Kian Robert Lawley (born September 2, 1995 in Sioux City, Iowa) is an American YouTuber, influencer and actor. Lawley launched his personal YouTube channel, superkian13, in 2010. Lawley has also been a part of collaborative YouTube channels, including ''Our2ndLife''. Lawley shares the YouTube channel "KianAndJc" with fellow YouTuber

JC Caylen Jc Caylen (born Justin Caylan Castillo; September 11, 1992) is an American YouTube personality from San Antonio, Texas, Houston, Texas. Early life and education Caylen was born in Houston, Texas. He and his family moved to San Antonio, Texas, wh ...

. Lawley's first role in a

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

was in the 2015 film ''

The Chosen Chosen or The Chosen may refer to: The chosen ones *Chosen people, people who believe they have been chosen by a higher power to do a certain thing including **Jews as the chosen people Books * ''The Chosen'' (Potok novel), a 1967 novel by Chaim ...

.'' Lawley went on to feature in the films ''

Shovel Buddies ''Shovel Buddies'' is a 2016 American drama film written by Jason Mark Hellerman, directed by Simon Atkinson and Adam Townley. It stars Alex Neustaedter, Kian Lawley, Bella Thorne and Anton Starkman. The film had its world premiere at South by Sou ...

'' (2016), ''

Boo! A Madea Halloween ''Boo! A Madea Halloween'' is a 2016 American comedy horror film directed, written, starring and co-produced by Tyler Perry. The idea for the film originated from a fictitious Madea Halloween movie that was mentioned in Chris Rock's 2014 film '' ...

'' (2016), ''

Boo 2! A Madea Halloween ''Boo 2! A Madea Halloween'' is a 2017 American comedy horror film written, produced, directed by and starring Tyler Perry and also starring Cassi Davis, Patrice Lovely, Yousef Erakat, Diamond White, Lexy Panterra, Andre Hall, Brock O'Hurn, and ...

'' (2017), ''

Before I Fall ''Before I Fall'' is a 2010 young adult novel written by the American author Lauren Oliver. The novel is written in the first-person perspective of a teenage girl, Samantha Kingston, who is forced to relive the day of her death every day for a we ...

'' (2017) for which he won a

Teen Choice Award The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox television network. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United S ...

, and ''

Monster Party ''Monster Party'' is a video game for the NES, released in North America in 1989 by Bandai. It was and remains a relatively obscure platform game for the console, having a small following among some players. The game both pays homage to and parod ...

'' (2018). In 2017, Lawley worked with Caylen on their show ''H8TERS'' and starred in the

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ...

winning first season of " Zac & Mia". In 2018, footage of Lawley resurfaced in which he used racial slurs, leading to his role in ''

The Hate U Give ''The Hate U Give'' is a 2017 young adult novel by Angie Thomas. It is Thomas's debut novel, expanded from a short story she wrote in college in reaction to the police shooting of Oscar Grant. The book is narrated by Starr Carter, a 16-ye ...

'' being recast, and to him being dropped by his talent agency,

CAA CAA may refer to: Law * Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 of India ** Citizenship Amendment Act protests, Protests regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act * Copyright transfer agreement, Copyright assignment agreement, to transfer copyright to ...

Early life

Kian Lawley was born on September 2, 1995, in

Sioux City Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

, Iowa. He has

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

heritage. At a young age, his family moved to

San Clemente San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement") is a city in Orange County, California. Located in the Orange Coast region of the South Coast of California, San Clemente's population was 64,293 in at the 2020 census. Situated roughly midway betwee ...

, California.

Career

YouTube career

Lawley launched his first channel in 2010, under the name Superkian13. Lawley also had a collaborative channel with Sam Pottorff in 2011, named KianSam13. In 2012, Lawley started a collaborative channel ''Our2ndLife'' (commonly known as O2L) along with

Ricky Dillon Richard Porter Dillon Jr. is an American YouTube personality and singer. Over his ten years on YouTube, Dillon has amassed over 3.2 million subscribers on his channel, as well as more than 415 million views on his videos. Early life and e ...

, Trevi Moran,

Connor Franta Connor Joel Franta (born September 12, 1992) is an American YouTuber, author, artist, and businessman. , his eponymous main channel on YouTube has over 4.91 million subscribers. Franta was formerly a member of YouTube group ''Our Second Life'' ...

