Ryan Higa

Ryan Higa

Ryan Higa at VidCon in June 2012
Personal information
Born Ryan Higa
(1990-06-06) June 6, 1990
Hilo, Hawaii, United States
Nationality American
Residence Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Website www.higatv.com
YouTube information
Channel name nigahiga
Created by
  • Ryan Higa
  • Sean Fujiyoshi
  • Tim Enos
  • Tarynn Nago
Years active 2006–present
Genre Comedy
Subscribers 16 million
Total views 2.6 billion
Subscriber and view counts updated as of May 2, 2016.

Ryan Higa (also known by his YouTube username Nigahiga /ˈniːɡɑːhiːɡɑː/) is an American YouTuber and actor. He is known for his YouTube comedy videos, which have been viewed over 2.6 billion times. As of May 2016, Higa's YouTube channel, nigahiga, has over 16 million subscribers.[1]

Background

Higa is of Japanese descent,[2] specifically the Okinawa Prefecture.[3] He was born in Hilo, Hawaii on June 6, 1990.[4] He competed in judo and holds a black belt rank.[5][6] He also wrestled and graduated from Waiakea High School in 2008.[7][8]

YouTube videos

Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi started posting YouTube videos of themselves lip syncing to songs in mid-2006 while attending Waiakea High School.[9] They quickly expanded beyond songs, with a variety of other comedic pieces. Occasional guest appearances were made by Tim Enos, Ryan Villaruel, Kyle Chun, and Tarynn Nago.[10]

On Christmas Eve of 2008, Higa and Fujiyoshi's two most popular videos, How To Be Gangster and How To Be Emo, were removed due to copyright violations.[11] On January 21, 2009, the nigahiga account was temporarily suspended and was required to remove more copyrighted videos. Because of this, Nigahiga's lip syncing videos were all removed (with the exception of You're Beautiful, which was audio swapped),[12] along with most of his other videos that included copyrighted music. Since then, Higa started composing the music himself. How to be Gangster and How to be Emo were put back on nigahiga's channel in late August 2009, only to be removed a few days later, along with How to be Ninja and How to be Nerd. In Spring 2010, How to be Ninja, How to be Gangster and How to be Emo were made public once more.[13]

After Higa moved to Las Vegas to study Nuclear Medicine[14] at University of Nevada, Las Vegas,[15] most of the Nigahiga videos were solo efforts, usually featuring collaborations with other YouTube users. Since 2012, Higa has put together a production company, Ryan Higa Production Company (RHPC), which includes Sean Fujiyoshi, that works together to make content for the nigahiga channel.[16]

Channels

The nigahiga YouTube channel was created on July 20, 2006 by Higa, Fujiyoshi, Enos, and Nago (known collectively as "The Yabo Crew"). By December 21, 2010, it had reached 3 million subscribers, the first channel to do so.[17] According to Higa,[18] his channel name is a combination of "Niga", which means "rant" in Japanese, and his last name, "Higa".[19]

He created a second channel, under the name HigaTV, in 2011, where he posts video blogs and behind the scenes videos. In May 2016, it had over 4.1 million subscribers.[16]

In 2012, Higa helped form the YOMYOMF Network, which hosts the online video-making talent competition, Internet Icon, of which he served alongside Christine Lakin and Timothy DeLaGhetto as main judges.[20]

Films

In 2008, Los Angeles producer Richard Van Vleet offered to help them create their first feature-length film. The resulting film, Ryan and Sean's Not So Excellent Adventure, was directed by Richard Van Vleet and released on November 14, 2008.[21] It was shown in sold out theaters in Hawaii and California.[22] The DVD was released on July 14, 2009, in the United States.[23]

Ryan and Sean's Not So Excellent Adventure is about a down on his luck movie producer, played by Michael Buckley, who is seeking out famous celebrities in order to make a hit movie in 30 days or risk being fired. He chooses Higa and Fujiyoshi after discovering the popularity of their YouTube videos. He invites them to Hollywood to make a movie. They accept the offer, and run into some amusing situations on the way.[24]

