Charlie McDonnell
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2010) |
Charlie McDonnell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Joseph McDonnell 1 October 1990 |
| Died | 7 September 2010 London |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 2007 - present |
| Known for | Comedy, vlogging |
| Notable work | The Challenge Charlie series, How to be English, Duet with Myself, Purple Man, A Song About Acne |
| Template:Infobox person/Internet info | |
| Website | www.charliemcdonnell.com |
Charles Joseph "Charlie" McDonnell (born 1 October 1990) is a British vlogger, musician and self-proclaimed nerd from Bath, Somerset. He is the most subscribed YouTuber in the United Kingdom as of September 2010.
Early life and background
McDonnell was born and grew up in Bath, Somerset. As of August 2010, Charlie resides in London with fellow YouTuber Alex Day. Charlie is also a fan of Doctor Who. His mother had Doctor Who memoribilia such as the TARDIS and a figurine of the tenth regeneration of the Doctor(David Tennant). He has mentioned Doctor Who in numerous videos of his.
After setting up a YouTube channel in April 2007, Charlie started posting vlogs to a small audience. He first came to prominence when his video entitled "How To Get Featured on YouTube" became popular when it was featured on YouTube's UK homepage. His audience jumped from just under 150 subscribers to over 4,400 in a mere two days.
In celebration of gaining 25,000 subscribers, McDonnell asked for challenge suggestions from subscribers, and he is completing them in a series of 25 videos entitled "Challenge Charlie". He has completed 17 so far (as of September 7), one of which was suggested by TV presenter Phillip Schofield and his daughter Molly, for McDonnell to do the dance that accompanies the Hoedown Throwdown. McDonnell has since posted a large range of videos on the site, including his most viewed, "Duet with Myself".[2] He has over 500,000 subscribers as of August 2010. He also has over 67 million total video views and over 13.5 million channel views. [3]
In 2008, McDonnell participated in a video-blog collaboration with four other YouTube personalities, entitled "FiveAwesomeGuys". The project began on the 28th of January and ended on the 31st of December.
Charlie's videos currently end with an outro by Stephen Fry.
On April 21, 2010, Charlie McDonnell became the most subscribed YouTuber in the United Kingdom. He is 43rd most subscribed globally as of September 2010.
Education
Charlie McDonnell was educated at Beechen Cliff School,[4] a state comprehensive Foundation school in the city of Bath in Somerset, south-west England.
McDonnell is not yet attending university, instead focusing on his YouTube career.
Musical history
Chameleon Circuit, a band consisting of McDonnell, fellow vlogger and flatmate Alex Day (known as "Nerimon" on YouTube), Liam Dryden (known as "Littleradge" on YouTube), and Chris Beattie, released a self-titled album on 1 June 2009.[5] In July 2010, their song "Count the Shadows" also appeared on "DFTBA Records, Volume Two", a compilation sampler that was given for free in the grab bags at VidCon 2010.[6]
McDonnell occasionally posts YouTube music videos, such as "A Song About Monkeys", "A Song About Acne", "A Duet With Myself", "A Song About Love", and "Chemical Love". "Chemical Love" also appeared on the compilation "DFTBA Records, Volume Two".
McDonnell was also involved with the television programme Chartjackers (see Charity Work) and is currently working on his first solo album.[citation needed]
In 2010, Charlie, along with three other Youtubers, Alex Day, Eddplant, and Tom Milsom, formed a new project entitled Sons Of Admirals. Their first single was released via Youtube on June 14, 2010 on Charlie's channel. The group covered Cat Stevens' song, "Here Comes My Baby". It features all four members on vocals.
Charity and media work
On 30 September 2008, to celebrate his 18th birthday, McDonnell and his friend Alex Day dyed and then shaved their hair off whilst live on BlogTV for a period of 7 and a half hours, in aid of Cancer Research UK.[7] They managed to raise nearly £5000.[8] The broadcast viewership peaked at 4,500. Another friend, Jazza John McMillan-Clenaghan (known as "Rhymingwithoranges" on YouTube) promised to shave his head if they hit £5000 and did so about a month later with help from Kristina Horner (known as "italktosnakes" and Monday on the collab-channel "fiveawesomegirls" on YouTube).