, and Sam Pottorff. The channel grew to over 2.8 million subscribers and in 2014 the group headlined a 19-city tour but they later separated in December 2014. Lawley and Caylen launched their collaborative channel KianAndJc in January 2015. At the

2015 Teen Choice Awards The 2015 Teen Choice Awards ceremony was held on August 16, 2015, at the Galen Center in Los Angeles, California. The awards celebrate the year's achievements in music, film, television, sports, fashion, comedy, video games, and the Internet, and ...

, Lawley won the award for Choice YouTuber. Lawley and Caylen have taken a shift on their channel with more significant productions. In July 2019, they premiered their new ''Big Brother''-style series ''The Reality House'' which features a group of YouTubers in a house competing to win $25,000. The series did extremely well, gaining over 25 million views collectively across all ten episodes and a second season began filming in November 2019. The second season premiered in January 2020 and included more elaborate challenges and an increased prize of $50,000. The second season was also a success online with the first two seasons gaining nearly a million views per episode. A third season is pending.

Acting career

Lawley's first starring role was in the 2015 film ''

'' in which he played a 19 year old who must contend with a demon to save his niece. In 2016, he co-starred with

Bella Thorne Annabella Avery Thorne (born October 8, 1997) is an American actress, singer, and writer. She first received recognition for her roles as Margaux Darling in the series ''Dirty Sexy Money'' (2007–2008) and as Ruthy Spivey in the drama series ...

in the comedy ''

''. In March 2016, the film was selected and premiered at

SXSW Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...

. In an interview about the film Lawley said "I don’t plan to ditch to YouTube, I plan to do both cting and YouTube. Lawley also played "Bean Boy" in the 2016

Tyler Perry Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of the Madea character, a tough elderly woman. Perry's films vary in style from orthodox filmmak ...

comedy ''

.'' In 2017, Lawley and

starred in and executive produced their show ''H8TERS'', a comedy about internet celebrities, haters and millennial culture. That year, Lawley appeared alongside

Zoey Deutch Zoey Francis Chaya Thompson Deutch ( ; born November 10, 1994) is an American actress. She is daughter of director Howard Deutch and actress-director Lea Thompson. She gained recognition for her roles in the film '' Everybody Wants Some!!'', the ...

Halston Sage Roy Halston Frowick (April 23, 1932 – March 26, 1990), known mononymously as Halston, was an American fashion designer who rose to international fame in the 1970s. His minimalist, clean designs, often made of cashmere or ultrasuede, were ...

, and

Logan Miller Logan Miller (born ) is an American actor. He is known for starring in the Disney XD sitcom ''I'm in the Band'' and he has also voiced Nova / Sam Alexander in the animated series ''Ultimate Spider-Man''. In films, he has starred in ''A Dog's Pu ...

in the film ''

'', for which he won the award for Choice Movie Actor: Drama at the

2017 Teen Choice Awards The 2017 Teen Choice Awards ceremony was held on August 13, 2017. The awards celebrated the year's achievements in music, film, television, sports, fashion, comedy, and the Internet, and were voted on by viewers aged 13 to 19 through various socia ...

. In 2017 he also starred in the series " Zac & Mia", a show that follows the lives of two ordinary teenagers undergoing cancer treatment. The show was nominated for six

s and won two: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Digital Daytime Drama Series and Outstanding Writing in a Digital Drama Series. In 2017, AwesomenessTV renewed "Zac & Mia" for a second season. In 2018, Lawley received a nomination for the Best Actor In A Digital Drama

for his performance in "Zac & Mia". On February 5, 2018, it was announced that Lawley had been fired from ''

'' due to a resurfaced video showing Lawley using racially offensive slurs. His scenes as Chris, the main character's boyfriend, were reshot with '' Riverdale'' star

KJ Apa Savae Keneti James Fitzgerald Apa, Moata'a (born 17 June 1997) is a New Zealand actor, singer and musician. He has received List of awards and nominations received by KJ Apa, various accolades, including a Saturn Award and nominations for an MT ...

. Lawley released an apology on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, stating, "I am deeply sorry to those that were effected 'sic''by my choice of language. I respect Fox's decision to recast this role for ''The Hate U Give'' as it is an important story, and it would not be appropriate for me to be involved considering the actions of my past. I understand the impact and I have grown a lot and learned since then." He was subsequently dropped by his talent agency

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawley, Kian 1995 births Living people People from San Clemente, California Male actors from California Male actors from Iowa American YouTubers American male film actors 20th-century American male actors Twitch (service) streamers