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Smosh, one of the most influential channels in the online entertainment world, has undergone significant transformation since its inception. For Courtney Miller, a key figure in the Smosh team, the evolution of the channel has been a remarkable journey, marked by growth, adaptation, and innovation.

When Courtney first joined Smosh, the channel was a dominant force in the YouTube landscape. Back then, it was backed by substantial resources, allowing for high-budget and ambitious projects. “When I first started at Smosh, it was under this – what appeared to be – big company with all of this money behind it,” Courtney recalls. “High-budget and high-concept projects were happening all the time, and Smosh was the #4 top channel. I felt like we were on top of the world.” This period was characterized by a sense of unbridled success and optimism.

However, as the digital media environment evolved, so did Smosh. According to Courtney, the...

Welcome to Creators on the Rise, where we find and profile breakout creators who are in the midst of extraordinary growth. You can check out previous installments here.

Misha Brown almost got eaten by a walrus in Antarctica.

But it’s fine. Totally fine. He survived. (Barely.)

And because he survived, he’s now around to tell us all about the world’s biggest flops.

Let’s back up a second, though. The reason he was in Antarctica in the first place is because, pre-pandemic, he spent a lot of time working as a performer on cruise ships. The schedule was brutal–contracts often last several months, and as Brown puts it, that means staffers both “live and work at work” with extremely tight schedules and multiple daily performances. Despite that, he enjoyed it. He’d always been into musical theater, and spent the 13 years before Covid onstage.

Then, of course,...

Night has broken into podcasting by picking up a network that works with several top creators. The talent management firm known for repping big names like MrBeast has acquired The Roost, the podcasting network that was formerly part of Warner Bros. Discovery‘s Rooster Teeth brand.

The Roost is home to 47 original shows, including Ethan and Hila Klein‘s H3 Podcast and This Past Weekend with Theo Von. Many of the podcast hosts within The Roost’s network, including Philip DeFranco, Ludwig, and Smosh founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, established themselves on platforms like YouTube before launching audio-forward shows. According to a press release from Night, the 47 Roost shows have combined to pull in 350 million views and 20 million monthly audio downloads.

The terms of Night’s acquisition have not been publicly disclosed, but we do know that the transaction will lead to the establishment of a podcast vertical within the Night ecosystem.

Night, the leading talent management company representing most of the biggest YouTubers and Twitch Streamers is entering the podcasting vertical with the acquisition of The Roost Podcast Network, part of Rooster Teeth, from Warner Bros. Discovery.

Night will be retaining a majority of the team, including A.J. Feliciano, Head of The Roost Podcast Network.

The Roost is one of the most successful podcast companies in the business. Its network receives over 350 million views and 20 million monthly audio downloads.

The Roost Podcast Networks boasts 47 original shows, including:

This Past Weekend with Theo Von H3 Podcast (Ethan and Hila Klein) The Phil DeFranco Show Flashback with Smosh (Anthony Padilla & Ian Hecox) The Yard Jeff FM (Jeff Wittek)

The Podcast Division joins Night’s other business pillars, including Night Talent, Night Labs, Night Studios, and Night Ventures.

Night Quote: “The Roost’s distinctive brand identity, loyal talent and partner network, and mission...

Yes, Smosh stars Courtney Miller and Shayne Topp really did married!!

The actors and comedians announced they tied the knot on Monday (April 1), aka April Fool’s Day, and it caused a stir amongst fans as no one could tell if it was real or an elaborate prank.

The couple, who have kept their relationship fairly private and on the down low, shared photos from their small wedding, and in one post, revealed it took place on March 29th.

Now, Courtney is speaking out about where they got married and why they decided to share their big news with the world on April Fool’s Day.

Keep reading to find out more…

“Shayne and I indeed got married on March 29th, at the Santa Barbara Courthouse,” she confirmed to People. “It’s so wonderful to be married to my best friend.”

She then reveals that announcing on April 1st was very much planned out.

A joke authored by Elon Musk has turned into a merchandising opportunity for one of YouTube’s most iconic channels. Smosh, the comedy hub founded by Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, has started selling Dickipedia-branded shirts after Musk mentioned that portmanteau as part of a dig against Wikipedia.

Musk called out Wikipedia on X, the platform he acquired a year ago. “Have you ever wondered why the Wikimedia Foundation wants so much money? It certainly isn’t needed to operate Wikipedia. You can literally fit a copy of the entire text on your phone,” Musk wrote. “I will give them a billion dollars if they change their name to Dickipedia.”

Even if Wikipedia C0-Founder Jimmy Wales wanted to call Musk’s bluff, he’d still have to negotiate with the owners of Dickipedia.com. As it turns out, that domain belongs to Smosh. It’s kind of a funny...

