Mrnigelng

Uncle Roger is a character played by Nigel Ng, a Malaysian-British stand-up comedian — which is why his handle across platforms is @mrnigelng. He created the persona as a fictional disappointed Asian uncle who reacts to the way Western chefs handle Asian dishes, and the character became so popular it largely overshadowed his own name in search.

Uncle Roger exploded in 2020 when his reaction to a BBC Food segment on egg fried rice — in which the presenter drained the rice through a colander — racked up tens of millions of views within days. The video turned "haiyaa" into a global internet catchphrase and established his signature format of reacting with theatrical horror to cooking he considers an insult to Asian cuisine.

"Haiyaa" is a Cantonese and Malay exclamation used to express disappointment, disbelief, or exasperation, and Uncle Roger weaponized it as his signature catchphrase. He deploys it whenever a chef commits what he considers a cardinal sin — draining rice in a colander, adding peas to fried rice, or using the wrong type of wok.

Yes — he owns two restaurants: Kawan London in the UK and Fuiyoh It's Uncle Roger in Malaysia, both linked directly from his Instagram bio. The expansion from online food comedian to actual restaurateur is a notable move for someone whose entire brand is built on the line "Not a chef, I just complain."

Yes, Nigel Ng has a cookbook in production and has been actively pushing pre-orders across his YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok bios simultaneously. The premise carries built-in comedy given that his entire character insists he is not a chef and only exists to criticize other people's cooking.

Uncle Roger posted a video titled "Uncle Roger CLAP BACK At This Chef (J. Kenji Lopez-Alt)," firing back at the renowned food writer and culinary science author known for his exhaustive, technique-heavy approach to cooking. The public exchange drew in both creators' fanbases and fit Uncle Roger's recurring format of positioning himself against credentialed Western chefs.

Yes — Gordon Ramsay is one of the most recurring figures in Uncle Roger's content, appearing consistently in his top hashtags, and the two have filmed together with Ramsay attempting to meet Uncle Roger's notoriously strict egg fried rice standards. The collab became one of the most-watched videos in Uncle Roger's catalog and cemented the format of putting famous chefs through his approval gauntlet.

The original viral BBC egg fried rice video set the template, and the fried rice reaction format became so associated with the character that wok technique and rice cooking are now Uncle Roger's defining content territory. He frequently reviews other creators' takes on fried rice, hotpot, and noodle dishes, and hashtags like #wok, #friedrice, and #uncleroger consistently drive his top-performing content.

Nigel Ng is Malaysian-British — born in Malaysia and based in the United Kingdom, which is reflected in his London restaurant Kawan and his Malaysian restaurant Fuiyoh It's Uncle Roger. The Malaysian heritage is foundational to the Uncle Roger character, shaping both the accent and the very specific opinions on what constitutes authentic Asian cooking.

His recent YouTube sponsors include ExpressVPN, Revolut, and BetterHelp, alongside Saily and Opera — a mix of fintech, mental health, and tech utility brands that are common in the Mega-tier creator space. As a comedian with an audience skewing heavily toward 18–34-year-old males across three major platforms, he sits comfortably in the premium bracket for sponsored content deals.