Tay Zonday
Adam Nyerere Bahner (born May 21, 1982), known professionally as Tay Zonday or as "Chocolate Rain Guy", is an American YouTube personality, singer-songwriter, and voice actor. He is known for his bass singing voice. Zonday garnered mainstream exposure when his song "Chocolate Rain" became a viral video and Internet meme in July 2007.
Also recorded as Adam Nyerere Bahner
Tay Zonday

The Bui Brothers · Streamy Awards Photo 0361 · CC BY 2.0
- Born
- 1982.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- singer-songwriter, musician, singer, YouTuber, actor and voice actor.
- Fields
- rhythm and blues.
- Known for
- Chocolate Rain.
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Documentary summary
Adam Nyerere Bahner (born May 21, 1982), known professionally as Tay Zonday or as "Chocolate Rain Guy", is an American YouTube personality, singer-songwriter, and voice actor. He is known for his bass singing voice. Zonday garnered mainstream exposure when his song "Chocolate Rain" became a viral video and Internet meme in July 2007.
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Note VALÉORINE
Tay Zonday (born 1982) is an American actor, musician and singer, among other activities. The actor was born in Minneapolis. Tay Zonday studied at Evergreen State College, North Royalton High School and Seattle Central College, among others.
Works include Chocolate Rain. Genres include rhythm and blues. Languages used include English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
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- Identity
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Authority files
wikidata · Q55449 · wikipedia · Tay Zonday
In this article
Early life
Early life
Zonday was born Adam Nyerere Bahner in Chicago, Illinois, to an African-American mother and a Caucasian father. He is the youngest of three children, and his parents were both teachers. He attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, a residential public school for highly gifted students, and dropped out before graduating. He later graduated from Evergreen State College in 2004. Zonday is autistic, having been diagnosed as high-functioning in 1997, at age 15. Zonday enrolled in the University of Minnesota American Studies PhD program in 2004, studying the history of theater and social change, with the intention of becoming a professor. After the viral success of "Chocolate Rain", he left university with a master's degree in 2008 and moved to Los Angeles, California. He used a stage name because he wanted a separation between his academic and entertainment career. Bahner chose "Tay Zonday" because he thought it was catchy and nobody had claimed the name yet, according to a Google search.
Career
Career
While a Ph.D. student in American studies at the University of Minnesota, Zonday began performing at open mic nights in 2006. Looking for more feedback, he began uploading his performances online the next year.
"Chocolate Rain"
"Chocolate Rain"
Zonday released "Chocolate Rain", a viral song on race and race politics, on April 22, 2007. He was soon making appearances on national television. He appeared on G4TV's Attack of the Show!, VH1's Best Week Ever, Lily Allen and Friends, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Tosh.0 and Maury where he performed "Chocolate Rain" on national television a little over three months after he posted his composition on YouTube. He made the front page of Sunday's Los Angeles Times on August 12, 2007, with additional features in The Toronto Star, The Chicago Tribune's RedEye, The Star Tribune and People and has appeared on CNN for a televised interview. On February 12, 2008, he appeared on the television show Lily Allen and Friends on BBC Three, and performed a cover of Lily Allen's debut "Smile". In March 2008, the video won a YouTube award in the category "Music". The Australian Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote: "Tay Zonday has written perhaps the most listened-to song in the world right now". People said: "He's scored a YouTube hit with his repetitive, keyboard-driven 'Chocolate Rain', and after a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Tay Zonday's star is shining even brighter". The article also noted that celebrity musicians paid tribute to the song as its popularity rapidly peaked in August 2007. John Mayer reportedly copied Zonday's keyboard riff with his guitar in concert, along with appearing on Best Week Ever improvising a parody to the tune of Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right". Green Day drummer Tré Cool recorded a parody of "Chocolate Rain" which he posted on YouTube. Zonday also became the subject of thousands of other parodies and remixes on YouTube. A clip of his video was also shown on The CW's short-lived series, Online Nation. Zonday has also been interviewed twice on Good Morning America, in March and November 2008. Zonday starred in a commercial for Comedy Central's "Last Laugh 07", hosted by Lewis Black. He released a video called "Cherry Chocolate Rain", in a promotion with Dr Pepper. He starred alongside Leslie Hall in a commercial for Firefox web browser singing a song called "Users Against Boredom" in a parody of "We Are the World". Zonday has said that his voice is often compared to Paul Robeson, Barry White, James Earl Jones, and Brad Roberts of the Crash Test Dummies. He appeared in-person at Intel's Consumer Electronics Show booth, rendering the source files of the "Chocolate Rain" YouTube video in Sony Vegas.
After "Chocolate Rain"
After "Chocolate Rain"
In February 2010, he cameoed in a Vizio Super Bowl commercial opened by Beyoncé. In August 2011, Zonday released his only EP so far, titled "Chocolate Rain 2.0". In November he uploaded "Mama Economy (The Economy Explained)" in response to an economic crisis in the United States. "Mama Economy" features Lindsey Stirling playing the violin. On June 22, 2012, Zonday uploaded a cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's number one single "Call Me Maybe", which as of 2022 has reached over 6.7 million views. It was featured on "The 10 Best 'Call Me Maybe' Covers" on Billboard.com. He is seen performing the single in front of a microphone in what he claimed to be "as low as I could [sing]". In June 13, 2026, Zonday appeared as one of the participants in MrBeast's video 50 YouTube Legends Fight For $1,000,000, where he took part in a Harlem Shake mannequin identification challenge and was called out by name during the segment.