It feels a little strange to say this in August, but the 2023 Streamy Awards are officially over, and they handed out a grand total of 50 awards to this year’s top creators.

This was the first year Tubefilter and dick clark productions held Streamys in the summertime, but the change of season didn’t mean everything changed: For the fourth time in a row, MrBeast took home Creator of the Year, and for the second time in a row, Kai Cenat snagged Streamer of the Year.

As for Show of the Year, that went to Michelle Khare and her daredevil series Challenge Accepted.

This year’s ceremony was hosted by MatPat, and featured dozens of presenters, including Dylan Mulvaney, Ryan Trahan, The Try Guys‘ Keith Habersberger and Zach Kornfeld, Smosh‘s Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, TikTok Npc streamer Pinkydoll, Colin and Samir, Dream, Michelle Khare, Anna Sitar, Austin Creed,...

Smosh is joining forces with Rooster Teeth.

The digital brand (recently bought from Rhett & Link by co-founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla) is joining Rooster Teeth’s podcast network The Roost, and will also have a “huge presence” at this year’s annual Rooster Teeth convention, Rtx.

A representative tells Tubefilter The Roost will oversee brand deals for Smosh’s flagship podcast, SmoshCast, hosted by longtime cast members Shayne Topp and Amanda Lehan-Canto.

As for Rtx, this year’s convention, running July 7-9 in Austin, will be the grand finale of Rooster Teeth’s 20th anniversary celebration. The digital media company already spruced up its branding with a new logo and tagline, and has been running a 20-week campaign digging through the Rt archive to repost “deep cuts, one-off episodes and fan favorites” each week.

Smosh’s part in the celebration will bring Topp, Lehan-Canto, and fellow cast member...

Anthony Padilla is reuniting with Smosh–and he, along with Smosh co-founder Ian Hecox, are buying the digital comedy brand from Rhett & Link.

Padilla and Hecox met in sixth grade and were still best friends when they first launched Smosh on YouTube in 2005. Together they amassed dozens of cast and crew members, millions of subscribers, and became one of the most recognizable creator-led media companies in online video.

But then, in 2017, Padilla left. He cited creative differences, but it was clear there was also a rift between him and Hecox.

“By the time Anthony left Smosh, our friendship was not really that good,” Hecox told Variety. Last year, the duo got back in touch, and “really hit it off,” he added. “It’s kind of freaky how well this has all fallen into place. Our friendship had to end to be able to come back together.”

Padilla and Hecox...

City Year Los Angeles celebrated 15 years of service at Spring Break: Destination Education, their annual star-studded benefit – a high-energy night of musical performances, food and games.

George Lopez speaks onstage during City Year Los Angeles' Spring Break: Destination Education

Credit/Copyright: Michael Kovac/Getty Images for City Year Los Angeles

This Spring Break they returned in-person and stronger than ever to celebrate their corps members, students, as well as those Angelenos who have taken action along with them to make a better city, state and country. The event featured a special performance by Cashmere Cat, as well as food, games and interactive booths sponsored by top brands including Amazon Studios, L.A. Rams, Comcast NBCUniversal, Jp Morgan Chase & Co, MarVista Entertainment, People, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Pez Cantina and more. City Year honored fifteen legacy champions at this event including Governor Gavin Newsom, Ben Goldhirsh (City Year Emeritus Board member), Stacey Snider...

Exclusive: YouTube juggernaut Smosh will enter another chapter of content creation with a new headquarters and content studio in Los Angeles.

From the newly-established 17,000-square foot office space and studio, unveiled on Wednesday, Smosh seeks to develop, produce and release approximately 500 videos of varying formats across more than 3,000 individual releases on its Smosh, Smosh Pit, Smosh Games and other channels.

“Smosh’s home base has been a long time coming,” said Smosh Co-Founder and President Ian Hecox. “We’re so grateful to Rhett & Link and their team at Mythical for giving us a home and support for the past few years. I can’t wait for our audience to see what we’re able to do with the full Smosh team finally united under one Smoshy roof for the first time ever.”

The new Smosh hub boasts various upgrades including two complete sound stages, a new live streaming/gaming...

Nineteen-year-old comedy brand Smosh, co-founded by YouTube OGs Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla (who left the company in 2017), has hired its first chief executive.

In a bid to grow its reach into traditional media, Smosh has tapped Daniel Tibbets, who most recently served as Gm of the famed director Robert Rodriguez’s El Rey streaming platform, Deadline reports. Under Tibbets' tutelage, Smosh will explore TV, live events, audio, publishing, and physical and digital games. Smosh is also moving into a new production studio space in Burbank in coming weeks.

Tibbets will report directly to Mythical co-founders Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, per Deadline. Mythical acquired Smosh in Feb. 2019 for a reported $10 million. Prior to that, the company had been in something of a state of limbo, following the abrupt — and scandal-ridden — shutdown of parent company Defy Media in November 2018.

