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Philip Michael Lester (born 30 January 1987) 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 ...
and radio host. He is best known for his YouTube channels ''AmazingPhil'', which gained over 4 million
subscribers The subscription business model is a business model A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners f ...
, and ''DanAndPhilGAMES''. Together with frequent collaborator
Daniel Howell Daniel James Howell (born 11 June 1991) is an English YouTuber, presenter, comedian and author. He gained prominence through his YouTube channels ''Daniel Howell'' (formerly known as ''danisnotonfire''), which reached over six million subscrib ...
, he presented the Sunday night entertainment show ''
Dan and Phil Daniel Howell (born 11 June 1991) and Phil Lester (born 30 January 1987) are an English entertainment and business duo known for their collaborative work since they met in 2009 on YouTube, television and radio presenting, books, tours, and or ...
'' on
BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
from January 2013 until August 2014, and from September 2014 to April 2016 the duo were monthly hosts on the station's '' The Internet Takeover'' slot. Lester appeared on ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
''’ 2019 list of the top influencers in the UK.


Early life

Lester was born on 30 January 1987 in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. He has an older brother, Martyn. Before he made
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 radio presenting his full-time profession, he was a dog walker and car washer, worked at a veterinary clinic and at
WHSmith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...
, and had an acting role as Tim in '' Faintheart''. He attended
Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School (BRGS) is a selective co-educational academy grammar school in Waterfoot, Rossendale, Lancashire, England. The school is named after the two main towns either side of Waterfoot, Bacup and Rawtenstall. ...
. He later graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
with Honours in English Language and Linguistics in 2008 and a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in Video Postproduction with Visual Effects in 2009, both from the
University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...
.


Career


YouTube

At age 19 on 27 March 2006, Lester posted his first YouTube vlog titled "Phil's Video Blog" on his main YouTube channel, ''AmazingPhil''. Since then he has posted over 300 videos on his channel and, as of September 2022, has over 3.9 million subscribers and 659 million video views. He reached 1 million YouTube subscribers on 6 July 2013, 2 million on 29 August 2014, 3 million on 12 October 2015, and 4 million on 14 March 2017. Lester also has a second channel, ''LessAmazingPhil'', which has over 1 million subscribers and 26 million views, as of September 2022. He occasionally broadcast hour-long live shows on this channel, as well as
YouNow YouNow is a American broadcasting service where users stream their own live video content or interact with the video streams of other users in real time. The service is available on its website, on Android and iOS apps. As of August 2015, the ...
livestreams, but has since used the channel to archive his more recent streams. From 2009 to 2011, Lester participated in
RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...
's Ireland-based cross-media show, ''ApartmentRed''. In 2010, Lester and Howell took part in the live, annual 24-hour internet broadcast "Stickaid", a fundraiser for charity
UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
. In 2011, Lester and Howell created a collaborative YouTube channel through the network My Damn Channel. Titled ''The Super Amazing Project'', it featured the duo discussing and investigating paranormal events. Segments included "Viewers Spooky Happenings", where the audience of the show would send in "scary" items for the video bloggers to react to, and "In The News This Week", where the duo recapped recent light-hearted news items and viral videos. In October 2014, it was announced that as of that month Lester and Howell would not carry on working on ''The Super Amazing Project'' in order to concentrate on their Radio 1 show. Lester and Howell later announced that the Super Amazing Project would be hosted by new presenters, Alastair James Murder and
Victoria Atkin Victoria Atkin is an English actress, best known for roles in ''Extinct'', ''Hollyoaks'', and '' Assassin's Creed: Syndicate''. Early years and education Atkin attended Fernhill School and Language College, studied Dance and Theatre Performance at ...
, found by channel owners My Damn Channel. Lester has also appeared alongside Howell in Benjamin Cook's twelve part web series ''Becoming YouTube'', and was interviewed on the various topics Cook covered. On 12 September 2014, Howell and Lester posted the first video on their new gaming YouTube channel, ''DanAndPhilGAMES''. On 8 March 2015 the channel hit 1 million subscribers. It was officially the fastest growing channel on YouTube. ''DanAndPhilGAMES'' reached over 3.1 million subscribers. Popular recurring and annual series on this channel include their
Sims 4 ''The Sims 4'' is a social simulation game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the fourth major title in ''The Sims'' series, and is the sequel to '' The Sims 3'' (2009). The game was released in North America on Septe ...
series, Spooky Week, and Gamingmas. As of the most recent upload in December 2018, the channel is on an indefinite hiatus. On 1 April 2015, Lester and Howell launched a spin-off
crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale prod ...
-based channel, ''DanAndPhilCRAFTS'', as an
April Fools April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...
joke. It featured a single video of them creating square
snowflakes A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, which falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. ...
out of paper, with an amateur editing style and humour throughout. It reached over 154,000 subscribers and 500,000 total video views in one week. Additional videos were uploaded on April Fool's Day in 2016 and 2017.


