KevJumba
Template:Contains Chinese text
Kevin Wu | |
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吳凱文 (Wú Kǎiwén) | |
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Born | Kevin Wu June 12, 1990 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Education | Clements High School University of California, Davis |
Occupation | YouTube celebrity |
Years active | 2007 - present |
Parent | Michael Wu[1] |
Template:Infobox person/Internet info | |
Website | www.kevjumba.com |
Kevin Wu | |||||||||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 吳凱文 | ||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 吴凯文 | ||||||||||||||||
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Kevin Wu (traditional Chinese: 吳凱文; simplified Chinese: 吴凯文; pinyin: Wú Kǎiwén;[6] (born June 12, 1990)[7] is a Chinese American comedian and YouTube celebrity who is best known by his YouTube username of KevJumba. As of December 2011, he is YouTube's seventh most subscribed comedian and tenth most subscribed user overall.[8] He is currently on an indefinite leave from the University of California, Davis, where he majored in film, and from YTF Legacy. The San Francisco Chronicle's Jeff Yang has noted that Wu is not a comedian in the conventional sense but that by "just talking [he] is, well, pretty hilarious" due to his deadpan vocal delivery, animated facial expressions and tendency toward unexpected digressions.[9] Wu previously appeared on The CW Television Network's short-lived Online Nation and co-starred with Jessica Lee Rose and Philip DeFranco in Hooking Up from HBOLabs (the online arm of HBO) in 2008.[10] In 2010, Wu and his father, Michael, competed as a team on the 17th season of The Amazing Race, placing seventh out of eleven teams.[11]
Background
Kevin Wu was born on June 12, 1990 in Houston, Texas.[4] His father, Michael Wu, a Taiwanese immigrant, is a computer engineer.[12] Wu graduated from Clements High School in Sugar Land, Texas, in 2008. He currently lives in downtown Los Angeles, as he had moved out of home. He graduated from UC Davis in 2012. [13]
Kevin's YouTube videos
Wu is known for posting humorous videos on YouTube. When Wu's "I Have to Deal With Stereotypes" video[14] was featured on YouTube's home page, his number of viewers began to increase.[15] In this video, Wu talks about stereotypes he must deal with as an Asian. He tries to disprove his cheapness by bragging about the recent purchase of a "brand new, top-of-the-line, TI-84 calculator". He acknowledges that this might make him nerdy but dismisses this stereotype too as he does not "make all A's...in school today [he] made a B+." He is then greeted by a voice that was supposed to be his mother calling him a loser and accusing him of shaming their family. Wu goes on to say he can prove the lack of his social life with the constant ringing of his cell phone. At this point, his phone indeed rings, he answers it, and the voice on the other end says, "Hey, why did you tell me to call you?"[16] Wu has collaborated with fellow YouTube comedian Christine Gambito (HappySlip), making five videos with her. In one of Kevin's old time videos, he said he was an only child, which was later proven wrong by his father.
Following his video, "Butthash Hero", Wu introduced his father, PapaJumba, onto his YouTube channel, and his father made several appearances in candid video clips taken by his son. Responding to Wu's father's growing popularity amongst viewers, his father made a debut in "I Love My Dad", and has been featured alongside his son many times since. As of June 2010, Wu had more than 2,000,000 subscribers and more than 25 million views of his channel.[17] His combined video views total over 91.9 million. On February 26, 2008, the Los Angeles Times compared the web series Quarterlife's viewership to Wu's. At the time Wu was a "semi-well known YouTube blogger" and had received 450,000 views for a video describing how he broke his shin. Quarterlife, which had been picked up by NBC, had received only 100,000 views on MySpace and 50,000 views on YouTube.[18]
By May 29, 2008, Wu had become one of three East Asians under the age of 21 to be in the top five of YouTube's all-time most subscribed users with 187,000 subscribers and more than 5.9 million views.[19] By June 5, 2008, he had become the number one subscribed comedian on YouTube, and third most subscribed uploader overall.[9] Wu's videos have received replies from Ella Koon,[20] Jessica Alba, and Baron Davis.[21] In 2008, Davis created a "longest stare" contest for ibeatyou.com, a site that he and Alba's husband Cash Warren co-founded. The contest began with Davis challenging Wu, who then challenged Alba, who responded to the challenge.[22][23][24] As of May 2013, Wu has more than 2.8 million subscribers making his channel the 47th most subscribed YouTube channel.