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Exclusive: Smosh, the longtime supplier of YouTube comedy videos, has hired its first CEO.

Daniel Tibbets, a media veteran who most recently served as general manager for Robert Rodriguez’s El Rey Network, will guide the company as it looks to broaden its reach.

Smosh, which has 45 million subscribers and 10 billion lifetime views on YouTube, found itself in limbo for a time in 2018 when its then-parent, Defy Media, shuttered. Soon afterward, it was acquired by well-established digital studio Mythical Entertainment. Tibbets will report directly to Mythical’s founders, the comedy studio duo known as Rhett & Link.

“I’m very excited for this next stage of Smosh’s growth,” co-founder Ian Hecox said. “Sixteen years of work in Internet content, leading Smosh through so many changes in the digital business, has taught me a lot about what it takes to be a lasting brand on the Internet. Daniel is just...

Stand Up To Cancer’s seventh televised fundraising special on Saturday is sure to be star-studded. Celebrities committed to raise money for cancer research during the event include Jennifer Garner, Matthew McConaughey, Sofia Vergara, Stevie Wonder, Anthony Anderson, Ken Jeong, Tran Ho, Brittany Howard, Common, Alison Sweeney, Candice Patton, Cecily Strong, Chandra Wilson, Ciara, Deon Cole, Ed Helms, Italia Ricci, Jaime Camil, Kate Del Castillo, Kyle MacLachlan, Max Greenfield, Michael Peña, Tony and October Gonzalez, and Tony Hale.

Stand Up To Cancer’s biennial special will broadcast from Los Angeles and air simultaneously on more than 60 participating media platforms across the United States and Canada, including all four major broadcast networks in the U.S. Broadcasters carrying the show are donating one hour of simultaneous commercial-free primetime. The telecast will also be available to stream live and on demand on several streaming platforms.

This year’s show will air on Saturday,...

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) has added more star power to the lineup of its seventh biennial roadblock televised fundraising special.

Celebrities lending their support to help raise funds for cancer research, including participating in video chats with donors during the telecast are Alison Sweeney, Cecily Strong, Chandra Wilson, Ciara, Danai Gurira, Deon Cole, Ed Helms, Italia Ricci, Jaime Camil, Jennifer Garner, Kate del Castillo, Kyle MacLachlan, Matthew McConaughey, Max Greenfield, Michael Peña, Mj Rodriguez, Tony Hale, and Tony and October Gonzalez.

This year’s show will air on Saturday, August 21 at 8Pm Et & Pt / 7Pm Ct. As announced previously, Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon and Jim Toth, a media industry entrepreneur and investor, will executive produce the special that will be co-hosted by Anthony Anderson, Ken Jeong & Tran Ho, and Sofia Vergara. SU2C co-founder and special guest Katie Couric will also appear and there will be performances...

VidCon has added roughly 30 names to its roster of Featured Creators, who will appear in programming for the marquee event in Anaheim this October, marking the storied video convention’s return to form after being postponed by the pandemic.

The latest additions are: Alex Aiono, Andy George of How to Make Everything, Azreena ‘AshelyTheUnicorn’ Tejani, Ben Azelart, Blair Imani, Calle y Poché, CaptainPuffy, Dr. Courtney Tracy, DreaKnowsBest, Elle Mills, Ian Hecox, JaidenAnimations, Josh Helfgott, Larray, Matt Slays, Lindsay Ellis, The McFarlands, The Merrell Twins, Monroe Capri, Nathan Davis Jr., Nezza, StrashMe, Nia Soux, Nikita Dragun, the Onyx Family (pictured above), Rebecca Zamolo, Sierra Furtado, Sir Carter, and Zahra ‘MuslimThicc’ Hashimee.

VidCon notes that additional creators, speakers, and programming will be announced throughout the summer. The event is slated to take place from Oct. 22 to 24 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

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Smosh, one of the most successful and enduring comedy brands on YouTube, chose to celebrate the occasion of its 15th anniversary last Friday with a marathon live stream -- all in the name of charity.

Smosh -- a sketch comedy brand co-founded by middle school friends Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla (who has since departed the venture to pursue an independent YouTube channel) -- opted to fete its anniversary not on YouTube but on Twitch, where it recently launched a hub for its Smosh Games outpost in August. That channel has amassed 117,000 followers.

Throughout the course of the six hour and 24-minute stream -- a takeoff on the classic telethon format that Smosh has billed a ‘subscribathon’ -- the Smosh Games crew drove donations while looking back at Smosh's formidable body of work. All proceeds benefited the First Nations Development Institute, a nonprofit that works to improve economic conditions for Native Americans through grants,...

