Charlie McDonnell
Charlie McDonnell | |
|---|---|
 McDonnell at VidCon 2010. | |
| Born | Charles Joseph McDonnell 1 October 1990 |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 2007 - present |
| Known for | Comedy, vlogging, music |
| 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 | charliemcdonnell |
Charles Joseph "Charlie" McDonnell (born 1 October 1990) is a British vlogger and musician from Bath, Somerset. He now lives with fellow youtube vlogger Alex Day in Bow, East London. He is the most subscribed YouTuber in the United Kingdom as of January 2011[update].
Early life and background
McDonnell was born and grew up in Bath, Somerset with his sister Bridie McDonnell and brother William McDonnell. He was educated at Beechen Cliff School,[2] a state comprehensive Foundation school in the city of Bath in Somerset, south-west England. As of August 2010[update], Charlie resides in London with fellow vlogger, Alex Day.[3]
YouTube
After setting up the YouTube channel "charlieissocoollike" 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 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 19 so far (as of 25 December 2010[update]), 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. As McDonnell posted more and more videos to his channel, his prowess for music and light-hearted comedy was further demonstrated, thus boosting his fame and earning him an enormous amount of subsequent subscribers. McDonnell has since posted a large range of videos on the site, including his most viewed, "Duet with Myself".[4]
In 2008, McDonnell participated in a video-blog collaboration with four other YouTube personalities, entitled "FiveAwesomeGuys". The project ran from 28 January to 31 December.
Charlie's videos currently end with an outro by Stephen Fry.[5]
On 21 April 2010, Charlie McDonnell became the most subscribed YouTuber in the United Kingdom and is 35th most subscribed globally - he has over 700,000 subscribers as of December 2010[update]. He also has over 100 million total video views and over 20 million channel views as of January 2011.[6]
Musical history
Chameleon Circuit, a band consisting of McDonnell, fellow vlogger, flatmate and partner Alex Day ("Nerimon" on YouTube), Liam Dryden ("Littleradge" on YouTube), and Chris Beattie ("CowInParachute" on YouTube), released a self-titled album on 1 June 2009.[7] 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.[8]
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". He has put these into his debut solo album 'This Is Me, which was released on December 1, 2010.[9]
McDonnell was also involved with the television programme Chartjackers (see Charity Work) where he and three other famous youtubers tried to get a song to number 1 for children in need.
Sons Of Admirals
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. The track got to 61 in the UK.[10]
In October 2010 the band released an EP including the songs 'Here Comes My Baby' as well as an acoustic version of the same song, a cover of 'Believe In Yourself', which is well known as the theme of children's television show Arthur, the video of 'Here Comes My Baby', and a behind-the-scenes video. The band has been known to perform a cover of 'You're Not There', originally performed by band member Eddplant, and a cover of Radiohead's "Creep".[11]
Sons of Admirals is not a band in the traditional sense. They are all solo artists, but as well as having their solo careers, they come together to form one group. The idea of this came from the Admiral's Men, which was a Shakespearean-era group of actors that came together to perform, while still retaining their individual 'careers'.
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.[12] They managed to raise nearly £5000.[13] 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 £4000 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 Myles Dyer co presented Stickaid, a 24 hour live webshow. Starting from 12 noon BST, the two hosted the 5th annual charity event from Middlesex University's Trent Park campus in London. Their goal was to raise £10,000 ($15,900), which they almost doubled.[14] All the proceedings went to UNICEF.
Chartjackers
In the autumn of 2009, McDonnell featured with three other YouTube users on the BBC Switch documentary series Chartjackers. The programme documented their attempt to achieve a Number One single on the UK Singles Chart within 10 weeks, by crowdsourcing resources provided by the online community. McDonnell was cast in the series for his familiarity to young British YouTube viewers and to "act as [a Pied Piper] to the teen audience".[15]
Over the course of Chartjackers, McDonnell solicited lyrics, music, performers and stylists to record the final single and video via a YouTube channel named "ChartJackersProject". An unofficial charity single for Children in Need, the completed song was titled "I've Got Nothing" and was sung by vocalists Miranda Chartrand and Adam Nichols.[16] McDonnell edited the single's official music video,[17] which was shown nationwide on British music channels such as 4Music and Viva. "I've Got Nothing" was released exclusively through the iTunes Store at midnight on 9 November 2009[18] and reached Number 36 on the UK Singles Chart.[19] Sales of the single raised a total of approximately £10,000 for Children in Need.[20]
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 offshoot of First News.[21][22] However, after filming four episodes of FirstTV, Charlie decided to leave the show because he did not enjoy presenting pre-scripted work.[23]
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.[24] 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 (now known as Kinect). 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.
In the week of 10 October 2010 Charlie and his band, Sons of Admirals, were featured in the English paper The Sun.
In December 2010, Charlie was invited behind the scenes of Doctor Who Confidential during the filming of the Series 5 Christmas special, in which he got to meet Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill.
References
- ^ "Teenager's tea tips cause a stir". BBC. 1 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ Charlie McDonnell profile - This is Bath
- ^ McDonnell, Charlie (14 January 2011). "The Alex and Charlie Pilot". London: YouTube.
- ^ Paris, Natalie (2007-10-02). "Schoolboy's 'how to be English' guide a US hit". Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
- ^ "The Alex and Charlie Format". YouTube. 17 September 2010. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/user/charlieissocoollike?blend=1&ob=4
- ^ "Music - Chameleon Circuit - DFTBA Records LLC". DFTBA records. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
- ^ "Available for FREE, exclusively at VidCon". Retrieved August 14, 2010.
- ^ "DFTBA Records LLC". Retrieved November 7, 2010.
- ^ polyhex
- ^ http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/here-comes-my-baby-ep/id399010503
- ^ "The Bath Chronicle". 1 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ "Just Giving". Retrieved 2009-04-22.
- ^ "Just Giving". Retrieved 2010-10-05.
- ^ "Entertainment Development Priorities". London: BBC. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
- ^ "Episode 6". Chartjackers. Episode 6. 17 October 2009. BBC. BBC Two.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|seriesno=ignored (|series-number=suggested) (help) - ^ "Episode 7". Chartjackers. Episode 7. 24 October 2009. BBC. BBC Two.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|seriesno=ignored (|series-number=suggested) (help) - ^ "Chartjackers attack the charts". London: BBC. 2009. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "Singles Chart For 21/11/09". Chart Stats. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 16 December 2009.
- ^ Producers: Jonathan Davenport and Adam King (21 November 2009). "Compilation". Chartjackers. Episode 11. BBC. BBC Two.
{{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter|seriesno=ignored (|series-number=suggested) (help) - ^ 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.