Voice acting
Voice acting
Zonday voiced "The King" in the Happy Wheels animated web series based on the video game of the same name, which premiered on go90 in November 2016. In July 2017, Machinima, Inc. and Hasbro cast several YouTube personalities, including Zonday, for the animated web series Transformers: Titans Return to garner online attention. Zonday was cast as "Chorus of the Primes".

Tay Zonday at the 2009 Streamy awards
Lan Bui · Streamy Awards Photo 317
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Tay Zonday”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q55449: Tay Zonday
Unverified · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Tweet from May 21, 2017. Twitter.
- 2.Ryan, Joal. The "Chocolate" Reign of Tay Zonday. E! Online. August 9, 2007.
- 3.Sweat, Zach. Tay Zonday Opens Up About 'Chocolate Rain' Going Viral And The Struggles Of Internet Fame As We Look Back On The Last 14 Years. KnowYourMeme. July 2, 2021.
- 4.Tay Zonday Of 'Chocolate Rain' Fame Shares Brilliant Observation On The Dilemma Of Being Poor In America.
- 5.Canada on Strike (2008). South Park.
- 6.Fox News report about Numa Numa also mentions: ...fellow viral video star, 'Chocolate Rain Guy', aka Tay Zonday (Sep 22, 2010): Foxnews.com
- 7.Chocolate Rain Singer Tay Zonday Still A Star; Chocolate Rain Has Gotten Almost 48M YouTube Views. MYfox Phoenix. February 17, 2010.
- 8.YouTube EwTZ2xpQwpA "Chocolate Rain" Original Song by Tay Zonday
- 9.Ep. 67 Tay Zonday – Ear Biscuits.
- 10.Finley, Klint. Hogwarts for Hackers: Inside the Science and Tech School of Tomorrow. Wired. 1059-1028.
- 11.Tay Zonday - Biography. IMDb.
- 12.Congratulations to The Evergreen State College Class of 2021!. Evergreen State College.
- 13.Zonday, Tay. Frequently Asked Questions. Medium. 2021-12-03.
- 14.Zonday, Tay. Let's talk about #aspergers (a thread). X. December 12, 2019.
- 15.Padilla, Anthony. I spent a day with VIRAL MEME STARS (Kombucha Girl, Hit or Miss, Chocolate Rain). February 4, 2020.
- 16.C.J. 'Chocolate Rain' and its many memes bring sweet success to Tay Zonday. Star Tribune. June 13, 2017.
- 17.Kale, Sirin. Tay Zonday Does Not Want You to Understand the Meaning Of 'Chocolate Rain'. Vice.com. August 24, 2016.
- 18.Tay Zonday on the Opie & Anthony show. YouTube. July 19, 2007.
- 19.YouTube ckWvAEQEWRw Chocolate Rain on Best Week Ever
- 20.Minneapolis City Pages: Rain Man
- 21.YouTube aDe1TUa-XQE Tay Zonday On Jimmy Kimmel
- 22.The latest from the StarTribune. Star Tribune.
- 23.CNN.com – Transcripts. CNN.
- 24.Montgomery, Garth. Chocolate Rain goes huge. Daily Telegraph. News Limited. August 1, 2007.
- 25.Orloff, Brian. 'Chocolate Rain' YouTube Sensation Makes TV Debut. People. Time Inc. August 9, 2007.
- 26.Keiper, Nicole. Concert Review: John Mayer brings soul to Nashville. The Tennessean. August 4, 2007.
- 27.MTV News Staff. Jennifer Lopez And Marc Anthony Roll Out Tour Dates; Plus Lindsay Lohan, Gwen Stefani, Nas, Amy Winehouse & More, In For The Record. MTV News. August 6, 2007.
- 28.John Mayer on Best Week Ever
- 29.Cashmere, Tim. Green Day Drummer Tre Cool Covers Tay Zonday. Undercover. August 3, 2007.
- 30.YouTube fsdM2oMSUbM Chocolate Rain Sung By McGruff The Crime Dog
- 31.YouTube IM4pM2wV8og
- 32.YouTube 1oFS-q8BIps Chocolate Rain McDonald's Spot / Tay Zonday
- 33.funnyguy1375. Last Laugh 07 Chocolate Rain – Tay Zonday. YouTube. November 15, 2007.
- 34.YouTube 2x2W12A8Qow "Cherry Chocolate Rain" Original Song by Tay Zonday
- 35.Riley, Duncan. Exclusive: Mozilla Secretly Launches A Viral Campaign For Firefox. Techcrunch.com. January 7, 2008.
- 36.channelintel. Chocolate Rain at CES. YouTube. January 7, 2008.
- 37.'Chocolate Rain' Creator Tay Zonday Explains The Economy In New Single 'Mama Economy'. Huffington Post. November 15, 2011.
- 38.YouTube 5sruQJ12PsI
- 39.Menyes, Carolyn (June 14, 2012). "The 10 Best 'Call Me Maybe' Covers". Billboard
- 40.MrBeast. 50 YouTube Legends Fight For $1,000,000. 13 June 2026.
- 41.Trumbore, Dave. 'Happy Wheels' Animated Web Series Brings the Hit Game's Dark Humor to Life. Collider. November 15, 2016.
- 42.Spangler, Todd. Transformers: Titans Return' Series Casts Peter Cullen, Judd Nelson, Wil Wheaton. Variety Magazine. July 18, 2017.
- 43.Fahey, Mike. The Transformers: Titans Return Animated Series Gets Real Voice Actors. Kotaku. July 19, 2017.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
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Unverified
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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