“Limetown,” the podcast from creators Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie, was a runaway hit when it debuted in 2015 largely due to its use of format. Four years later, its creators are teaming up with Jessica Biel and Facebook, hoping “Limetown” can make a similar mark on screen.

Premiering at the height of the post-“Serial” true crime podcast boom, the audio version of “Limetown” borrowed the genre’s most distinctive trademarks to tell a fictional story about 300 people who disappeared from a shady Tennessee research facility without so much as a note. Framed as a radio series, the story was told through the voice of Lia Haddock, a journalist for the fictional American Public Radio whose uncle Emile Haddock was one of those who went missing.

“The best part was Jessica called me in a panic after she finished it, literally — she thought it was real,” Biel’s producing partner...

YouTube has unveiled the trailer for a previously-announced original series dubbed Could You Survive The Movies?, in which creator and host Jake Roper will undertake real-life scientific experiments to replicate famed moments from iconic films like Back To The Future, Ghostbusters, and Men In Black, Jumanji, and Alien. It will feature appearances from fellow creators like Casey Neistat, Ian Hecox of Smosh fame, and Rosanna Pansino.

Episodes one through three of the series will roll out weekly beginning Oct. 21, while episodes four, five, and six will launch on Dec. 16. The series will live on YouTube.com/Learning -- a landing page for educational content that the video giant launched last October -- as well as on Roper’s YouTube channel, VSauce3, which is dedicated to all things science and currently counts 3.7 million subscribers. While the series will be free for all, YouTube Premium subscribers will be able to binge the first three episodes on Oct.

Tastemade, the digital food and lifestyle network, has tapped a bevvy of top YouTube stars -- including lifestyle vloggers Meghan Rienks and Arden Rose, and comedy creators Ian Hecox and Rickey Thompson -- for its latest Facebook Watch slate.

All of the series were developed via Facebook Watch’s influencer program, which Facebook launched last March to link up new media publishers with digital creators for collaborative series. Facebook funds and licenses the shows, after which they can roll out on other distribution platforms. Tastemade’s shows began rolling out in March and will run on Facebook Watch through December, with episodes ranging from five to seven minutes apiece.

In Sunday At Nana’s (which is currently live), Hecox will test his culinary chops alongside sharp-witted grandmothers, while Rose’s Adulting -- premiering in mid-September -- will take basic recipes and revamp them in a bid to impress friends and family.

Mythical Entertainment, the digital media firm owned and operated by best friends and business partners Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, reportedly paid roughly $10 million to acquire Smosh from the bank that assumed Defy Media’s assets in the wake of its bankruptcy.

The deal was announced earlier this month, after Smosh arrived on the auction block following Defy's sudden shutdown in November. The acquisition, The Hollywood Reporter notes, will vastly expand the Mythical empire to 70 million subscribers and 250 million monthly views across 14 total YouTube channels. The biggest names within this empire include the flagship Smosh channel (24.1 million subscribers) and McLaughlin and Neal’s daily talk show Good Mythical Morning (15.1 million subscribers).

The Reporter recounts that McLaughlin was in touch with Smosh co-founder Ian Hecox after Defy's demise to discuss potential collaborations. “What I really admire about Mythical is that it’s not owned by a large conglomerate,” Hecox said, “so...

In something of a full-circle moment, storied YouTube comedy brand Smosh has been purchased by another digital-native best friend-slash-creator duo after the channel was temporarily left in limbo following the abrupt -- and scandal-ridden -- shutdown of parent company Defy Media.

Smosh, which was founded by best friends Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox in 2002, has been purchased by Mythical Entertainment, which is owned Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal -- who host the immensely popular YouTube talk show Good Mythical Morning. Given that Padilla departed Smosh last summer to launch a solo career, Hecox and the other members of the crew confirmed the acquisition in a video today (below) -- roughly four months after Defy’s demise.

"They are creators helping creators," Hecox said of McLaughlin and Neal's involvement in the deal. "We get to do whatever we want, and we’re super, super excited." Smosh added that its four existing YouTube channels -- Smosh,...

VidCon has added a bevy of bellwether 'Featured Creators' for its 10th annual gathering to be held this summer in Anaheim, Calif.

The Viacom-owned convention will welcome Alisha Marie, Madilyn Bailey, Rickey Thompson, Jason Nash, Smosh co-founder Ian Hecox, Simone Giertz, and Matt Steffanina. And given that VidCon plans to fete Og creators in honor of a decade spent in Anaheim, these stars will join a separate group of Founding Featured Creators -- or YouTubers who have been attending the event since its inception. The first round of Founding Featured Creators were announced in October, including Shay Carl, Ze Frank, Tay Zonday, Brittani Louise Taylor, and Julie Nunes.

Featured Creators -- and Founding Featured Creators -- attend VidCon for free, and appear across varied programming initiatives, including panel discussions, Q&As, and meet-ups.

