Ben Relles (born 1975) is an American businessman. He was formerly the Head of Comedy at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, as part of the company's YouTube Originals program. In this role, he oversaw development of new content from YouTube's top comedy talent. Currently, he is working with

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

co-founder

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for prof ...

. Prior to joining YouTube, he was Vice President of Programming at

Next New Networks The YouTube Next Lab and Audience Development Group, founded as Next New Networks, is a company based in New York City. Next New was launched in March 2007 by founders Fred Seibert & Emil Rensing, and co-founders Herb Scannell, Timothy Shey and ...

. Relles was the creator of the comedy network

Barely Political Bareilly () is a city in Bareilly district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is among the largest metropolises in Western Uttar Pradesh and is the centre of the Bareilly division as well as the historical region of Rohilkhand. The city l ...

, whose content had been viewed over 2.5 billion times. Ben started the channel when he created the "Obama Girl" series of videos. He continued to oversee the

comedy network, which featured the shows

The Key of Awesome The Key of Awesome (formerly Barely Productions and Barely Political) was a YouTube channel that produced comedy videos starring writer/performer Mark Douglas. "The Key of Awesome" was created by Mark Douglas and Ben Relles and is the channel's ...

, Super Therapy, and Auto-Tune the News. He also developed the Vsauce network with Michael Stevens which had a combined 1 billion views across Vsauce1, Vsauce2, and Vsauce3. He received his MBA in Marketing from the

Wharton School of Business The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

References

Obama Meets With YouTube Advisors On How To Reach Online AudiencesFOX Business: The Willis ReportUW Alumni Association: Ben Relles, 2013 Forward Under 40 Award HonoreeFast Company: How the Next Lab Can Quadruple Your SubscribersNATPE Daily: Developing for DigitalAnderson Cooper Show: YouTube Guest Ben Relles20/20: The Key of AwesomeCurrentTV: The Obama GirlC-SPAN: Interview with Ben RellesOn Wisconsin Magazine: E-lectorateABC News: Obama Girl, Caught
1975 births University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Living people Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni 21st-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1970s-stub