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Marques Brownlee
Brownlee in 2021
Born
Marques Keith Brownlee

(1993-12-03) December 3, 1993 (age 30)
Maplewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Other namesMKBHD
EducationStevens Institute of Technology (BS)
Occupations
Years active2008–present
YouTube information
Channel
Genres
Subscribers19.5 million (main channel)
22.15 million (combined)[a][1]
Total views4.46 billion (main channel)
4.69 billion (combined)[b][1]
100,000 subscribers2012
1,000,000 subscribers2014[2]
10,000,000 subscribers2019[3]
Last updated: September 18, 2024
Websitemkbhd.com
Brownlee's logo

Marques Keith Brownlee (/mɑːrˈkɛz ˈbraʊnli/; mar-KEZ BROWN-lee; born December 3, 1993), also known professionally as MKBHD, is an American YouTuber and professional ultimate frisbee player, best known for his videos reviewing tech-devices.[4] As of July 2024, he has more than 22 million subscribers across all channels and 4.69 billion total video views. In 2013, Vic Gundotra, a former senior vice president of Google, called Brownlee "the best technology reviewer on the planet right now".[5] At the 10th Shorty Awards in 2019, he was named "Creator of the Decade"[6] The former name of his YouTube channel is a concatenation of MKB (Brownlee's initials) and HD (for high definition).[7] With New York PoNY, he is the 2022 WFDF World Champion in the Open Category for ultimate Frisbee.[8]

Online career

Brownlee joined YouTube on March 21, 2008.[1] He first started uploading videos in January 2009, while still in high school, about new products or reviews of products he already owned.[9][10] He produced his first videos through screencasting.[10][11]

Brownlee's reviews have been promoted by review sites. Engadget promoted the site in January 2012 when they featured his tour of the then-new cloud storage service called Insync.[12] In November 2013, one of Brownlee's most viral videos was posted based on the LG G Flex, where he performed various scratch tests to demonstrate the self-healing ability of the device.[13][14] In December 2013, Brownlee did an interview with Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside.[15][16]

Brownlee's video review and scratch test of a rumored 4.7-inch sapphire display component for the iPhone 6, uploaded July 7, 2014,[17] gained immediate popularity, being featured on sites such as The Verge, Forbes, HuffPost, CNET, and Time Magazine.[18][additional citation(s) needed] The video appeared on NBC News, and in newspapers across the world.[citation needed] As of January 2023, the video has gained over 9.2 million views on YouTube and has had over 60,000 likes.[17]

In December 2015, Brownlee interviewed professional NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant.[19] During one of the 2016 Democratic presidential primary debates that was cosponsored by YouTube, Brownlee asked the candidates, by video, whether tech companies and the government can find a middle ground over encryption while considering rights to privacy and national security.[20]

In April 2018, Brownlee won Shorty Awards Creator of the Decade.[21] In August 2019, Brownlee began co-hosting a technology podcast, Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast.[22] and is sometimes referred to as Waveform and WVFRM. The podcast is focused on product reviews and interviews with figures in tech.[22]

Retro Tech is a YouTube Original series produced by Vox Media Studios starring Brownlee which aired on December 2, 2019.[23] In the series, Brownlee interviews fellow YouTube creators and celebrity guests and discusses iconic pieces of technology from the past which have had a major impact on modern life and culture.[24]

Brownlee reached 10 million subscribers on December 18, 2019,[3] making MKBHD one of the most-subscribed-to technology-focused YouTube channels, according to Social Blade.[25][26] As of July 2024, his main channel has more than 19.2 million subscribers and 4.367 billion total views. His secondary channels add an additional 2.95 million subscribers and approximately 323 million views.

In December 2020, he was honored in the Forbes 30 Under 30 listing in its social media category.[27] In April 2023, Brownlee collaborated with footwear brand Atoms to create the high-top Sneaker 251, named after the duration of his first YouTube video.[28] Later, in 2024, he joined everyday accessories company Ridge as a board member and chief creative partner.[29]

In May 2024, Brownlee gave a commencement speech at his alma mater, Stevens Institute of Technology, and was awarded an honorary doctorate of business administration.[30]

YouTube channels

Brownlee speaking at Web Summit's Collision conference in Toronto, 2023

Personal life

Marques Keith Brownlee[33] was born on December 3, 1993,[34] and grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey. He attended Columbia High School, graduating in 2011, and studied at the Howe School at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he majored in business and information technology.[7][35] Brownlee graduated in May 2015 and became a full-time YouTuber. His videos were produced at his apartment until he moved out in 2016; he now works out of a studio in Kearny, New Jersey.[36]

American Ultimate Disc League

Brownlee is a professional ultimate frisbee player for the New York Empire of the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL),[37] who were the AUDL champions in 2019, 2022 and 2023.[38] Brownlee previously played for the Philadelphia Phoenix (2017) and Garden State Ultimate (2015–2017). Other previous team engagements include the now-defunct New Jersey Hammerheads, a team belonging to the AUDL, and the New York Rumble, which was in the now-defunct league Major League Ultimate.