Funemployed
The web series Funemployed, launched in the summer of 2010, stars Wu and Philip Wang of Wong Fu Productions and includes other notable YouTube stars such as Nigahiga, David Choi, Kina Grannis, and Chester See. With the large number of fans, this series quickly took off and became a hit, reaching 500,000 viewers in only a few weeks. The series focuses on two good friends named Kyle (Wu) and Jason (Philip Wang), and how they are dealing with unemployment after Jason is laid off at work. Kyle is characterized as the typical laid back guy, who comes off as somewhat of a slacker, while Jason is characterized as the more studious hard worker of the two. The two eventually come up with an idea of how to make money, believing that YouTube is the key, an allusion to Wu's and Wang's real life success with YouTube videos. "Funemployed" eventually came to an end on July 27, 2010, with their last episode entitled, "Gave it a Shot". There were a total of eleven episodes and 30 sitcoms.[25]
Other work
In 2007, Wu appeared on the The CW Television Network's short-lived Online Nation. Online Nation compiled an hour of web clips, broadcast them during primetime, lasting four episodes. Wu, along with other popular YouTube personalities, is also paid to broadcast a streaming show on BlogTV. He has been a member of BlogTV since March 29, 2008, and as of November 2, 2008, he had produced 70 live and 23 recorded shows with over 300,000 viewers of the live show and 100,000 viewers of the recorded shows.[citation needed]
As of October 2008, Wu starred with Jessica Rose and Phillip DeFranco in Hooking Up from HBOLabs (the online arm of HBO), a scripted 10-episode web-based series. Hooking Up is set at a fictional university where the students spend most of their time emailing and twittering, but still manage to miscommunicate. It is his first work on a scripted production.[26] Guest appearances on Hooking Up will be made by Kevin Nalty, Michael Buckley, and other internet celebrities.[27] The entire cast of Hooking Up is composed of YouTube video bloggers in the hope of attracting a young, internet knowledgeable audience.[28] By the show's second day on YouTube, it had received more than 450,000 views. According to NewTeeVee.com, an evolving consensus is that for an online video to be a hit, somewhere between 100,000 and one million views are needed, giving Hooking Up a strong start.[29] Maria Russo of the Los Angeles Times felt that Wu was better looking than star DeFranco and wondered why Wu plays the "tired role of the East Asian friend who helps the white guy get the chicks,"[29] while Bobbie Johnson of The Guardian said that many web surfers had "scoffed at what they see as a cynical attempt to cash in."[30] On October 2, 2011, Wu hosted "Flicks" on Cartoon Network during an airing of "Around the World in 80 Days". Wu has also announced he will be starring in the independent film "Rock Jocks" with Justin Chon, Felicia Day, and Gerry Bedknob, which will be released in 2012.
In 2011, Wu began performing with Yesterday, Today, Forever (YTF) along with other YouTube personalities.[31] The group performed their first concert on October 9, 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii.[32]
Wu also has another YouTube account going by the username JumbaFund, which donated all of its earnings to a charity that viewers suggested. Wu donated over 5,000 dollars to a charity in Kenya, which later built a school after him, to build a new school in a span of 5 months from all of the profits he made through JumbaFund. He recently cited that he would now donate all earnings from this point on to Kenya in order to help finish and pay off the costs of the new secondary school being built there. Wu mentions this in his video and always records himself donating all the profits to the charity in order to show the viewers that his JumbaFund charity is not used for anything but to donate to the needy. On his JumbaFund videos, Wu went to Lenana in Kenya to meet with kids in a campaign by The Supply. In 2011, a school in Kenya was built called the Jumba Lenana Academy.[33][34]
In 2011, Wu was a "sponsor" of Brian Wong of the K&N Pro Series West, who raced a car with Wu's paint scheme at the Casino Arizona 125.[35]
In June 2012, Wu began starring in YouTube videos on a new channel called YOMYOMF. He stars in his own series called, Kevjumba Takes All.
The Amazing Race
In May and June 2010, Wu participated with his father in filming for the 17th season of The Amazing Race, an American reality television game show. Upon this announcement, it was also the first time his dad's name, Michael, was revealed, which was kept anonymous since his debut. Wu officially announced his participation on Facebook on September 1, and on YouTube a week later.[36] The season premiered on September 26, 2010. Michael and Kevin's best placement was a third place finish in Leg 2 and Leg 6. Their worst placement was a last place finish (9th) in Leg 3, a non-elimination leg. They ended up in seventh place and were eliminated in Leg 7 after being issued two 30-minute penalties for using a cab to travel between tasks on the leg when they were instructed to walk; another team had also issued a similar penalty and checked in after them, but only had one half-hour penalty, resulting in Kevin and Michael's elimination.
Cartoon Network
Wu is currently appearing in the pre-commercials on Cartoon Network's Flicks. He is the second internet sensation to appear in Cartoon Network, with the other being Annoying Orange. Fred Figglehorn and Ryan Higa have appeared on CN's rival channel, Nickelodeon.
