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Meghan Camarena
Camarena speaking at VidCon in 2014
Personal information
Born
Meghan Camarena

(1987-07-17) July 17, 1987 (age 37)
Fresno, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)YouTube personality, television host, actress
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2007–present
Subscribers1.01 million (main channel)[1]
Total views143 million (main channel)[1]
100,000 subscribers
1,000,000 subscribers2015
Last updated: June 15, 2021

Meghan Camarena (born July 17, 1987), known by her online pseudonym Strawburry17, is an American YouTube personality, television host, actress and comic book writer. She has worked on a number of videos, web series, and films, gaining popularity as a YouTube star, and participating as a contestant with fellow YouTuber Joey Graceffa on The Amazing Race 22 and The Amazing Race: All-Stars. She was an on-screen host for video content at Teen.com and was the backstage correspondent for season 2 of the TruTV talent contest Fake Off. In 2017, she and fellow YouTuber Jimmy Wong co-hosted the video game themed variety show Polaris Primetime which was part of Disney's inaugural "D | XP" summer programming block on Disney XD. She’s also the co-writer of the Radiant Pink miniseries.[2]

Early life

Camarena was born in Fresno, California[3] on July 17, 1987[4] and grew up in Modesto, California.[5] In her Draw My Life video, she said she had two older half-brothers from her parents' previous marriages, and younger twin brothers later. She would often take care of her younger brothers while her father was away and because her mother had suffered a bevy of physical problems and was on medication a lot.[4][3] She graduated from Davis High School in 2005.[6] Although she said she did okay in school, because of her mother's hardships, she said she was fairly depressed, had taken up drinking, and in college she had an on-and-off relationship with a boyfriend. Her grandmother took her to church where she made peace with God, left her boyfriend, and joined a Bible college internship program.[4][7]

During this time, she learned video production for her youth group. She was inspired by some YouTubers, and began making home videos.[4] She started up a YouTube channel called strawburry17 in 2007 where she would do video blogging, lip dubbing,[8] and would later have videos on "unboxing cutesy Japanese toys, taste-testing weird foods from around the world, and reviewing apps and games."[9] Camarena said that she chose her AOL screen name based on a Strawberry Shortcake cartoon, and that her birthday was on the 17th, but since "strawberry17" was taken, she went with a different spelling. She has since stuck with that screen name for her projects and branding.[10] Her first music video was a lip dub of "I'm a Gummy Bear" and featured her brother.[11][4] Her videos soon became popular and she was getting offers from record and media companies.[4]

Career

In 2010, she began corresponding with YouTuber Joey Graceffa who was located in Boston and who was planning to move to Los Angeles. In 2011, she met YouTuber Jimmy Wong who had encouraged her to enter a YouTube video contest called Next Up where the prize was $35k. She said she entered that in the last minute.[4] She was selected as one of the 25 winners,[12] and attended a YouTube boot camp in Manhattan.[13] Using her Next Up money, she moved to Los Angeles[6] In 2012, a YouTube upstart company called Big Frame arranged for her a trip to India where she made videos for the nonprofit organization Water.org.[8][14] In Los Angeles, she produced videos for Teen.com and also hosted their YouTube channel along with Graceffa.[6][15][4][16] The same year, when Google updated its analytics to throw out inactive and closed subscriber accounts, Camarena said she started treating her YouTube channel more like a company rather than just an Internet channel. She likened the YouTube channel to a startup, and when she hired staff for production and marketing, she said she was able to take on acting projects and do appearances at events. She had produced videos five days a week.[9] She would also prepare videos in a large batch for the season, so it could run over several months.[17] She and Graceffa participated in season 22 of The Amazing Race, where they competed as "Team Cute". Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan said "They are young and street-smart and savvy, and they get on very well. I could see them going a long way".[6] The team was eliminated in the tenth episode and finished fifth overall.[18][19][20] They would return for the All-Stars season, where they were eliminated in the third episode and finished ninth overall.[21][22] Also in 2014, she produced a zombie-themed short film called The Grey Road which was funded by Ron Howard's New Form Incubator program.[23][24]

