approx), the top prize in the Championship Bracket. He donated all of it to the Lidè Haiti to help promote learning, health and well-being for Haitian girls.^[22][23]

Abortion tweet controversy

In July 2022, Raina's tweet regarding abortion rights, amidst the overturning of Roe v. Wade, generated controversy and widespread backlash.^[42][43][44]

Ranveer Allahbadia's controversial remark on India's Got Latent

On 10 February 2025, The Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted that the Guwahati Police had registered an FIR 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.^[45][46] 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.^[47] He added that the police investigation into the matter was ongoing.^[48] The issue was also raised in the Zero Hour of Parliament, with concerns raised about regulating platforms like YouTube.^[49] Later, the video was removed following objections from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).^[50] The Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis condemned the YouTuber's comment.^[51] This concluded in the removal of his show from YouTube.^[52]