Jack Benjamin Edwards (born 18 October 1998) is an English

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 ...

social media influencer An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. He has built an online following posting videos about books, popular culture and university life since 2016, and is associated with the internet sub-communities of BookTube,

BookTok BookTok is a subcommunity on the app TikTok, focused on books and literature. Creators make videos reviewing, discussing, and joking about the books they read. These books range in genre, but many creators tend to focus on young adult fiction, you ...

and EduTube. As of July 2024 he has over 1.38 million subscribers on

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 ...

and over 1.1 million followers across

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

and

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

Early life and education

Edwards is from

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

and studied English Literature, Politics, and History at A-level, the results of which he opened on camera on his channel. attended the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

to study

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

. During his time there, he was a member of St Cuthbert's College. He was the first member of his family to attend university.

Career

Edwards began documenting his experiences at university on YouTube in 2016. The dean of his college attributed a rise in applications to the college he attended to Edwards' channel, calling it "the Jack Edwards effect". He now has over one million subscribers on his main channel @jack_edwards, and over 400,000 on his second channel @jack_in_the_books. He is known for posting about popular culture, including reading the book recommendations of popular actors, musicians, and reality stars. He is also active on

and

. Edwards is signed by the Sixteenth talent agency. In 2020, Edwards published ''The Uni-Verse: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving University'' with

Harper Collins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...

. In 2021, Edwards launched Ink Outside the Box, a stationery company. In 2023, Edwards announced that he would be closing down the company. In 2023, Edwards was announced as a "thinker in residence" for that year's

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...

, focusing on digital storytelling and online media. As part of his role, he interviewed

Alice Oseman Alice May Oseman (born 16 October 1994) is an English author of young adult fiction. She secured her first publishing deal at 17, and had her first novel ''Solitaire'' published in 2014. Her novels include ''Radio Silence'', ''I Was Born for Th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Jack Living people Alumni of St Cuthbert's Society, Durham YouTubers from Brighton and Hove 1998 births