These are the jobs your favourite YouTubers worked before becoming famous

James Charles sold frozen yoghurt

4 years ago

YouTubers are all completely minted, so it may come as a surprise to learn that some of the biggest in the world actually started out working perfectly normal jobs like the rest of us mere mortals. James Charles, for instance, has been open about how he used to work in a frozen yoghurt shop whilst he made videos on the side – after all, YouTube is the kind of career path that requires a fair bit of money and time behind it in order for success.

But what about all of the others? From Cody Ko to Jesse Wellens, this is what the biggest YouTubers past and present did for work before entertaining the masses.

Cody Ko – Backend tech developer

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cody Ko (@codyko)

Few people seem to know that Cody was actually very accomplished before becoming a YouTuber, having attended Duke University where he was a member of the men’s diving team. Seriously:

@broadcastboysYOUTUBE STARS WHO WERE ELITE ATHLETES ##fyp ##foryou ##foryourpage ##youtube ##creator ##influencer ##noahbeck ##athlete ##codyko ##loganpaul ##acefamily ♬ Took Her To The O – King Von

After university, where he graduated with a degree in computer science, he went on to create an iPhone app called “I’d Cap That”, something that fans of his will certainly be aware of from this interview that popped up in many of our recommendations:

After the app was sold to a company called Iddiction, he moved on to work as an iOS developer, before becoming popular on YouTube, and the rest is history.

Cody recently bought a huge four million dollar house in LA with his YouTube earnings, which you can take a tour of here.

Casey Neistat – Dishwasher

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Casey Neistat (@caseyneistat)

Again, avid watchers of Casey’s will be familiar with his troubled start to life, which saw him live near the poverty line as a young parent of his child, Owen.

In this interview with The Day of his success, Casey explains how he used to be a dishwasher at a seafood restaurant: “Throughout the process, I kept waiting for someone to pull the rug out from under us. I mean, I was a dishwasher in Mystic when I was growing up. To me, I am a dishwasher and I’ll always be one.”

Casey is another celebrity who has recently dipped his toes into the property market, buying a huge LA house complete with swimming pool. Take a look around here.

James Charles – Frozen yogurt worker

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by James Charles (@jamescharles)

As mentioned previously, James Charles worked in a frozen yoghurt shop before becoming a celebrity YouTuber. Speaking to Philip DeFranco on his podcast, James was asked if he had ever worked a normal job to which he said: “Yes. I worked at a frozen yoghurt shop called 16 Handles in my hometown.”

Balancing working at the shop with his YouTube career, he was 16 when working there and said he “loved” it. Obviously, those days are long gone, and James now owns a huge mansion, counts the Kardashians as friends and has collabed with some of the biggest celebrities in the world right now.

Never say never!

Miranda Sings – Voice coach

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Colleen Ballinger (@colleen)

Miranda Sings is the annoying character created by Colleen Ballinger. That’s right, Miranda isn’t a real person and Colleen is actually completely normal! Raised in California, she was homeschooled before going to high school and eventually graduating from university in 2008 after studying vocal performance (shock).

From 2007 to 2009, she performed for Disney, as well as gave voice and movement lessons to children. She has done a load of acting work since, appearing in plenty of stage shows as well as TV.

I've been a fan and supporter of Colleen Ballinger for a while but any fans who are absolutely refusing to see Adam's side of this need a reality check, she's not a perfect human and her behavior with this kid looks a lot like grooming

— Charlotte (@toomanyzeross) April 29, 2020

We all love a good old YouTube drama, and Colleen seems to have been embroiled in one this year – yay! If you want a full explainer on Adam’s side, click here.

Binging with Babish – Visual effects artist

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Binging With Babish (@bingingwithbabish)

Binging with Babish is probably the biggest non-mainstream celebrity YouTube chef right now, but it turns out he doesn’t even have a background in cooking.

After graduating with a BA in Film Studies in 2009, he went on to work as a visual effects artist for a company called SwitchFX. In an interview with Premium Beat, he told them that he had this job for seven years: “For the past seven years, I worked as an Autodesk Flame artist at SwitchFX, a boutique commercial finishing house. Before that, I interned and worked part-time gigs to grow my knowledge of the post-production world.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Binging With Babish (@bingingwithbabish)

“I don’t have any formal culinary training, but have 15 years of neurotic self-teaching under my belt. I got a chef’s knife and whisk tattoo on my forearm about five years ago — before I was a halfway decent cook — as a way to ‘hold myself hostage’ into becoming a better one.”

Zoella – New Look

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Zoë Sugg (@zoesugg)

The Sugg family lived 10 minutes down the road from me while I was at school, so there was always pictures on social media of school friends bumping into them in Lacock as they rambled around.

Zoe didn’t go to university, and according to the following recent vlog, she worked at New Look when she started her YouTube channel in 2009.

According to this interview with Vogue, it was three years before she could afford to give up the day job and do YouTube full time. Nice.

Pewdiepie – Harbour captain and hotdog salesman

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by PewDiePie (@pewdiepie)

After a degree in industrial economics and technology management at the Chalmers University of Technology, which he dropped out of in 2011 due to a lack of interest, Pewdiepie worked at photoshop, entering contests and selling prints of his images in order to purchase a computer.

When his parents refused to financially support him, he worked as a harbour captain as well as, rather amusingly, at a hot dog stand. He seemed to mock this in the below video, where he… worked at a hotdog stand.

No, we can’t find any photos of him as a teenager working at the stand.

KSI – Student

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by KSI (@ksi)

KSI is one of the UK’s biggest YouTube stars, so it may not come as a surprise that he’s been hustling ever since his school days. Metting fellow Sideman Simon Miniminter at secondary school, he opened his first YouTube account in 2008 when he was just 15.

He dropped straight out of sixth form after discovering that he earnt enough money to make YouTube his full time career. There’s an amazing story that he’s told in a few interviews about his teacher asking him how much he earns:

“I asked the teacher, ‘Should I leave?’ He asked, ‘How much are you making from YouTube?’ and I said, ‘Around £1,500 a month.’ He told me he was getting less than that.”

Jesse Wellens – United States Air Force

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jesse Wellens (@jessewelle)

Starting by filming his girlfriend Jeana take part in the cinnamon challenge, the pair started doing pranks full time, however, this wasn’t before Jeana had a career in nursing and Jesse was in the US Air Force.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jesse Wellens (@jessewelle)

Not much is known other than he spent six years in the Air Force, being stationed in both Korea and Germany. He met Jeana in 2005, and they started their channel in 2009.