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Smosh co-founder Anthony Padilla departed the Defy Media-owned comedy brand last summer, long before the company’s sudden shutdown on Monday.

But now, Padilla -- who subsequently launched his own YouTube channel in collaboration with Studio71 -- is finally sharing his long-held frustrations with Defy, which he explains he previously kept under wraps to protect his friends who still worked at the company. In an Instagram post, Padilla called Defy “evil and shady,” and expressed his sympathy for friends and former colleagues.

Back in 2011, Padilla and Smosh co-founder Ian Hecox sold their Smosh YouTube venture to what would become Defy Media for stock in the company -- meaning that Padilla and Hecox would only cash out if Defy were to go public. While Padilla did receive a salary at Defy, he says it represented only a fraction of the millions of dollars that Smosh was generating for Defy. “I should...

Defy Media is shutting down, effective immediately. The company issued the following statement:

Regretfully, Defy Media has ceased operations today. We are extremely proud of what we accomplished here at Defy and in particular want to thank all the employees who worked here. We deeply regret the impact that this has had on them today. These are some of the best people in the world in creating digital programming and building audiences around it. Without them, brands like Clevver, Smosh, and AweMe could not have built up over 75 million YouTube subscribers and 120mm social media followers. Unfortunately, market conditions got in the way of us completing our mission. Our main focus right now is to find homes for these great brands and people so that they can continue to thrill and delight their millions of viewers with as little interruption as possible.

The shutdown comes on the heels of Tuesday...

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the sequel to the 2015 movie Jurassic World, is set to arrive in American theaters on June 22. In order to hype the film's release, its star Chris Pratt made a guest appearance on one of YouTube's most eminently successful channels. Pratt served as a contestant on You Posted That, a game show hosted by Ian Hecox of Smosh.

In the episode, which arrived on YouTube on June 11, Pratt answered questions about his social media history alongside fellow contestants Olivia Sui and Courtney Miller. Miller, whom Hecox described as a Chris Pratt superfan, found herself particularly starstruck after the Jurassic World star was revealed as one of the episode's participants.

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A brand new animated film from Lionsgate employs the voices of a bevy of top YouTube stars. Hedgehogs, which saw a limited in release in select theaters last Friday -- and which is also available digitally on demand -- features Smosh founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla as well as comedy vlogger Jenn McAllister (Foursome). They join Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder and comedy legend Chevy Chase, who have also lent their voices to the film.

Hedgehogs tells the story of a mischievous hedgehog (Padilla) who leaves his home in the wilderness to join a pigeon friend (Heder) on a wild adventure in the big city, where they must calm nervous citizens who are losing their minds. The film, from China, was directed by Huang Jianming, who also penned the script alongside Wu Xiaoyu.

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The latest web series released under the Smosh banner invites its guests to dive deep into their social media archives. You Posted That, which is produced by Smosh owner Defy Media and hosted by the brand's co-founder Ian Hecox, is a game show that features prominent social media stars as its contestants.

Each episode of You Posted That features three guests, who must analyze their past posts, evaluate the humor of them, and attempt to remember how they were phrased. In the final round of each show, the contestants must read a caption from one of Hecox's Instagram posts and divine which picture it matches up to. The reward is minimal, the tone is light, and the featured influencers don't take their competition too seriously. “It’s sort of a game of embarrassing them, but I also make a point of taking shots at myself,” Hecox told Variety.

In the first installment,...

The brightest stars the online video industry has to offer are out in full force. The 7th annual Streamy Awards, hosted by Jon Cozart, can now be streamed via official broadcast partner Twitter.

The Streamys broadcast can be found at http://streamys.twitter.com; a direct link to the stream can be accessed here. As the awards are handed out, Twitter users will be able to add their input via rolling feed of tweets adjacent to the video player.

Cozart, the creator of the colorful YouTube channel Paint, is the evening's emcee. 17 winners will take home trophies, joining the 24 who earned victories at Sunday night's Streamys Premiere Awards. Several creators who have already secured Streamy wins this year, including DeStorm Power and Smosh Games' Mari Takahashi, will be among tonight's presenters. They'll be joined by a star-studded list of their online video colleagues, including Zach Anner, Gabriel & Jess Conte, Ricky Dillon,...

The first batch of 24 Streamy Awards winners were announced at last night’s Streamys Premiere Awards ceremony, hosted by Epic Rap Battles of History'sEpicLLoyd. Honorees included Ariana Grande in the 'Cover Song' category, Juanpa Zurita for best international creator, and Casey Neistat in ‘Cinematography’.

