Phil Lester

Phil Lester

Lester in 2014
Personal information
Born Philip Michael Lester
(1987-01-30) 30 January 1987[1]
Origin Rawtenstall, Lancashire, England
Nationality British
Residence London, England
Occupation
  • YouTube personality
  • radio host
YouTube information
Channel name AmazingPhil
Years active 2006–present
Subscribers 3.5 million (May 2016)
Total views 341.5 million (May 2016)
Associated acts Dan Howell
Internet information
Web alias(es) AmazingPhil, LessAmazingPhil
Subscriber and view counts updated as of 1 May 2016.

Philip Michael "Phil" Lester (born 30 January 1987) is a British YouTuber, vlogger and radio personality from Rawtenstall, Lancashire. He is best known for his YouTube channel AmazingPhil. Together with frequent collaborator Dan Howell, Lester presented Sunday night entertainment show Dan and Phil on BBC Radio 1 from January 2013 until August 2014, and since September 2014 has been a monthly host on the station's Internet Takeover slot.

Biography

Lester was raised in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. Along with older brother Martyn,[2] he attended Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School.[3] He later completed a degree in English Language and Linguistics from the University of York and a post graduate in the Department of Theatre, Film and television, going on to obtain a Master of Arts in Video Postproduction with Specialisation in Visual Effects.[4]

Lester has lived with best friend and fellow YouTuber Dan Howell since August 2011,[5] and the pair moved to London together in July 2012.[6] They frequently appear in each other's videos.

Career

YouTube

Lester with friend Howell, meeting fans

At age 19 on 27 March 2006, Lester posted his first YouTube vlog titled "Phil's Video Blog" on his main YouTube channel, AmazingPhil.[7] Since then he has posted over 200 videos on his channel and as of December 2015 has over 3 million subscribers and 281 million video views.[8] He reached 1 million YouTube subscribers on 6 July 2013, 2 million on 29 August 2014 and 3 million on 12 October 2015.[9][10]

Lester also has a second channel, LessAmazingPhil, which has over 887,000 subscribers and 19.8 million views, as of December 2015.[11]

In 2010, Lester and Howell took part in the live, annual 24-hour internet broadcast "Stickaid", a fundraiser for charity UNICEF.[12]

Lester has also appeared alongside Howell in Benjamin Cook's twelve part web series Becoming YouTube, and was interviewed on the various topics Cook covered.[13]

On 12 September 2014, Lester and Howell posted the first video on their new gaming YouTube channel, DanandPhilGAMES. On 8 March 2015 the channel hit 1 million subscribers.[14] It was officially the fastest growing channel on YouTube.[15]

On 1 April 2015, Lester and Howell launched a spin-off crafts-based channel, DanAndPhilCRAFTS, as an April Fools joke. It features a single video of them creating square snowflakes out of paper, with an amateur editing style and humour throughout. It reached over 154,000 subscribers and 500,000 total video views in one week.[16]

The Super Amazing Project

In 2011, Lester and Howell created a collaborative YouTube channel through network My Damn Channel. Titled The Super Amazing Project, it featured the duo discussing and investigating paranormal events.[17] Segments included "Viewers Spooky Happenings", where the audience of the show would send in "scary" items for the video bloggers to react to, and "In The News This Week", where the duo recapped recent light-hearted news items and viral videos. In October 2014, it was announced that as of that month Lester and Howell would not carry on working on The Super Amazing Project in order to concentrate on their Radio 1 show.[18] Lester and Howell later announced that the Super Amazing Project would be hosted by new presenters, found by channel owners My Damn Channel.[18][19]

Radio

Main article: Dan and Phil

In November 2012, the BBC announced that from January 2013 onwards, Lester and Howell would present the Sunday night entertainment and request show for national UK radio station BBC Radio 1.[20] The duo had occasionally worked with Radio 1 before, making videos for the station's YouTube channel[21] and presenting two Christmas broadcasts.

The show was designed to be an interactive, audio-visual broadcast involving music videos made by viewers, physical challenges performed on air by Howell and Lester, and song requests from listeners. It was streamed in video, live on the BBC Radio 1 website, and accessible worldwide.[22]

In August 2014, it was announced that the last Dan and Phil show would be broadcast on 24 August, with the duo moving to a different show on Monday nights, featuring other popular video bloggers.[23] This new show was titled The Internet Takeover, and featured Lester alongside Howell live on the first Monday of every month, before coming to an end in April 2016.[24]

The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire and The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire

On 26 March 2015, Lester and Howell announced via a trailer on Howell's channel that they had co-written a book titled The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire.[25] It was released in the UK on 8 October 2015 and worldwide on 15 October 2015, published by Ebury Press and Random House Children's Books.[26] In relation to this, the pair embarked on a virtually sold out tour travelling around the UK during October and November 2015, named "The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire".[27] On 22 April 2016 they are taking the tour to the US beginning at Playlist Live in Orlando, Florida.[28]

The book topped the General Hardbacks Sunday Times Bestsellers list having sold 26,745 copies in the UK in the first week of its release.[29] It also became a #1 New York Times Bestseller in the young adult hardcover list.[30][31]

Other media

In 2007, Lester appeared as a contestant on The Weakest Link.[32] He also played the role of Tim in 2009 film Faintheart[33] and appeared in a Confused.com advertisement later that year.[34]

