Austin McConnell

Gregory Austin McConnell (born February 15, 1990) is an American filmmaker and YouTuber. He started his career producing indie films but is best known for producing videos on his YouTube channel. He produces videos on various topics including popular culture, filmmaking, his personal experiences and other general interest subjects. As of April 2021, his channel has 1.28 million subscribers and 139.6 million channel views. In 2018 he was nominated for a Shorty Award.
==Early work==
His early filmmaking first gained recognition at SATO 48, where he has received over a dozen awards for his short films.
In 2010, McConnell went on to become the creative lead and director of LG15: Outbreak, a web series part of the lonelygirl15 franchise. McConnell won the commission for the series after producing a series of videos criticising the show, figuring he could "do a better job".
=== Sprouting Orchids ===
In 2014, McConnell released his first full-length film, titled Sprouting Orchids. The sci-fi movie follows the story of a young man and woman recovering from separate tragedies while "unseen forces in the universe work to bring them together for a purpose far greater than themselves," according to the film's IMDB summary. Sprouting Orchids was screened at film festivals and briefly selected cinemas in Germany.Sprouting Orchids - https://austinmcconnell.com/ McConnell later talked about his experiences working on the film in a YouTube video, released in October of 2017.
== YouTube career ==
McConnell produces videos in a wide range of genres from film analysis, educational videos, digital storytelling and video essays. In a 2019 interview, McConnell said he uses his channel to "tell stories or talk about things I find interesting" and would dislike it "being pigeon-holed into a particular genre". As of April 2021, his channel's total view count of its public videos is 135.7 million."About" channel page tab of Austin McConnell's YouTube channel
McConnell created his YouTube Channel in June 2007, and for the first several years he mainly uploaded his short films. McConnell says his first video to reach a widespread audience was his analysis of the book Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in 2016 and credits it to the early growth of his channel.
In June 2016, McConnell released a video promoting the idea that the ink cartridge industry is a "scam", explaining various techniques that printer companies use in order to make profits, which received widespread media attention. In November 2017, McConnell released a short video going over a 1940's Monopoly (game)|Monopoly board made during World War II, and how its material components were impacted by the war at the time.
In January 2018, McConnell released a short video talking about how the English alphabet at one point had 10 letters that have fallen out of use. In April of that year, he released a video advocating for Diverging diamond interchange|diverging diamonds and asking for people to use their Automotive lighting|turn signals. In November, after reading the book Creativity Inc., McConnell released a video explaining the story about how an employee of the American movie studio Pixar accidentally deleted the digital assets of their then-upcoming movie, Toy Story 2. Later that year, he was nominated for the "Best Breakout YouTuber" category by the Shorty Awards.
He has an ongoing series, Really Weird Star Wars, where he goes over lesser-known parts of the Star Wars franchise. He also has an ongoing series, produced around every 6 months, that tries to feature interesting channels with under 1,000 subscribers.
== Filmography ==
Title 	Year	Role 	Ref.
LG15: Outbreak 	2010	Web series
Creator, writer, director, executive producer, actor 	
Sprouting Orchids 	2014	Director, writer, producer, actor, editor, digital effects, sound editor	
Voicemails From Strangers	2019	Documentary
Director, producer, editor, himself 	
== Bibliography ==
* Fallen Angel: Book 1 - Welcome to Munich (October 2009)Fallen Angels: Book 1 - Welcome to Munich - Google Books
* Today is Spaceship Day (May 2019)
Category:1990 births
Category:American male voice actors
Category:American male web series actors
Category:American YouTubers
Category:Male YouTubers