Television and film

In 2007, Lester appeared as a contestant on ''
The Weakest Link ''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which The Weakest Link (British game show), first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host ...
'', making it to the final round. He also played the role of Tim in 2008 film '' Faintheart'' and appeared in a Confused.com advertisement later that year. At the time of making the advert, he had around 27,000 subscribers. Lester was interviewed with other internet entertainers on Channel 4 News in October 2012 about the increased popularity of YouTube and video blogging as a profession. In 2013 Lester and Howell appeared on Friday Download, a BAFTA award-winning CBBC TV show. From 2014 to 2016 Howell and Lester hosted the worldwide YouTube livestream of the
Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...
as well as making backstage videos for their channel. In 2015, Lester and Howell had voice cameo appearances in the UK cinema release of
Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...
' '' Big Hero 6'' as Technician 1 & 2. However, this version is not in the UK home release. That same year, the duo also guest-starred in fellow YouTuber PJ Liguori's online series Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures, voicing anthropomorphic food items Brie and Rash. In December 2016, Howell and Lester voiced two gorilla princes named Majinuni and Hafifu respectively, in the episode "The Lost Gorillas" in
Disney Junior Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven y ...
's ''
The Lion Guard ''The Lion Guard'' is an American animated television series developed by Ford Riley and based on Disney's 1994 film ''The Lion King''. The series was first broadcast with a television film titled ''The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar'' on Disney C ...
''.


Radio

In November 2012, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
announced that from January 2013 onwards, Lester and Howell would present the Sunday night entertainment and request show for national UK radio station
BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
. The duo had occasionally worked with Radio 1 before, making videos for the station's YouTube channel and presenting two Christmas broadcasts. The show was designed to be an interactive, audio-visual broadcast involving music videos made by viewers, physical challenges performed on air by Howell and Lester, and song requests from listeners. It was streamed in a video, live on the BBC Radio 1 website, and accessible worldwide. In August 2014, it was announced that the last Dan and Phil show would be broadcast on 24 August, with the duo moving to a different show on Monday nights, featuring other popular video bloggers. This new show was titled '' The Internet Takeover'', and featured Lester alongside Howell live on the first Monday of every month, before coming to an end in April 2016.


IRL Merch

In 2014, Lester, Lester's brother, Martyn, and Howell co-founded IRL Digital, Ltd., a company that creates and sells the merchandise of various other media personalities, starting with Dan and Phil Shop and branching out from there.


Games

In August 2015, Howell and Lester created an app, ''The 7 Second Challenge'', based on a YouTube challenge started by Lester in a 2014 video on his main channel. The app was discontinued in 2019. In October 2017, the duo released a party board game via Big Potato, ''Truth Bombs'', also the brainchild of Lester.


''The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire'' and ''The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire''