The Streamy Premiere Awards, held at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, serves as a prequel of sorts to tomorrow’s seventh annual flagship Streamy Awards show, which will be hosted by Jon Cozart and stream live on Twitter beginning at 6:30 pm Pt. Seventeen total awards will be handed out on Tuesday evening by presenters including Jc Caylen, Gigi Gorgeous, Ian Hecox, Jenna Marbles, Shaun ‘Shonduras’ McBride, Amanda Steele, and many more.

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An update to the Smosh brand that has been rumored for months is set to become official. The comedy network owned and operated by Defy Media has announced that it will rebrand one of its YouTube channels as The Smosh Pit. As part of that move, it has launched a slate of seven shows, all of which will be hosted by Smosh's growing cast of funnypeople.

The channel that will turn into The Smosh Pit began as a home for vlogs hosted by Smosh co-founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. In 2011, that hub began to host episodes of Smosh Pit Weekly, a commentary show hosted by Mari Takahashi. Smosh Pit Weekly lasted for close to 200 episodes before releasing its final installment in 2015, but with Hecox's channel now adopting the Smosh Pit name, its titular series will return, with Takahashi once again assuming host duties.

Other shows that will be...

When Anthony Padilla chose to leave his incredibly successful YouTube channel Smosh, the first person he told was his partner-in-crime Ian Hecox.

“He invited me over to his house and I was like, something feels weird … I kinda felt like it was coming,” Hecox told Instant Thursday in an exclusive on-camera interview backstage at Vidcon. “Then he dropped it and I was, like, ‘Yeah. I knew it. I knew that’s what it was.’ ”

Padilla and Hecox, both 29, discussed their split — which comes after over a decade of working together on their sketch comedy — in a YouTube video posted on...

Anthony Padilla is leaving Smosh after over a decade of crafting one of YouTube’s most popular channels with partner-in-crime Ian Hecox. Padilla, 29, told Variety he was looking to start something fresh after several months of contemplating his departure. “I realized I haven’t been as creatively excited about things recently,” he said. “When I first started, it […]...

For 12 years, Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla have served as an inseparable videomaking duo. On their Smosh channel, they have released more than 880 videos, which have gathered 22 million subscribers and received 6.4 billion views. For almost all of the time that YouTube has existed, Smosh has been one of its most popular channels. It has served several stints as the site’s most-subscribed hubs, and was the first channel to ever achieve an eight-digit subscriber count.

It is fair to say that Hecox and Padilla’s creative partnership has built the most consistently successful YouTube channel of all time, but all things must end eventually. Padilla has revealed that he is leaving Smosh to create videos on his personal channel.

Hecox and Padilla jointly announced Padilla’s departure from the Smosh brand in an emotional video. “I just need to do what's best for me, and that right now is to...

At its presentation at the Digital Content NewFronts today, Defy Media announced a slew of new and returning shows for its more than 70 million YouTube subscribers and 100 million social followers -- including a trio of titles from its flagship Smosh brand.

Smosh, which is headlined by creators Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, who have catapulted the comedy channel to one of the most popular destinations on all of YouTube, will introduce three new series in 2017, per Defy. They include: Not Quite Cancelled, a scripted comedy about a popular TV series that has jumped the shark; One Hour Song Machine, in which performers must create music videos inspired by random items in a box; and Operation: Open World, where Smosh Games personalities Jovenshire and Mari travel to various events across the globe like Oktoberfest and Carnival.

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Crackle, Sony’s ad-supported streaming service, announced today at the Upfronts that it's developing two scripted dramas executive produced by Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson. At the same time, Crackle announced the launch of a weekly highlights show starring Smosh co-founder Ian Hecox.

Hecox’s show, called This Week On and debuting in May, will appear on a newly-launched Crackle vertical called Spotlight, according to the company, joining existing verticals like Fandom, Comedy, Action, and Drama. This Week On will showcase new content arriving on the platform each week. Meanwhile, Jackson is teaming with Crackle on The Oath, about a secret law enforcement society, and Rpm, about a Boston getaway driver.

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Smosh, YouTube’s most indefatigable comedy brand, is getting ready for another suite of changes this summer. As a recent Mashable profile notes, the network led by Ian Hecox, Anthony Padilla, and the team at Defy Media plans to rebrand the secondary Smosh channel into The Smosh Pit, while also adding a new Smosh Games cast member and bringing back an inter-network competition series called Summer Games.

The new name of The Smosh Pit will match that of a web series that ran for more than 200 episodes between 2011 and 2015. In that show, host Mari Takahashi ran through a few of her favorite items from the internet and offered commentary on them. A Spanish-language version of the program still runs on El Smosh, the network’s Hispanophone channel. Defy Media has not stated whether the English version of Smosh Pit will return on the rebranded channel.

Adding new cast members will...

YouTube recently celebrated its 12th birthday, and it’s fair to say it has changed considerably since its inception. For evidence of that claim, look at the top of the video site’s leaderboard. Reddit user davidjl123 compiled a series of charts showing the most-subscribed channels on YouTube at various points between 2006 and 2017.

