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Marques Keith Brownlee ( ; born December 3, 1993), also known professionally as MKBHD, is an American YouTuber and professional ultimate Frisbee player, best known for his technology-focused videos as well as his podcast ''Waveform''. As of August 19, 2022, he has over 16 million subscribers and over 3 billion total video views.
Vic Gundotra Vivek Paul "Vic" Gundotra (born 14 June 1969) is an Indian-born American businessman who served as the Senior Vice President, Social for Google until 24 April 2014. Prior to joining Google, he was a general manager at Microsoft. Career Gundot ...
, a former senior vice president of Google, called Brownlee "the best technology reviewer on the planet right now". The former name of his YouTube channel is a concatenation of MKB (Brownlee's initials) and HD (for high-definition). With New York PoNY, he is the 2022 WFDF World Champion in the Open Category for ultimate Frisbee.


Career

Brownlee joined YouTube on March 21, 2008. He first started uploading technology videos in January 2009, while still in high school, about new products or reviews of products he already owned. He produced his first videos through
screencast A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture or a screen recording, often containing audio narration. The term ''screencast'' compares with the related term ''screenshot''; whereas screenshot ...
ing. His first several hundred videos were primarily hardware tutorials and freeware. As of July 2022, his channel has gained over 10 million subscribers, making MKBHD one of the most subscribed-to technology-focused YouTube channels, according to
Social Blade Social Blade (sometimes spelled SocialBlade) is an American social media analytics website. Social Blade most notably tracks the YouTube platform, but also has analytical information regarding Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Trovo ...
. Brownlee uploaded his 1000th video on March 29, 2018. Brownlee's reviews have been promoted by other review sites as well. Engadget promoted the site in January 2012 when they featured his tour of the then-new
cloud storage Cloud storage is a model of computer data storage in which the digital data is stored in logical pools, said to be on "the cloud". The physical storage spans multiple servers (sometimes in multiple locations), and the physical environment is t ...
service called Insync. In November 2013, one of Brownlee's most viral videos was posted based on the
LG G Flex The LG G Flex is an Android phablet developed and manufactured by LG. First unveiled by the company on October 27, 2013 for a release in South Korea, and carrying similarities to its G2 model, the smartphone is the company's first to incorporate ...
, where he performed various scratch tests to portray the self-healing ability of the device. The video reached one million views on the first day. , the video has almost 8 million views. In December 2013, Brownlee did an interview with Motorola CEO
Dennis Woodside Dennis Woodside (born 1969) has been President of Freshworks since September 2022. Before Freshworks, he served as President of Impossible Foods from March 2019 until August 2022. He previously served as the chief operating officer of Dropbox from ...
. In May 2014, Brownlee did the first over-the-air interview with
Evan Blass Evan Blass, once known solely by his pen name @evleaks, is an American blogger, editor, and phone leaker. He gained international notoriety for a series of numerous smartphone and tablet leaks on Twitter, spanning the period July 2012 through Augus ...
. Brownlee's video review and scratch test of a rumored 4.7-inch sapphire display component for the iPhone 6, uploaded July 7, 2014, gained immediate popularity, being featured on sites such as '' The Verge'', '' Forbes'', '' HuffPost'', ''
CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...
'', and '' Time Magazine''. The video appeared on NBC News, and in newspapers across the world. , the video has gained over 9.1 million views on YouTube and has had over 62,000 ratings. Brownlee also has a similar video regarding a dummy model of the iPhone 6, uploaded a couple of months earlier, which (as of December 2019) has since gained over 6.58 million views on YouTube. In December 2015, Brownlee interviewed professional
NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
basketball player
Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...
, titled ''Talking Tech with Kobe Bryant!'', in which he talks about tech interests of Kobe and the most recent Kobe-designed Nike shoes, the ''Kobe 11''. 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. In October 2016, he interviewed Apple's senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi during the release of their latest MacBook Pro 2016. The latter was, again, invited to Brownlee's channel after WWDC 2020 in June. In March 2018, he interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson. In April 2018, Brownlee won
Shorty Awards The Shorty Awards (also known as “The Shortys”) honors the most innovative work globally in digital and social media by brands, agencies, nonprofits and creators. The Shortys’ mission is to celebrate, inspire and push the boundaries of exce ...
Creator of the Decade. In June 2018, Brownlee was a guest on ''
Hot Ones ''Hot Ones'' is an American YouTube talk show, created by Christopher Schonberger and Sean Evans and produced by First We Feast and Complex Media. Its basic premise involves celebrities being interviewed by Evans over a platter of increasingly sp ...
''. In August 2018, he interviewed Tesla CEO Elon Musk and with assistance of TLD (Jonathan Morrison) filmed ''Tesla Factory Tour with Elon Musk!'' In December 2018, Brownlee was featured in YouTube Rewind, later releasing a video on his complaints about the series. In February 2019, he interviewed Bill Gates. In October 2019, he interviewed Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella Satya Narayana Nadella (, ; born 19 August 1967) is an Indian-American business executive. He is the executive chairman and CEO of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman. Before becoming CE ...
before Microsoft's Surface announcement, in addition to actor Will Smith. Brownlee reached 10 million subscribers on December 18, 2019. He interviewed Bill Gates again in February 2020. In September 2020, he interviewed
Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...
, discussing holograms and the future of virtual reality. In December 2020, he interviewed Barack Obama, discussing use of technology and social media in government. In December 2020, he was honored in the Forbes 30 Under 30 listing in its social media category. In May 2021, Brownlee interviewed Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google on various subjects such as future technology and AI.