In October 2009, McDonnell was named as one of a number of prominent YouTube users who would be participating in a project called "RNLI Shout". The aim of the project is to raise money to purchase a lifeboat for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
On the 4th September 2010, Charlie and fellow YouTuber/friend Myles Dyer co presented Stickaid. Starting from 12 noon BST, the two hosted the 5th annual charity event form Stickaid HQ in London, UK. Stickaid is a non stop variety show streaming live on Stickam.com for 24 hours. Their goal was to raise £10,000 (approximately $15,000), which they surpassed. All the proceedings went to UNICEF.
Chartjackers
McDonnell featured with three other YouTube users on the BBC Switch series Chartjackers. The programme followed their attempt to achieve a Number One hit single on the UK Singles Chart within ten weeks, by using resources provided by the online community. Over the course of the series, they solicited lyrics, music, performers and stylists to record the song and video via the "ChartJackersProject" YouTube channel. An unofficial single for Children in Need, the completed single was released through the iTunes Store on 9 November 2009. It reached Number 36 in the UK Singles Chart[9] and Number One in the UK Indie Chart and raised around £10,000.
FirstTV
In July 2010 Charlie McDonnell was signed up alongside Kate Modern star Emma Pollard and X-Factor contestants Nicola and Fran Gleadall to present a TV show run by Piers Morgan called FirstTV, an offshot of First News.[10][11] However, after filming four episodes of FirstTV, Charlie decided to leave the show because he did not enjoy presenting pre-scripted work.[12]
Press
McDonnell-was interviewed on BBC News about his rise to internet stardom. He also participated in the Euro 2008 Zeitgeist Google conference, where he spoke about YouTube along with Mia Rose (miaarose) and Peter Oakley (geriatric1927). This was a conference to honour online users of popular websites.
He featured as a guest on Robert Llewellyn's web series Carpool in the episode released on 15 May 2009.[13] McDonnell has also made guest appearances on Lily Allen and Friends and The Gadget Show.
In early June 2009, McDonnell visited Los Angeles to attend the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009. He attended Microsoft's Xbox press conference, where Project Natal was announced. Two days later, he was invited to a "special area of E3" and was one of 30 exclusive people from around the world to try out Natal. He explained this in one of a group of videos he produced and uploaded to a new channel on YouTube for the trip he called "CharlieAtE3".
Charlie was also interviewed for BBC Outlook and for an article in The Guardian where he talks about the five years of YouTube and his life on the video website.
On 6 June 2010, McDonnell presented the YouTube Audience Award to The Inbetweeners as part of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Television Awards.
In mid July 2010 Charlie appeared on KTLA with Hank Green known on YouTube as one of the Vlogbrothers and Justine Ezarik known as iJustine to promote VidCon 2010.
References
- ^ "Teenager's tea tips cause a stir". BBC. 1 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ Paris, Natalie (2007-10-02). "Schoolboy's 'how to be English' guide a US hit". Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/user/charlieissocoollike?blend=1&ob=4
- ^ Charlie McDonnell profile - This is Bath
- ^ "Music - Chameleon Circuit - DFTBA Records LLC". DFTBA records. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
- ^ "Available for FREE, exclusively at VidCon". Retrieved August 14, 2010.
- ^ "The Bath Chronicle". 1 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ "Just Giving". Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ "Singles Chart For 21/11/09". Chart Stats. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
- ^ Davies, Jessica (14 July 2010). "Piers Morgan to launch First TV on web". Retrieved 15 July 2010.
- ^ "FirstTV is here!". First News. 9 July 2010. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
- ^ "VidCon & FirstTV". CharlieMcDonnell.com. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 16 July2010.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Robert Llewellyn @bobbyllew". CelebrityTweet!.
This weekend I am shooting a carpool with charlieissocoollike.