Roman Atwood was born on May 28, 1983, in Millersport, Ohio. He is known for his unique prank videos that he posts on YouTube. He started filming and producing videos when he was in high school, but got his first break when he produced a DVD series called The Nerd Herd, which he sold in 2006 at the Warped Tour.
After working on several commercials, he started the YouTube channel Sketch Empire. After posting several videos there, he started his own channel. The channel has more than 10.5 million subscribers and has accumulated more than 1.4 billion views on all his videos. His prank channel has been less active than his second channel as Atwood has switched to working on daily videos.
In 2013, Atwood started his own merchandising line called Smile More, which sells apparel, toys phone cases, notebooks, and keychains. His family can be seen wearing Smile More apparel in most videos. He has more than 2.6 million followers on Twitter, 5.6 million followers on Instagram and 1.5 million likes on Facebook. Atwood uses social media to cross-promote his videos and latest daily content, often linking to his YouTube videos via social media. He also occasionally promotes sales and fundraisers through his Smile More store.
In 2014, Atwood was nominated for the Pranks category at the 4th Streamy Awards. He won in at the 5th Streamy Awards and was nominated for Entertainer of the Year at the 6th Streamy Awards. He also won the YouTube Comedian Award at the 8th Shorty Awards.
His most popular pranks include the Plastic Ball Prank, the Anniversary Prank, and the Killing My Kid Prank. The 2015 Ball Prank had Atwood filling his house with plastic balls, effectively turning the whole thing into a ball pit. He then filmed himself and his son playing in the converted ball pit. The video received almost 86 million views, and Nissan gave him a car as compensation and used part of the video in its halftime commercial for the Super Bowl. The prank won the Best Web Campaign Award at the 5th Streamy Awards.
The Anniversary Prank received more than 86 million views and involved Atwood pranking his girlfriend and co-video star on their five-year anniversary by saying he was cheating on her. However, she had seen the camera, so she pretended she had cheated on him. At the end of the video, she jokingly says that she thought he was going to propose when she saw the camera but realized it was a prank.
The Killing My Kid Prank involved Atwood dressing a mannequin in a Spider-Man costume usually worn by his son and then accidentally throwing the mannequin over the stairwell. His girlfriend runs downstairs to remove the mask and realizes it is a mannequin and starts crying. The video has over 50 million views.
Roman Atwood Vlogs
Atwood’s second channel has fewer pranks and focuses more on his life as a father to his three children and partner to his girlfriend. In 2014, Atwood and his producers were arrested while filming a prank about robbing an ATM during the day. After fans attended court to support him, popular opinion shifted, and Atwood successfully defended the prank and won his case by saying the mischief was an expression of art and freedom of speech. The case was settled without charges.
Atwood launched a second YouTube channel that has more than 13.7 million subscribers. This channel focuses on family updates, daily vlogs, challenges, behind-the-scenes videos and adventure videos. The video has more than 4.2 billion views. His vlog channel is billed as being more family friendly and has a different tone and look than his prank videos.
In 2016, Atwood, Vitaly Zdorovetskiy, and Dennis Roady worked on and released a Lionsgate film called Natural Born Pranksters. He also began touring with fellow YouTuber Yousef Erakat for a comedy series called Roman vs. Rousey. So far, the show has toured the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Roman Atwood’s Latest YouTube Vlogs