Ninja Melk, a 26-minute short film about ninjas, was released in August 2009. The plot revolves around a ninja master named Master Ching Ching sending his student Lapchung (played by Bryson Murata) to find a replacement, finding Ryan and Sean to catch the evil Bokchoy (played by Tim Enos) and his henchwoman, Gina (played by Tarynn Nago).[25]

An independent 35 minute film he created with Wong Fu Productions called Agents of Secret Stuff was uploaded on the Nigahiga channel on November 24, 2010. It features some other popular YouTube users as well as actors such as Aki Aleong. Agents of Secret Stuff is about a teenage A.S.S. (Agent of Secret Stuff) (Higa) who is sent undercover to a high school to protect one of the students, a girl named Taylor (Arden Cho) from the A.S.S.'s enemy, the S.I.N.S. (Society Involving Not-So-Good Stuff). It included guest appearances from Ian and Anthony of Smosh, D-Trix, KassemG and Hiimrawn. Higa has also starred on an episode of Supah Ninjas, playing DJ Elephant Head, a master plotter who uses his hypnotizing electronic music to make people fall asleep to commit robberies.

References

  1. ↑ "nigahiga". YouTube. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  2. ↑ Considine, Austin (July 29, 2011). "For Asian-American Stars, Many Web Fans". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  3. ↑ Higa, Ryan (August 14, 2010). "Tweet 21137901638". Twitter. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
  4. ↑ "HIGAtv.com: About". HigaTv Productions. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
  5. ↑ Ko, Nalea J. (September 16, 2009). "Ryan Higa Snatches No.1 Spot on YouTube". New America Media. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  6. ↑ "HHSAA JUDO: 2007 HHSAA Judo State Championships". The Hawaii High School Athletic Association. May 19, 2007. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Ryan Higa". NNDB. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
  8. ↑ "State Wrestling Results". Honolulu Advertiser. March 2, 2008. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Hilo teens become a Web video sensation. Higa and Fujiyoshi have made numerous amounts of videos like rants, lip singing, and short films". The Honolulu Advertiser. July 27, 2008. Retrieved August 21, 2009.
  10. ↑ "starbulletin.com | Features | /2008/01/11/". Archives.starbulletin.com. January 11, 2008. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
  11. ↑ Higa, Ryan (February 23, 2009). "Copyrighted". YouTube. Retrieved December 11, 2009.
  12. ↑ Higa, Ryan (June 27, 2008). "You're Beautiful". YouTube. Retrieved November 29, 2009.
  13. ↑ Higa, Ryan. "Uploads". YouTube. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Interview: Ryan Higa on his YouTube celebrity status". South China Morning Post. Retrieved December 7, 2015.
  15. ↑ "from archives > hi1,500". West Hawaii Today. May 25, 2008. Retrieved July 13, 2010.
  16. 1 2 "HigaTV". YouTube. Retrieved May 2, 2016.
  17. ↑ Ryan Higa Hits 3 Million YouTube Subscribers
  18. ↑ Tko, Tonya (November 30, 2008). "NigaHiga Explains Name, Happy Slip, Kev Jumba & TonyaTko -Amazing Asians vol 1.". YouTube. Retrieved February 27, 2012.
  19. ↑ Lunn, Emma (December 1, 2014). "Jenna Marbles, Holasoygerman, Smosh and Nigahiga: The YouTube comedians earning millions". Yahoo! UK & Ireland Finance. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
  20. ↑ Jeff Sneider (May 28, 2012). "'Internet Icon' aims for virality". Variety. Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  21. ↑ "Ryan and Sean's Not So Excellent Adventure". zap2it.com. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
  22. ↑ Associated Press. "YouTube was very good to this pair". Daily Herald. Archived from the original on July 4, 2009. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
  23. ↑ "Ryan and Sean's Not So Excellent Adventure (2008)". Amazon.com. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
  24. ↑ "Ryan and Sean's Not So Excellent Adventure". infoplease.com. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
  25. ↑ Higa, Ryan; Fujiyoshi, Sean (August 24, 2009). "Ninja Melk". Video. YouTube. Retrieved November 29, 2009.

External links

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