Hang Loose
In December of 2012 Wu released Hang Loose, his first full length feature film. Wu began working on the film in late 2011 with Dante Basco and Kinetic Films LLC.[37] "Hang Loose" is a comedy in which Wu, who stars as himself, goes to Hawaii for his sister's wedding,jkjkغ but finds himself on a misadventure with his future brother-in-law (played by Dante Basco) that changes his life.[38] Other notable actors in the film include Justin Chon as the main antagonist, BJ. [38] Wu's father also makes a guest appearance. The film is currently being marketed through Wu's official blog.
References
- ^ Derschowitz, Jessica (2010-09-02). ""The Amazing Race" Cast Announced". CBS News. Retrieved 2010-09-03.
- ^ "Kevjumba". AArisings. Retrieved 2012-8-30.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help) - ^ "KevJumba vs. IYAZ". YouTube. 2010-07-27. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
- ^ a b "We B HERE with KevJumba! He's Taiwanese!". YouTube. 2009-10-30. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
- ^ "Looks Determine Everything, Even on YouTube =/" Youtube.com. Original upload on February 19, 2007, since deleted.
- ^ "Amazing Race - Support TeamJumba!" Youtube.com. September 7, 2010.
- ^ Wu, Kevin. "KevJumba SFAQ". KevJumba.com. Retrieved 2008-11-01. [dead link]
- ^ "KevJumba's Youtube Channel". Retrieved 2011-02-13.
- ^ a b Yang, Jeff (June 5, 2008). "On top of YouTube: Happy Slip, Choi, KevJumba". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ Wallenstein, Andrew (September 8, 2008). "HBO offshoot launches Web video series". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
- ^ ""Amazing Race" Goes to the Circus". CBS News. 2010-11-08. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
- ^ "Most Exciting Job EVER!" Youtube.com. Original upload on Feb 12, 2010.
- ^ "Sugar Land Magazine 2009 - Article on Clements High School" (PDF). "Sugar Land Magazine".
- ^ "I Have to Deal with Stereotypes". YouTube. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
- ^ Wong, Nelson. "A-Profiler: Kevjumba". AArisings. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
- ^ Wu, Kevin (March 8, 2007). "I Have to Deal With Stereotypes". YouTube. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
- ^ "kevjumba's channel". YouTube. 2009-10-28. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
- ^ "'Quarterlife's' improbable third quarter". Los Angeles Times. February 26, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ Yang, Jeff (May 29, 2008). "East Asian heritage more popular with kids today". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ "queenmeanbee". YouTube. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
- ^ Mallet, Jeremy (May 21, 2008). "Five-minute fame". The California Aggie. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
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(help) - ^ Lake, Chloe (May 21, 2008). "Jessica Alba joins stare-off on video website". News Digital Media. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
- ^ "Jessica Alba Responds to KevJumba's Challenge on MSNBC News". MSNBC.com. May 8, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
- ^ "Jessica Alba Competes in Online Staring Contest". People.com. May 8, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
- ^ "Youtube: Funemployed".
- ^ Sirois, George H. (9/11/2008). "The UBS Evening Movie News 09.11.08". 411Mania. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help) - ^ Grossman, Ben (September 8, 2008). "Looking For An Online Hit, HBO Tries A Bunch Of YouTube Cewebrities". Silicon Alley Insider. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Cheng, Jacqui (September 9, 2008). "HBO tries to turn web celebs into series stars on HBOlab". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
- ^ a b Russo, Maria (October 3, 2008). "'Hooking Up': When YouTube stars get all cleaned up". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
{{cite news}}
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(help) - ^ Johnson, Bobbie (October 6, 2008). "The rise and rise of the YouTube generation, and how adults can help". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2008-10-08.
- ^ YTF Global; Home. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ Nishimoto, Joie. "Youtube celebrities to perform in Honolulu". Kapi'o Newspress. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
- ^ "Asia Pacific Arts: JumbaFund helps build a school in Africa". Asiapacificarts.usc.edu. 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
- ^ By halilovequakes (2012-02-12). "The Jumba Lenana Academy « lovequakes". Lovequakes.com. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
- ^ "Brian Wong Motorsports". Brian Wong Motorsports. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
- ^ "The Amazing Race (Season 17) Cast: Michael and Kevin". CBS. Retrieved 2010-09-01.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ [1], How I survived my first film.
- ^ a b [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2139965/}, Hang Loose (2012).
External links
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Template:The Amazing Race contestants
- 1990 births
- Living people
- American comedians
- American Internet personalities
- American people of Chinese descent
- American people of Taiwanese descent
- Participants in American reality television series
- People from Galveston, Texas
- People from Sugar Land, Texas
- The Amazing Race contestants
- YouTube channels
- American male actors
- University of California, Davis alumni