In 2015, she was the backstage correspondent for the second season of Fake Off, which was a talent show broadcast on TruTV.[25][26][27] She signed a deal with Disney's Maker Studios where she worked on creating online content in the entertainment industry.[28][29] Her YouTube channel went over 1 million subscribers.[30] In October of that year, she and other YouTube creators made a project called Spider-Man Murder Mystery which ran on Instagram. Camarena played character Gwen Stacy, who also goes by "Spider-Gwen".[31][32] She starred as one of the eight correspondents of Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed, a multi-part documentary on video games, where she followed people involved in e-sports.[33][34][35][36] In 2017, she and Wong were selected to co-host the video game themed variety show Polaris Primetime which was created as part of Disney's "D | XP" programming block on Disney XD.[37] In 2018, she and YouTubers Markiplier, Jacksepticeye and LuzuGames launched Twitch channels.[38] In 2020, she and Power Rangers Hyperforce director Melissa Flores released a RPG web series called The Unleashed on Twitch.[39][40]

In February 2022, Camarena made her comic book debut co-writing the 12th issue of Radiant Black alongside Kyle Higgins.[41] Late that year it was announced that Camarena would be co-writing a Radiant Pink miniseries, a part of Image's Massive-Verse, with Melissa Flores, with the first issue set to debut in December 2022.[42] In April 2023, it was announced that Camarena and Flores would be doing a one-shot comic continuation of Power Rangers Hyperforce, that is set to release in July 2023 by Boom! Studios.[43]

Camarena has appeared at several conventions including multiple VidCons,[44][45] SXSW,[46] Playlist Live[47][10] and various Comic-Cons.[48] In 2016, she was an L.A. Biz Women of Influence honoree. She cited Tina Fey and Amy Poehler as some of her biggest influences and inspirations.[3] She and YouTuber Jacksepticeye hosted the Level Up! games panel at the D23 Expo 2017.[49][50]

Personal life

Camarena is half-Mexican and half German-Irish.[3] She lives in the Los Angeles area.[5] She moved to Los Angeles in 2011.[51] She identifies as queer.[52] In addition to attending YouTube related conventions, she has participated as a cosplayer, an activity she has done since 2011.[53][54][55] She, Graceffa and YouTuber Catherine Valdes had also created a band called The Tributes with music video parodies based on The Hunger Games film series.[8]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes Source
2012 Tabletop Guest Episode "Gloom"
2013 The Amazing Race 22 Contestant with Joey Graceffa [20]
2013 Video Game High School Rapwnzel Episode "Welcome to Varsity" [56]
2013 The Misfortune of Being Ned Wendy, others [57][58][59]
2013 Dance Showdown Contestant season 3 [60]
2014 The Amazing Race 24: All-Stars Contestant with Joey Graceffa [22]
2014 The Grey Road
(a.k.a. The Void)		 M'lia Sharp Director, producer, Short film, funded by Ron Howard's New Form Incubator program [23][24][61]
2014 The New Adventures of Peter + Wendy Billie Jukes Web series, season 2 [62][63]
2015 Fight of the Living Dead Cast member season 1 [64][65]
2015 Bob Thunder: Internet Assassin Self (Strawburry 17)
2015 Clash of Karts: Mario Kart 8 Coach Disney XD e-sports special [66]
2015 Fake Off Backstage correspondent Season 2 [25]
2015 What's Trending: Experiences Herself Collaboration webseries between Marriott and What's Trending [67]
2016 Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed Herself Multi-part documentary, principal cast [33][34][35]
2017 Polaris Primetime Co-host with Jimmy Wong, broadcast on Disney XD's "D | XP" block [37]
2017 Parker Plays Recurring guest broadcast on D | XP [68]
2017 Power Rangers Hyperforce Chloe Ashford / Hyperforce Pink Ranger RPG web series, cast member [69]
2019 Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid Kimberly Hart / Ranger Slayer / Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger Video game, voice-over role [70]
2019 KOllOK 1991 Skye Hawkins RPG web series, cast member [71]
2020 The Unleashed Phee Also Executive Producer, Producer, Series creator, Developer. RPG web series [39][40]