The charts tell the story of YouTube, starting during the days when no one had more than a few thousand subscribers and continuing on to the present. A few interesting trends stick out; chiefly, this project is a reminder that Smosh’s run has been incredible. The digital home of Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla is the only channel to continuously remain in the top ten over the past eleven years. Most of the other top creators from the early days have faded into obscurity (or, in one case, passed away), but Smosh continues to crank out...

Prominent digital media executive Barry Blumberg announced in a memo to staffers today that he is departing Defy Media, where he most recently served as chief content officer and helped develop Smosh into one of the nation’s foremost digital brands. As chief content officer at Defy, Blumberg also oversaw its Break, Clevver, Made Man, and Screen Junkies properties, and launched the positive prank franchise Prank It Fwd.

Prior to joining Defy, which was formed in 2013 following a merger between Alloy Digital and Break Media, Blumberg was the president of Smosh, which he co-founded in 2006 alongside YouTube stars Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla, Variety reports. At Smosh, Blumberg spearheaded channel spinoffs, musical ventures, merchandising, mobile apps and games, and feature films. Prior to joining Smosh, Blumberg served as the president of Walt Disney Television Animation.

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Since 2015, Shayne Topp has appeared in more than 50 videos within Defy Media’s Smosh network, portraying everyone from Tom Cruise to Donald Trump along the way. Now, Topp has parlayed his digital visibility into a gig on TV. He will appear in three episodes of the ABC sitcom The Goldbergs, in which he portrays a punk rocker named Matt.

Topp’s first video on the Smosh channel was “Every Snapchat Ever,” in which he poked fun at pervasive habits on the titular app. Since then, he’s become a Smosh fixture who often stars alongside the online video brand’s co-founders, Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla.

While Topp has appeared on TV in the past (he showed up in an iCarly episode back in 2008), his Goldbergs role marks his most significant venture within that medium. He first appeared in the sitcom’s February 22nd episode, which aired at 8 Pm Et,...

When Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla first joined YouTube, they each received a free iPod nano from the site for signing up. Over ten years later, and Smosh, the channel they named after a junior high inside joke, is the sixth most subscribed channel on YouTube — just after Rihanna’s Vevo, but before Taylor Swift’s.

When they arrived at the IndieWire offices last month to promote their second feature, “Ghostmates,” co-produced by Defy Media and YouTube Red, they each donned crisp black jackets and fresh haircuts. (The latter caused much hubbub from fans during a Facebook live interview.) If “Pokemon In Real Life” is your only Smosh reference point, you might not recognize the sleek young moguls on the screen.

Read More: Smosh Live: The Creators Behind YouTube’s Most Popular Comedy Channel Reveal How They ‘Stay Relevant’

The Smosh empire now consists of 10 related channels, five studio albums,...

Smosh, the wildly successful multichannel YouTube empire, was created by two 29-year-old men: Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. The sketch comedy duo has expanded into a team and is consistently one of the most popular channels on the site to this day. Hecox and Padilla's latest venture with YouTube? Ghostmates, a movie about a man who is living with a deceased roommate, premiered on YouTube Red on Dec. 14. So when the duo came to Popsugar on their press tour, we decided to liquor 'em up and see how much they really know about the paranormal. (Or, really, about celebrity and YouTube-related ghost content.) Check out the video to see who prevailed, and check out Ghostmates, out now on YouTube Red.

Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla from Smosh have created a digital space where over 41 million YouTube subscribers and 39 million social media followers track their every moves and enjoy their bountiful creations. Their latest project is the film “Ghostmates,” a digital comedy that tests the terrestrial limits of friendship.

Directed by Jack Henry Robbins, the movie follows Charlie (Padilla), a socially-awkward and unemployed dude who finds a great apartment only to discover that it’s inhabited by ghost Eddie (Hecox), the previous tenant who unexpectedly died inside. Now Eddie won’t vacate the premise and can’t move on to the afterlife until he makes amends with the living, specifically his ex-girlfriend. It gets even better when ghost T-Pain – who somehow also died – unexpectedly helps Eddie move on.

“You want to be best friends,” Eddie asks the rapper. “No, no, no. I’m probably going to go find Tupac,” he replies as he ascends into heaven.

Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla of Smosh are set to star in their second motion picture, and this one will be available through YouTube Red. It’s called Ghostmates, and its trailer has now arrived ahead of its December 14th release date.

In Ghostmates, Padilla will play Charlie, a down-on-his-luck man whose life takes an interesting turn when he moves into an apartment inhabited by a ghost named Eddie (Hecox). Eddie is invisible to everyone except Charlie and T-Pain (yes, that T-Pain), which causes him to become a thorn in his new roommate’s side. Nonetheless, as we can see in the trailer, Charlie and Eddie will ultimately band together in order to improve each other’s circumstances.