On July 31, 2022, Brownlee won the WFDF World Ultimate Club Championship with New York PoNY.[39]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Subscribers, broken down by channel:
    • 19.2 million (Marques Brownlee)
    • 650.5 thousand (MKBHD Shorts)
    • 17.2 thousand (100 Upload Project)
    • 842 thousand (The Studio)
    • 411 thousand (WVFRM Podcast)
    • 480 thousand (Waveform Clips)
    • 1.03 million (Auto Focus)
  2. ^ Views, broken down by channel:
    • 4.3667 billion (Marques Brownlee)
    • 63.535 million (MKBHD Shorts)
    • 3.199 million (100 Upload Project)
    • 49.988 million (The Studio)
    • 62.116 million (WVFRM Podcast)
    • 88.335 million (Waveform Clips)
    • 88.701 million (Auto Focus)

References

  1. ^ a b c "About Marques Brownlee". YouTube.
  2. ^ Brownlee, Marques (February 12, 2014). 1,000,000!. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Brownlee, Marques (December 18, 2019). 10,000,000!. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  4. ^ "League Players". AUDL. Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  5. ^ Yu, Roger. "20-year-old YouTuber is tech reviewing star". USA TODAY. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
  6. ^ "Creator of the Decade". Shorty Awards. Retrieved July 19, 2023.
  7. ^ a b "New MKBHD Video is live! I spend a lot of time in thought for this one – I…". google.com. Archived from the original on December 11, 2013.
  8. ^ "Familiar faces dominate at WFDF World Ultimate Club Championships 2022". World Flying Disc Federation. July 31, 2022.
  9. ^ "Stevens Student's First Million: Tech Reviewer's YouTube Following Reaches Major Milestone". Stevens Institute of Technology. February 13, 2014. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  10. ^ a b "The Tato Show: After Hours – Episode 2". droidlife. January 24, 2013. We will also have a very special guest, Mr. Marques Brownlee who runs the YouTube channel MKBHD
  11. ^ Wei, Will (November 21, 2014). "How A 20-Year-Old College Student Became 'The Best Technology Reviewer On The Planet'". Retrieved December 17, 2014.
  12. ^ Cooper, Daniel (July 18, 2019). "Insync: Wave 'Bye, Bye, Bye' to Dropbox". Engadget.
  13. ^ Souppouris, Aaron (November 20, 2013). "Watch LG's new flexible phone heal itself after a knife scratch". Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  14. ^ "MKBHD Goes Hands-on With LG G Flex Self Healing Back, Even Takes a Knife to it". droidlife. November 19, 2013.
  15. ^ Petrovan, Bogdan (December 6, 2013). "Motorola CEO talks about Project Ara, wearable devices, and Moto X". Android Authority. Archived from the original on January 3, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2014.
  16. ^ Buckley (December 7, 2013). "Motorola's modular phone prototype is almost ready, final product might be sold on Moto Maker".
  17. ^ a b Brownlee, Marques (July 7, 2014). iPhone 6 Sapphire Crystal Display!. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  18. ^ Newman, Jared (July 8, 2014). "Apple's iPhone 6 Will Probably Have an Unscratchable Screen". Time. Retrieved December 21, 2023.
  19. ^ Smith, Dave (December 15, 2015). "Kobe Bryant discusses how technology has changed over his 20 years in the NBA". Business Insider. Retrieved September 19, 2018.
  20. ^ "CHS Grad Marques Brownlee Asks Question at Democratic Debate". The Village Green. January 18, 2016. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  21. ^ "YouTuber Marques Brownlee Talks Ten Years of Tech". NPR.org. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  22. ^ a b c Alexander, Julia (August 9, 2019). "Marques Brownlee launches a new tech podcast called Waveform". theverge.com. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  23. ^ Spangler, Todd (April 19, 2019). "YouTube Orders Marques Brownlee 'Retro Tech' Original Series". Variety. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  24. ^ Ackerman, Dan. "Marques Brownlee explains why he's diving into the Retro Tech you love". CNET. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  25. ^ "Top 100 YouTubers tech Channels – Socialblade YouTube Stats | YouTube Statistics". socialblade.com.
  26. ^ "Marques Brownlee Monthly YouTube Statistics". Social Blade. Retrieved December 2, 2019.
  27. ^ "Forbes 30 Under 30 2021: Social Media". Forbes. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  28. ^ Neelakandan, Laya (April 25, 2023). "YouTuber Marques Brownlee gets into the sneaker game with high tops for Atoms". Fast Company.
  29. ^ "In a 'great signal for creators,' YouTube star Marques Brownlee adds a corporate gig to his résumé at accessories company Ridge". Fortune. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
  30. ^ Zhao, Claire (May 25, 2024). "YouTube star MKBHD becomes MKPHD". Fast Company. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
  31. ^ "Marques Brownlee Opens Second YouTube Hub 'The Studio' For Behind-The-Scenes, Vlogs". Tubefilter. July 27, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  32. ^ McElligott, Suzanne (April 27, 2023). "MKBHD's Take on the Hyundai Ioniq 6". U.S. News & World Report.
  33. ^ Brownlee, Marques Keith [@MKBHD] (December 18, 2019). "More incredibly, though, we finally actually did it. 10,000,000 of you subscribed to the channel. So there it is. It's my Dad's middle name too. And his Dad's. We're all MKBs, I'm just the first HD one 🤓" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  34. ^ Brownlee, Marques Keith (December 3, 2011). MKBHD Update 7.0 (Video). Event occurs at 0:47. Retrieved August 27, 2024. So, today is my 18th birthday.
  35. ^ Michael Fisher (October 25, 2013). "Pocketnow VIP, episode 3: meet Marques Brownlee from MKBHD! – Pocketnow". Pocketnow. Archived from the original on October 28, 2013.
  36. ^ Linus Tech Tips (May 9, 2017). EXPOSING MKBHD'S FAKE VIDEOS (Studio Tour). Retrieved October 26, 2017.
  37. ^ Yang, Avery (July 24, 2019). "Famous Tech YouTuber Has Side Gig as Ultimate Frisbee Pro". NBC New York. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
  38. ^ Rubin, Alex (August 28, 2022). "New York Empire Caps Off Undefeated Season With Second AUDL Championship". Ultiworld. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
  39. ^ Strod, Jesse (August 2, 2022). "WUCC 2022: PoNY Get Revenge on Ring in Gold Medal Match (Open Division)". Ultiworld. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
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