Ray William Johnson is an American video blogger,
producer, and actor best known for his YouTube
series Equals Three, in which he provided
commentary on viral videos.
Many of the videos featured on Equals Three
are noted to have received an additional boost
of popularity.
In February 2011, one industry publication
noted that Johnson had six of the top 20 most
watched videos of the month.
In early September 2012, Johnson had accumulated
nearly two billion video views.
As of December 2013, his YouTube channel had
more than 10.6 million subscribers, and more
than two billion video views.
On March 9, he announced that the last episode
of Equals Three as himself the host would
air on March 12, 2014.
The show later returned on July 16, 2014 hosted
by Robby Motz.
Early life
Johnson was born and raised in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma.
He graduated from Norman North High School
in 1999.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal,
Johnson says he studied at Columbia University
as a history major, while his profile adds
he was preparing to study law.
Career
While at Columbia, Johnson started his formatted
show, Equals Three, as a way to combine two
popular video styles: watching viral videos
and video bloggers.
In Equals Three, Johnson reviewed, criticized,
and added commentary to some of the internet's
latest viral videos.
Equals Three episodes are usually uploaded
to his channel every Tuesday.
Equals Three is on one of the most subscribed
channels on YouTube, having more than 10.6
million subscribers in December 2013, and
has been recognized by Guinness World Records.
Episodes can consistently obtain several million
views within a week.
Johnson has obtained celebrity guests on Equals
Three, including Robin Williams, Sarah Silverman,
Gabriel Iglesias, Kal Penn, Margaret Cho,
Bobby Lee, T.J. Miller, Garfunkel and Oates,
John Cho, Jason Biggs, Andy Milonakis, Timothy
De La Ghetto, RZA, and KassemG.
In October 2012, Johnson moved Equals Three
away from Maker Studios, a multi channel YouTube
network he had hired to help produce the show.
He had announced his departure in an episode
of Equals Three.
Johnson has stated that he left Maker Studios
due to the pressure the company put on him
into signing a new contract.
Johnson released images of the contract, which
showed Maker Studios wanted a 40% share of
his online channel's AdSense revenue, and
50% of the intellectual property rights of
his show Equals Three.
He stated that they were using "thuggish tactics"
to pressure him into signing the contract,
one of which was allegedly leveraging his
AdSense account for the intellectual property
rights to YourFavoriteMartian.
Johnson also claimed that Maker Studios CEO,
Danny Zappin, is a convicted felon, a charge
which Zappin later publicly admitted to.
Projects
FX
In May 2013, Johnson announced he signed a
deal to produce a sitcom for the American
television network FX.
The show is a comedy based on the life of
the YouTube star.
The script is to be written by Mike Gagerman
and Andrew Waller and executive produced by
Dave Becky and Troy Zien.
"Riley Rewind"
On December 12, 2013, Johnson released a 5-part
web series titled Riley Rewind, which he directed
and starred in.
It is the story of a high school student who
has the ability to rewind time.
After the suicide of another student at her
school, she attempts to change time and save
her life.
It was initially launched on Facebook where
it got an unprecedented 10 million views before
hitting YouTube and currently has 12 million
views on YouTube itself.The series was listed
as one of Variety's Top Ten Webseries of 2013.
The publication praised his work saying, "The
writing, acting, special effects and original
music make this the best thing he's done to
date."
The series is currently available on Netflix.
Equals Three
In Equals Three, Ray William Johnson reviews,
criticizes, and adds commentary to some of
the internet's latest viral videos.
Equals Three episodes are usually uploaded
to his channel every Tuesday.
Equals Three is on one of the most subscribed
channels on YouTube, having over 8 million
subscribers in April 2013, and has been recognized
by Guinness World Records.
Because of his popularity, Equals Three episodes
can consistently obtain several million views
within a week.
Johnson has been able to leverage his popularity
to secure several celebrity guests on Equals
Three, including Robin Williams, Gabriel Iglesias,
Kal Penn, Margaret Cho, Bobby Lee, T.J. Miller,
Garfunkel and Oates, John Cho, Jason Biggs,
Andy Milonakis, Timothy De La Ghetto, RZA,
and KassemG.
On December 30, 2013, Johnson announced that
he would be retiring Equals Three in 2014.
On March 12, however, in the last episode
of the series hosted by him, Johnson announced
that he would be taking one to two months
to instead find a new host to replace himself
and continue the show's legacy.
He stated that this decision was due to the
support of the show by fans.
After several months of auditions, Ray announced
Robby Motz as the new host and the shows continuation
starting from July 16, 2014.
Your Favorite Martian
In January 2011, Johnson launched a collaborative
YouTube channel called "YourFavoriteMartian",
which features animated music videos.
The songs are performed by a virtual band
of four fictional cartoon characters: PuffPuff
Humbert, DeeJay, Axel Chains, and Benatar.
Johnson writes lyrics, raps, sings, composes
beats, and sometimes collaborates with other
musicians to produce the songs.
The channel was the top music channel on YouTube
for a time and sold 1.2 million units on iTunes.
YFM has released 31 original songs, 2 remixes
of original songs, 1 remix of another artist's
song, 1 mashup, and 8 covers through the channel.
As of March 2013, the channel has over 2.0
million subscribers, and over 482 million
video views.
In November 2012, Ray announced that the YFM
project "has been retired".
References