Ghostmates is the second feature film to star Hecox and Padilla, who for more than a decade have served as two of the most prominent stars in the YouTube community. Their maiden...

YouTube's most popular comedy duo Smosh today announced a brand new feature film, Ghostmates, which serves as a follow-up to 2015’s Smosh: The Movie. Ghostmates, which premieres on YouTube Red on Dec. 14, tells the story of a luckless man named Charlie (played by Anthony Padilla) who moves into an apartment that’s haunted by a self-centered ghost named Eddie (Ian Hecox).

Eddie makes Charlie’s life difficult, according to a synopsis -- though he eventually learns that the only way he can enter heaven is by getting along and working with his new roommate. Padilla and Hecox will be joined in Ghostmates by the Grammy award-winning musician and famed auto-tune master T-Pain, who plays himself in the film.

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In recent years, Defy Media has expanded the Smosh channel by supporting the comedic stylings of Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla with other humorous web series. The latest project in that category is The Big What If, which presents several “what if?” scenarios in each themed episode.

The format of The Big What If is similar to Every [Blank] Ever, another series on the Smosh channel. In both shows, each individual episode carries its own subject, and the show’s performers riff on that topic across a number of short scenes. The Big What If kicks off its run by discussing the man who’s on every comedian’s mind these days: Donald Trump. In the first four-minute installment of the show, we learn what Trump would be like if he were, among other things, a masseuse, a Gps device, and a Night Watchman from Game of Thrones.

The Big What If is part of Smoshtober,...

During its May 2016 presentation at the NewFronts, Defy Media pledged to create 30 new shows over the following 12 months and insisted that all those shows would actually get made. Now, five months later, Defy is making good on its promise with its biggest programming push of 2016. The digital media company’s latest initiative is led by “Smoshtober,” which will bring 11 new shows to the Smosh family of channels.

The shows that make up Smoshtober are a mixed bag, but they will generally carry on a Defy Media plan that began with Every [Blank] Ever: Showcase creators beyond Smosh co-founders Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. In The Big What If, for example, Smosh-affiliated talent will answer odd questions with comedic sketches, while Smosh Lab will bring in actual scientists to perform experiments. The Smosh Games channel will also get an infusion of programming, including a show about Vr gaming and new episodes...

Nobody can say YouTube’s top comedy channel, Smosh, will never do what “Saturday Night Live” does. It just did.

On August 26th, Smosh aired YouTube’s first ever live sketch show, which clocked in at just under 90 minutes and attracted up a peak concurrent viewership of 55,000 – with an average watch time of fifteen minutes. (YouTube’s broadcast of the Democratic National Convention peaked at 250,000 concurrent viewers, with a twenty-five minute average watch time.)

Read More: YouTube Creators Cry Censorship As ‘Inappropriate’ Content Is No Longer Monetizable On The Platform

“We grew up watching ‘Saturday Night Live,'” Smosh’s Anthony Padilla told IndieWire. “A live sketch show sounded like an interesting idea, we just never had the ability to do it before.” The show was sponsored by 5 Gum (owned by Wrigley), which gave the team plenty of material for commercial parodies with its “#5TruthOrDare” campaign. In addition to the...

YouTube’s most beloved comedy duo, Smosh, undertook yet another bold endeavor last Friday evening -- an 80-minute comedy special produced in the vein of Saturday Night Live, complete with skits, musical numbers, an aftershow, and commercial breaks for sponsor 5 Gum. Titled Smosh Live!, the event was streamed from the YouTube Space Los Angeles and is now live on Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla’s channel, which is home to more than 22 million subscribers.

Keith Richman, president of Smosh owner Defy Media, told the Wall Street Journal that he was encouraged by metrics generated by the special, which aired exclusively on YouTube. Concurrent viewership peaked at 58,000, Richman said, and Smosh Live! now counts a total of 1.4 million views. This seems to be on par with Smosh’s main channel sketch videos, the last several of which have drummed up between two and three million views apiece.

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Chelsea Handler’s eponymous talk show was renewed by Netflix last month, and even though the streaming giant does not release any ratings, reports note that Chelsea seems to be struggling to drum up a social following, and has yet to host an interview that has broken into mainstream news coverage. Another sign that the show might be off to a shaky start? Showrunner Bill Wolff departed a mere three weeks after its premiere.

But yesterday, as the captain of her own digital venture, Handler invited a handful of YouTube influencers onto her show -- with a combined reach of 60 million followers, she noted -- to show her the social ropes. Smosh’s Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla appeared to promote their live sketch comedy show, Smosh Live!, which premieres tonight at 8 p.m. Est and can be live streamed here. Mamrie Hart was on to discuss her upcoming film,...