Lester was interviewed with other internet entertainers on Channel 4 News in October 2012 about the increased popularity of YouTube and video blogging as a profession.[35]

In 2013 Lester and Howell appeared on Friday Download, a BAFTA award winning CBBC TV show.[36]

Since 2014 Howell and Lester have hosted the worldwide YouTube livestream of the Brit Awards as well as making backstage videos for their channel.[37]

In 2015, Lester and Howell, had voice cameo appearances in the UK cinema release of Disney's movie Big Hero 6 as Technician 1 & 2.[38][39] However, this version is not in the UK home release. That same year, the duo also guest-starred in fellow YouTuber PJ Liguori's online series Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures, voicing anthropomorphic food items Brie and Rash.[40]

Awards and nominations

In 2011, Lester won a Guinness World Record for fastest coin stacking, placing 25 coins on top of each other in 31.617 seconds.[41]

In 2013, Lester and Howell were voted winners of the Sony Golden Headphones Award, presented by the Sony Radio Academy Awards, for Dan and Phil on BBC Radio 1.[42]

In 2014, Lester and Howell were nominated for a Teen Choice Award in the category Choice Web Collaboration for their video "The Photo Booth Challenge".[43]

References

  1. ↑ "Twitter / AmazingPhil: Awr so many Happy Birthday's". Twitter.com. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  2. ↑ Howell, Dan & Lester, Phil (December 8, 2015) [1st pub. 2015]. The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire. Ebury Publishing. pp. 32–33. ISBN 9781473528079.
  3. ↑ "Ex-students from Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School celebrate a century of education". Lancashire Telegraph. 23 October 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  4. ↑ "York student stars in confused.com advert". Nouse. 20 January 2009. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  5. ↑ Dan Howell (11 August 2011). HOT BOYS on Teen Cribz (video) (YouTube). Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  6. ↑ Lester, Phil. "@hi_jimmy we move next week! Yes we should :D you can teach me what an oyster card is". Twitter. Phil Lester. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0dsyXzmHFM, retrieved 2015-11-04 Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ "AmazingPhil". YouTube. 7 February 2006. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  9. ↑ Lester, Phil. "Woke up to 2000,000 subscribers!!! THANK YOU!". Twitter. Phil Lester. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  10. ↑ Lester, Phil. "Phil Lester on Twitter". Twitter. Phil Lester. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  11. ↑ "LessAmazingPhil - About". Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  12. ↑ Phil and Dan love Stickaid!. YouTube. 4 September 2010.
  13. ↑ "Anatomy of a YouTuber". YouTube. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  14. ↑ Dan Howell [danisnotonfire] (8 March 2015). "DanAndPhilGAMES has just hit 1,000,000 subscribers! www.youtube.com/user/DanAndPhilGAMES ... this is awesome thank you to everybody enjoying our videos" (Tweet).
  15. ↑ "SITC 2015". Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  16. ↑ "DanAndPhilCRAFTS". Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  17. ↑ door The Super Amazing Project (26 September 2011). "The Super Amazing Project". YouTube. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  18. 1 2 Howell, Dan (1 October 2014). "Danisnotonfire on Facebook". Facebook. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  19. ↑ Lester, Phil (1 October 2014). "Saying farewell to The Super Amazing Project: https://www.facebook.com/danisnotonfire/posts/10152427898698481 … whenever I see a dog with red eyes I will remember you. 👻". Twitter. Retrieved 27 August 2015. External link in |title= (help)
  20. ↑ "Radio Times". Radio Times. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  21. ↑ "BBC Radio 1". YouTube. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  22. ↑ "Radio 1 Greg James – 27/02/2013". BBC. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  23. ↑ Cooper, Ben. "New youth presenters for Radio 1". BBC. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
  24. ↑ "BBC - Radio 1 announces new student radio curated playlist show - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
  25. ↑ The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire – Reveal Trailer. YouTube. 26 March 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  26. ↑ Lester, Phil; Howell, Dan (13 October 2015). The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire. Random House Children's Books. ISBN 9781101939840. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  27. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huAYjF2FY9c
  28. ↑ "Dan & Phil - The Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire". danandphiltour.com. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  29. ↑ "dan hOGREwell on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  30. ↑ "Phil Lester on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  31. ↑ "Best Sellers - The New York Times". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  32. ↑ Daniel Ashby (9 November 2007). "Student star to appear on Weakest Link". The Yorker. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  33. ↑ "Phil Lester". IMDb. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  34. ↑ "York student stars in confused.com advert". Nouse. 20 January 2009. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  35. ↑ Katie Razzall (20 October 2012). "The rise of the vloggers – Channel 4 News". Channel4.com. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
  36. ↑ friday download with dan & phil - one. YouTube. 4 October 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  37. ↑ "Dan & Phil at the BRITs | BRIT Awards 2014". BRIT Awards. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  38. ↑ "UK cinema release of Big Hero 6". Disney UK. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  39. ↑ "The Technicians". Disney. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  40. ↑ "New Oscar’s Hotel Characters Announced at Summer In The City 2015". TenEighty Magazine. 16 August 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  41. ↑ "AmazingPhil v DanIsNotOnFire: Cadbury World Record Coin Stacking". YouTube. Cadbury. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
  42. ↑ "Dan and Phil win a Sony Radio Academy Award all suited up – pics". Sugarscape. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
  43. ↑ "Teen Choice Awards: The Complete Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. 10 August 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2015.

External links

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