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SALT LAKE CITY — You don’t have to go to Hollywood or Las Vegas to find celebrities. Utah is filled with musicians, filmmakers and personalities who have found national and worldwide success on YouTube.
Here’s a look at five of Utah’s most popular YouTube channels, whose videos have received more than 3 billion combined views.
1. The Piano Guys
Formed in St. George, The Piano Guys is made up of four people with the same goal: “to make a positive impact in the lives of people all over the world through music videos,” the group wrote in its channel description.
Made up of a pianist, cellist, videographer and music producer and writer, The Piano Guys is known for its covers and mashups that combine classical and contemporary pop music. The music reviewing site Rate Your Music describes the group’s music as “classical crossover.”
In addition to YouTube fame, The Piano Guys have released six major label albums. In July 2016, the group was awarded a gold record by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling more than 500,000 albums.
With almost 6 million subscribers and more than a billion combined views, The Piano Guys are one of Utah’s most successful YouTube channels.
Subscribers: 5.9 million
Total views: 1.41 billion
Active since: March 2008
Channel link:https://www.youtube.com/user/ThePianoGuys
2. Devin Super Tramp
Devin Graham, known for his Devin Super Tramp channel, is a filmmaker and life enthusiast who travels the world and makes extreme videos. Graham’s channel has nearly 5 million subscribers and is filled with videos of Graham rope swinging over sunken ships, slip and sliding off cliffs and swimming with sharks.
While Graham’s channel may make his life look lavish, shooting footage and producing videos is no easy effort, he said in a video in March 2013.
“The truth is, what I do is work,” Graham said. “It’s a crazy amount of work.”
In the video, Graham said he believes he has achieved success because of his persistence and self-drive.
“The reason I’m able to do it is because I think no one else is willing to do it,” Graham said. “You have to be willing to get the shots that no one else is willing to fight for.”
Subscribers: 4.8 million
Total views: 1 billion
Active since: June 2010
Channel link:https://www.youtube.com/user/devinsupertramp
3. Stuart Edge
Stuart Edgington, better known as Stuart Edge, is a YouTube personality known for his prank, magic and stunt videos.
Five years ago, Edgington was cleaning port-a-potties and contemplating what to do with his life, he described in his book “On the Edge: How My Crappy Job Changed My Life.”
Then, Edgington’s “Mistletoe Kissing Prank” video went viral. Before long, Edgington was a YouTube sensation. He has been a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and has had his videos acknowledged by celebrities including Justin Bieber.
In a January 2018 channel update, Edgington said his dream is making videos that “not only make people laugh, but also feel inspired.”
“I try my best to bring uplifting content to the internet,” Edgington said.
In addition to continuing to make prank and magic videos, Edgington said he plans to travel to different places in the world in 2018 and film his experiences as he goes.
Subscribers: 2.4 million
Total views: 276 million
Active since: September 2012
Channel link:https://www.youtube.com/user/stuartedge
4. Alex Boyé
What musician and actor Alex Boyé does can be summed up as this: “I take pop songs and Africanize them,” the British-American YouTube star wrote in his channel description.
More specifically, Boyé covers songs by pop and rock artists like Imagine Dragons, Adele and Taylor Swift and reworks them with African imagery and lyrical content. His inspiration comes from his parents, who are both from Nigeria.
Latter-day Saint member Boyé performed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as a guest artist for a Pioneer Day concert in 2017. The same year, he won a contest sponsored by Pepsi and Hard Rock Cafe that named him “Rising Artist of the Year.”
Once, Boyé met Charles, Prince of Wales, and gifted the prince with a Book of Mormon, Boyé wrote in a bio for Mormon.org. Boye also wrote that he chose a career in music “so I could use my music to influence and inspire people for good.”
Subscribers: 615,332
Total views: 161 million
Active since: January 2012
Channel link:https://www.youtube.com/user/ALEXBOYETV
5. Bored Shorts TV
Bored Shorts TV, based in Orem, is a channel run by four brothers Brett, David, John and Randy Roberts, and a close friend, Richard Sharrah.
The channel is best known for its “Kid History” videos (a parody of the Funny or Die web series “Drunk History”) and features young children telling embarrassing stories about the Roberts brothers’ lives.
Since its formation in 2011, the channel has expanded to include “Kid Snippets,” ideas thought out by kids and acted out by adults.
“We think kids are hilarious,” the group’s channel description reads, “and so we bring their humor to life by mixing the world of a child with that of adults.”
Subscribers: 505,539
Total views: 192 million
Active since: March 2011
Channel link:https://www.youtube.com/user/BoredShortsTV