References

  1. ^ a b "About Strawburry17". YouTube.
  2. ^ "RADIANT BLACK'S MASSIVE-VERSE OF SUPERHEROES TO EXPAND WITH RADIANT PINK LAUNCH IN DECEMBER". Image Comics. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d "Meet Meghan Camarena, CEO, actor, director of Strawburry 17 and a Woman of Influence". L.A. Biz. Los Angeles. January 26, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Strawburry17 (June 30, 2013). Draw My Life - Strawburry17. Retrieved July 24, 2017 – via YouTube.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b Clark, Pat (June 27, 2017). "Modesto YouTube star Meghan Camarena gets gig hosting gamer-geared Disney show". The Modesto Bee. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  6. ^ a b c d Rowland, Marijke (February 21, 2014). "Davis High grad returns for another crack at $1 million on 'The Amazing Race'". The Modesto Bee. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  7. ^ strawburry17 (September 18, 2007). "short testimony". Retrieved July 28, 2017 – via LiveJournal.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ a b c Walker, Rob (June 28, 2012). "On YouTube, Amateur Is the New Pro". The New York Times. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  9. ^ a b Robinson, Melia (July 31, 2015). "A YouTube star tells us why she felt like a 'pawn' in Google's game". Business Insider. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  10. ^ a b Hauler, Lesley (April 27, 2016). "Meghan Camarena reveals the busy life of being a social media celebrity". Retrieved July 24, 2017 – via AOL.com.
  11. ^ Strawburry17 (August 24, 2008). "I'm A Gummy Bear". Retrieved July 28, 2017 – via YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Hustvedt, Marc (May 2, 2011). "YouTube NextUp Winners Announced, 25 Creators to Get $35k". Tubefilter. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  13. ^ Preston, Jennifer (May 30, 2011). "At YouTube Boot Camp, Future Stars Polish Their Acts". The New York Times. New York. p. B3. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
  14. ^ Camarena, Meghan (March 22, 2012). "TRAVELING IN INDIA WITH WATER.ORG". YouTube. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  15. ^ Cohen, Jess (August 1, 2013). "Teen.com Is Going to VidCon 2013!". Teen.com. Archived from the original on July 28, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  16. ^ Walker, Rob (June 28, 2012). "On YouTube, Amateur Is the New Pro". The New York Times. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  17. ^ "Meghan Camarena: YouTubers Are 'The New Trendsetters'". Access Hollywood. July 29, 2015. Archived from the original on April 1, 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  18. ^ "The Amazing Race Season 22 episode 10". CBS.com. April 29, 2013. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  19. ^ Eng, Joyce (April 29, 2013). "Amazing Race's Joey and Meghan: It's Our Fault for Not Being Thorough". TV Guide. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  20. ^ a b Nordyke, Kimberly (April 29, 2013). "'Amazing Race': Joey and Meghan on Their Elimination". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  21. ^ "The Amazing Race Season 24 episode 3". CBS.com. March 10, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  22. ^ a b EnStars (March 11, 2014). "'Amazing Race' Season 24 Cast: Eliminated 'All-Stars' Joey Graceffa & Meghan Camarena Say That Flight Was 'Kind Of Ridiculous'? [VIDEO]". enstarz.com. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  23. ^ a b Jarvey, Natalie (October 16, 2014). "New Form Incubator Unveils Slate of Digital Shorts (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  24. ^ a b Ge, Linda (July 8, 2014). "Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's New Form Digital to Fund 14 Short Films From YouTube Creators". The Wrap. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  25. ^ a b LaScala, Marisa (June 24, 2015). "Will 'Fake Off' Season 3 Happen? This Mesmerizing Dance Show Needs To Stick Around". Bustle. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  26. ^ Desk, TV News (March 10, 2015). "Corbin Bleu to Host New Season of truTV's FAKE OFF; Glee's Harry Shum Jr. to Judge". Broadway World. Retrieved July 24, 2017. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
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  28. ^ Ariens, Chris (July 24, 2015). "YouTuber Meghan Camarena Signs Deal with Maker TV". Adweek. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  29. ^ "'When TV and Digital Merge,' Meghan Camarena and Maker Studios Will Be There". Videoink. May 13, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2017.[permanent dead link]
  30. ^ Votta, Rae (August 20, 2015). "YouTuber Meghan Camarena hits 1 million subscribers and celebrates with a remake of her most popular video". The Daily Dot. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  31. ^ Gutelle, Sam (October 26, 2015). "YouTube Star Strawburry17 Leads Off 'Spider-Man' Murder-Mystery On Instagram". Tubefilter. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  32. ^ Placko, Meredith (October 29, 2015). "Spider-Man murder mystery launched on Instagram". Geek.com. Archived from the original on July 28, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  33. ^ a b "Amazon.com: Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed: Sean Astin, Tom Arnold, Michael Rooker, Penn Jillette, Zelda Williams, Matt Walsh, Alison Haislip, Meghan Camarena, William Shatner, Kevin Smith, Tony Hawk, Jeremy Snead: Amazon Digital Services LLC". Amazon.com. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  34. ^ a b "Cast & Crew - Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed". unlockedtvshow.com (Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed official website). Retrieved July 24, 2017.