On 26 March 2015, Lester and Howell announced via a trailer on Howell's channel that they had co-written a book titled '' The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire (TABINOF).'' It was released in the UK on 8 October 2015 and worldwide on 15 October 2015, published by
Ebury Press Ebury Publishing is a division of Penguin Random House, and is a publisher of general non-fiction books in the UK. Ebury was founded in 1961 as a division of Nat Mags and was originally located on Ebury Street in London. It was sold to Centu ...
and
Random House Children's Books Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
. The book topped the General Hardbacks
Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
Bestsellers list having sold 26,745 copies in the UK in the first week of its release. It also became a #1
New York Times Bestseller ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...
in the young adult hardcover list. In the same trailer the pair announced their theatrical stage show '' The Amazing Tour Is Not On Fire (TATINOF)'', which travelled around the UK during October and November 2015, ending with a show at the
London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 an ...
. During the tour, they sung original song " The Internet Is Here", which they later released as a charity single for Stand Up To Cancer, earning them a gold record disc for the sales of the song. In 2016, they took the tour to the US and Toronto, starting with a show in Orlando, Florida on 22 April and ended on 24 June with a show at the
Dolby Theatre The Dolby Theatre (formerly known as the Kodak Theatre) is a live-performance auditorium in the Ovation Hollywood shopping mall and entertainment complex, on Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. Si ...
in Hollywood, California. It was the largest tour ever achieved by YouTube creators. They later toured Australia in August 2016, starting in Perth and ending in Brisbane, and finished the tour with a European leg, performing in Stockholm, Berlin, and Dublin.


YouTube Red Originals and ''Dan and Phil Go Outside''

In October 2016, ''The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire'' was released as a YouTube Red Original film by the same name along with a documentary, ''Dan and Phil's Story of TATINOF''. They are the first British YouTube creators to release content on the YouTube Red platform. Alongside these films, they released a photo book, ''Dan and Phil Go Outside'', in November 2016, which includes a personal collection of candid photos and insightful stories from the tour. The book became a #1 ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' bestseller.


''Interactive Introverts''

In November 2017, Lester and Howell announced their second tour, '' Interactive Introverts'', a world tour that took place in 2018. The tour ran from April, starting in
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 ...
, to September, ending in
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
, and included 80 shows in 18 countries, including but not limited to Poland, the Philippines, Russia, New Zealand, Finland, and the Netherlands, making it one of the biggest YouTuber tours of all time. Lester and Howell partnered with
BBC Studios BBC Studios is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Worldwide. ...
' TalentWorks to release a movie of ''Interactive Introverts'' with bonus features, such as behind the scenes content and director's commentary, on DVD,
Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
, and available for digital download in December 2018.


Personal life

Lester and
Daniel Howell Daniel James Howell (born 11 June 1991) is an English YouTuber, presenter, comedian and author. He gained prominence through his YouTube channels ''Daniel Howell'' (formerly known as ''danisnotonfire''), which reached over six million subscrib ...
met on the Internet in 2009 and in person that October. They have lived together since August 2011, first in
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
before moving to
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in July 2012. In June 2019, Howell revealed that the two have been romantically involved but refrained from discussing their current relationship, stating "I'm somebody that wants to keep the details of my personal life private. So is Phil." On the same day, Lester tweeted about his own sexuality. Two and a half weeks later, Lester publicly came out as
gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
in a video on his channel, although he had been open about it in his personal life since university.


Bibliography

*'' The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire'' (2015), co-written with
Daniel Howell Daniel James Howell (born 11 June 1991) is an English YouTuber, presenter, comedian and author. He gained prominence through his YouTube channels ''Daniel Howell'' (formerly known as ''danisnotonfire''), which reached over six million subscrib ...
*''Dan and Phil Go Outside'' (2016), co-written with
Daniel Howell Daniel James Howell (born 11 June 1991) is an English YouTuber, presenter, comedian and author. He gained prominence through his YouTube channels ''Daniel Howell'' (formerly known as ''danisnotonfire''), which reached over six million subscrib ...


Awards and nominations

In 2011, Lester won a
Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
for fastest coin stacking, placing 25 coins on top of each other in 31.617 seconds.


See also

*
Dan and Phil Daniel Howell (born 11 June 1991) and Phil Lester (born 30 January 1987) are an English entertainment and business duo known for their collaborative work since they met in 2009 on YouTube, television and radio presenting, books, tours, and or ...


Notes


References


External links

* *
''The Internet Takeover''
on BBC {{DEFAULTSORT:Lester, Phil 1987 births Alumni of the University of York BBC Radio 1 presenters Dan and Phil English company founders English radio DJs English video bloggers English YouTubers Gaming YouTubers Gay entertainers English LGBT entertainers LGBT YouTubers Living people People educated at Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School People from Bury, Greater Manchester People from Rawtenstall 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people