Yousef Saleh Erakat (; born January 22, 1990), also known as FouseyTube or Fousey, is an American
YouTuber
A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006.
Influence
Influent ...
who produces parodies, vlogs, comedy sketches and interviews. He also has two other channels, Fousey and DoseOfFousey.
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, to
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
parents. He has three older siblings, including
Noura Erakat
Noura Erakat (, ; ar, نورة صالح عريقات; born ) is an American activist, university professor, legal scholar, and human rights attorney. She is currently an associate professor at Rutgers University, specializing in international s ...
, who is a legal scholar. Erakat attended
San Jose State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...
and majored in theatre arts. He moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
after graduating in 2013 to pursue his acting career.
YouTube career
2011–2014: Beginnings, fitness, and controversy
Erakat has had multiple YouTube channels in the past, namely ones relating to fitness. It wasn't until he started making Middle Eastern videos that his popularity grew. His past channels included him following a workout routine,
P90X
The Beachbody Company is a publicly traded American fitness and media company based in El Segundo, California. It operates the brands Beachbody On Demand, Team Beachbody, MYXfitness and Openfit. The company also sells dietary supplements such ...
, and giving a review and before and after of his journey. In 2012, Erakat was listed 3rd on the list of "40 Inspiring Muslims Under 40" by ''MBMuslima Magazine''. On January 1, 2015, Erakat released his first single "Prideland" under the stage name "fousey". A music video for the song was released the same day on his daily vlog channel ''DOSEofFOUSEY''. Erakat was invited by ''Quest Nutrition'' to unveil their newest protein bar flavor by allowing him to prank other popular YouTube personalities, namely by
pieing
Pieing or a pie attack is the act of throwing a pie at a person. In pieing, the goal is usually to humiliate the victim while avoiding actual injury. For this reason the pie is traditionally of the cream pie, cream variety without a top crust, an ...
them in the face. The video has reached over a million views.
2015–2019: Rise to fame, July 15th event, and leaving YouTube
On October 3, 2015, Erakat showcased his BMW 435 with a full transformation. Erakat took his car to
West Coast Customs
West Coast Customs (abbreviated by the company as WCC) is an automobile repair shop focusing on the customization of vehicles. It was started by co-founders Ryan Friedlinghaus and Quinton Dodson in 1993. According to Friedlinghaus, he began the ...
in hopes of drastically changing his car to represent not only his favorite colors, but his YouTube audience as well, which he used to call the "bruh bruhs". Erakat enjoyed the turnout and showcased it on both his daily
vlog
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...
channel as well as his main channel ''fouseyTUBE''. On October 6, 2015, it was announced that Erakat had signed with
Creative Artists Agency
Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...
, a popular agency located in
Century City, Los Angeles
Century City is a 176-acre (71.2 ha) neighborhood and business district in Los Angeles, California. Located on the Westside to the south of Santa Monica Boulevard around 10 miles (16 km) west of Downtown Los Angeles, Century City is one of ...
. Erakat embarked on a five-day tour with friend and YouTube star Roman Atwood called the "Roman vs Fousey Tour" on February 24, 2016. They performed in five states along the west coast as a preview/test for their upcoming 30-day tour of the same name. On June 3, 2017, Erakat officially reached the YouTube milestone of 10 million subscribers, thus earning him a YouTube Diamond Play Button.
In July 2018, Erakat announced an event named "Hate Dies, Love Arrives". He claimed that the world will know about this event. On July 15, Erakat hosted the event, which turned out to be a major failure. Only about 1,500 people arrived at the place. During the event, Fousey suffered mental problems. When Fousey was on the stage, there was an alleged bomb at the event causing the event to be cancelled. Afterwards, Fousey announced the event changed his life, and further told that he lost his cars, his respect, his money, his worth and almost his parents.
On August 31, 2018, Erakat retracted all of his material from his social media accounts. On February 26, 2019, Erakat posted a video on the reluctance to resume vlogging on the channel. In 2020, Erakat started to upload less and less on his channel and then later on eventually left uploading on the channel.
2021–present: Return to YouTube and expanding content
In 2021, Erakat returned to YouTube with a new YouTube Boxing related channel named Fousey (stylized fousey). On this channel he has uploaded boxing related videos with Slim Albaher, AnEsonGib and other YouTubers. He started to call himself DanaTube. In the same year, he also returned to his DOSEofFousey channel. He told that he will use his DOSEofFousey channel for clips.
In January 2021, it was announced that he was going to release a book, titled ''Warning: This Is Not a Motivational Story''.
Boxing career
Erakat made his boxing debut against Slim Albaher on September 29, 2019, losing by a
technical knockout
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...
. Erakat suffered a broken nose and needed two surgeries to fix it. Following that experience, he vowed never to fight again, but in 2022 he chose to step in the ring again against Deji Olatunji and lost, vowing to never fight again for the second time.
Personal life
Erakat was brought up in a religious Muslim family from Palestine. He has on several occasions criticized negative stereotyping of Muslims.
Erakat struggles with ongoing depression, addiction,
anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...
and
bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...
. He mentions it frequently in his daily
vlogs
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...
, and also announced it on VH1.
He was nominated for Pranks and Show of The Year at the
5th Streamy Awards
The 5th Annual Streamy Awards was the 5th installment of the Streamy Awards honoring streaming television series. The awards were held on September 17, 2015, at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, California. They were hosted by the YouTube star ...
, and in September 2015, won the Show of The Year award.
Brentwood, Tennessee
Brentwood is a city in Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 45,373 as of the 2020 United States census.Permuted Press