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  36. ^ Mediajuice Studios (February 17, 2017). "Meghan Camarena Teaser - Unlocked: The World of Games, Revealed". Retrieved July 28, 2017 – via YouTube.
  37. ^ a b Lafayette, Jon (June 14, 2017). "Disney XD Set to Launch Gamer Programming Block". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  38. ^ Spangler, Todd (January 18, 2018). "Four Disney-Managed YouTube Stars Launch Twitch Channels". variety.com. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  39. ^ a b Papadatos, Markos (December 9, 2020). "Chatting with the cast and writer of 'The Unleashed' on Twitch (Includes interview)". Digital Journal.
  40. ^ a b Aguilar, Matthew (October 21, 2020). "The Unleashed Delivers a One of a Kind Superhero RPG on Twitch". Comicbook.com.
  41. ^ "RADIANT BLACK #12". Image Comics. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
  42. ^ "Image Comics' Massive-Verse expands as Radiant Pink breaks into her own book". Popverse. September 8, 2022. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
  43. ^ Myrick, Joe Anthony (April 19, 2023). "HyperForce Rangers Return For All-New Power Rangers Unlimited Tale (Exclusive)". ScreenRant. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  44. ^ Schwartz, Alison (July 25, 2015). "VidCon 2015: Meghan Camarena on YouTube, NASCAR". People. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  45. ^ Sollosi, Mary (June 15, 2016). "Vidcon 2016: All the stars scheduled to attend". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  46. ^ "Expanding Beyond the Digital World – SXSW 2016 Event Schedule". SXSW Schedule 2016. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  47. ^ Weiss, Geoff (April 14, 2016). "PlayList Live Orlando to Feature 12,000 Attendees, Additional Industry Panels, Fireworks Show". Tubefilter. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  48. ^ Heine, Rachel (June 25, 2015). "Comic-Con 2015: The Nerdist Conival, BATTLEBORN Laser Tag, Panel Schedules, and More! - Nerdist". Nerdist. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
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  50. ^ Disney [@disneyd23] (July 7, 2017). "Just announced! @Jack_Septic_Eye and @Strawburry17 to host the Level Up! Games Panel at #D23Expo on Saturday, July 15, at 1pm.pic.twitter.com/cdETXHkeny" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  51. ^ youtubernews1 (August 13, 2013). "Meghan Camarena & Jimmy Wong Sadly End Relationship". wordpress.com. Retrieved July 28, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  52. ^ "just your friendly neighborhood queer. What do we think about this septum piercing? i kinda love it". Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  53. ^ Ledesma, RJ. "It's a Marvel-ous world". PhilStar Global. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  54. ^ Lane, Carly (October 12, 2015). "Meet some of the amazing lady cosplayers at New York Comic-Con". HelloGiggles. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  55. ^ Coker, Rachel (December 2015). "Meghan Camarena". Local Wolves. No. 32. Los Angeles. pp. 36–39. Retrieved July 24, 2017 – via Issuu.com.
  56. ^ "Welcome to Varsity". Video Game High School. Season 2. Episode 1. Rocketjump. July 26, 2013. Event occurs at 29:09. Retrieved November 14, 2013 – via YouTube.
  57. ^ "Amazon.com: The Misfortune of Being Ned: Steve Zaragoza, Meghan Camarena, Kevin Brueck, Robert Jennings, Spencer Grove, Dane Boedigheimer, Aaron Massey, Bobby Jennings, Bob Harper, Derek Gonzalez". www.amazon.com. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  58. ^ Van, Alan (October 18, 2013). "Dane Boedigheimer Talks New Annoying Orange Channel Show 'The Misfortune of Being Ned' [INTERVIEW]". NewMediaRockstars. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
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  62. ^ Brouwer, Bree (August 25, 2014). "'The New Adventures of Peter + Wendy' Casts Strawburry17, Jim Beaver". Tubefilter. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  63. ^ Rought, Karen (June 15, 2015). "'New Adventures of Peter + Wendy' season 2 review". Hypable. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
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  66. ^ Gaudiosi, John (November 25, 2015). "Why Disney XD Is Creating ESports Specials Like 'Clash Of Karts'". Fortune. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
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  70. ^ "'Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid Shattered Grid Story Mode Trailer Revealed; Update Live Today". comicbook.com. April 30, 2019. Retrieved May 28, 2019.
  71. ^ Hyper RPG (February 25, 2019). "New TTRPG - Kollok 1991 - Kids On Bikes System! Starts soon!". YouTube. Retrieved March 11, 2019.
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