''Retro Tech''

''Retro Tech'' is a
YouTube Original YouTube Premium, formerly known as YouTube Red, is a subscription service that provides advertising-free streaming of all videos hosted by YouTube, offline play and background playback of videos on mobile devices, access to advertising-free mu ...
series produced by
Vox Media Studios Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Washington, D.C., and New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''SB Nation'' (a sports blog network founded in 2005 by ...
starring MKBHD which aired on December 2, 2019. 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. Season 2 of ''Retro Tech'' began in April 2021, in which he reviews technology that was believed to be the future but failed to ever reach production or the general public.


''Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast''

Brownlee is the host of a technology podcast with co-host Andrew Manganelli, who is a producer for the MKBHD YouTube channel. The podcast is called the '' Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast'' and is sometimes referred to as ''Waveform'' and ''WVFRM''. The podcast is focused on consumer electronics and surrounding topics. The first episode was aired on July 31, 2019. Brownlee announced the podcast on his YouTube channel on August 13, 2019, in the video titled "Introducing Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast!". There have been multiple high-profile guests on the podcast, including
iJustine Justine Ezarik ( ; born March 20, 1984) is an American YouTuber. She is best known as iJustine, with over one billion views on her YouTube channel. She gained attention as a lifecaster who communicated directly with her millions of viewers on ...
,
Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...
, Craig Federighi, and Carl Pei.


''The Studio''

Brownlee is also the host of another YouTube channel called ''The Studio'', which focuses on behind-the-scenes activity of the MKBHD team.


Smartphone Awards

In December 2014, Brownlee started his Smartphone Awards series, where he picks the best phones in certain categories from the past year. In 2017, Brownlee started to create physical awards that were featured in the video, most of which were requested and sent to the companies whose phones won them. The Smartphone Awards are usually posted towards the middle of December, after all of the phones of the year have been released and tested.


Personal life

Marques Keith Brownlee was born on December 3, 1993. He grew up in
Maplewood, New Jersey Maplewood is a township in Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is an inner-ring suburban bedroom community of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's populatio ...
. 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. Brownlee graduated from college in May 2015 and became a full-time YouTuber. His videos were produced at his apartment until he moved out in 2016, and he now works out of a studio in Kearny, New Jersey, using RED video equipment. He owned a Tesla Model S P100D, which he occasionally featured in his channel until he replaced it in 2020 with the Performance (
Raven A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...
) Model S, and again in 2021 with the Model S
Plaid Plaid () may refer to: Fabric * Full plaid, a cloth made with a tartan pattern, wrapped around the waist, cast over the shoulder and fastened at the front * A synonym for tartan in North America * A plaid shirt, typically of flannel and worn du ...
.


American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL)

Brownlee is a professional ultimate frisbee player for the New York Empire of the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL), who were the AUDL champions in
2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
and 2022. 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.


Notes


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brownlee, Marques 1993 births 21st-century African-American writers African-American media personalities American bloggers American technology news websites American YouTubers Columbia High School (New Jersey) alumni Living people People from Kearny, New Jersey People from Maplewood, New Jersey Streamy Award winners Technology YouTubers Ultimate (sport) players Video bloggers Writers from Hoboken, New Jersey