Phil Lester

**Phil Lester**, also known by his YouTube persona, AmazingPhil, is a British video creator, vlogger and former radio personality. He hosted a radio show on BBC Radio 1 with Dan Howell, his friend and flatmate, who at the time of the show frequently appeared in videos with him on both of their YouTube channels. Lester reached 1 million YouTube subscribers on July 6, 2013. As of September 2021, he has 4 million subscribers, but his number has been steadily decreasing and statistic sites suggest he has been losing subscribers daily. The trend suggests he will dip back down to the 3M mark well before the end of 2022.

## Biography

Lester currently lives with his best friend and fellow video uploader, Dan Howell in London in a home, or owned apartment, that they designed themselves. He did a degree in English Language and Linguistics and then a post graduate in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television and got a Master of Arts in Video Postproduction with Specialization in Visual Effects at the University of York.

## Career

### Youtube

At age 19, Lester posted his first YouTube vlog. Since then he has posted over 315 videos on his channel and now has more than 4 million subscribers with over 645 million video views. He was part of the Fantastic Foursome, a group of British YouTubers consisting of himself, Chris Kendall (crabstickz), Dan Howell (danisnotonfire) and PJ Liguori (KickthePj).

Lester's older videos regularly featured a cuddle lion toy called Lion, usually in the background, which speaks to the

audience through annotations. Lester's fanbase referred to themselves as Philions, and while less prevalent now, some still do to this day.

Lester and Howell have created a collaborative YouTube channel, through My Damn Channel, called *The Super Amazing Project*, where they investigate paranormal events. Segments include "In the News This Week" and "Viewers Spooky Happenings" where viewers send in "scary" items for the vloggers to react to. The segment also has a mascot "Spooky" the light-up ghost, featured in several episodes. Most episodes include "Twitter Question" in which Lester and Howell's Twitter followers answer a weekly question, hoping to appear in the show. As of December 2013, The Super Amazing Project has over 470,000 subscribers. In December 2012, the YouTube show finished its third season of 12 episodes. It is currently on hiatus, with some elements incorporated into their BBC Radio show.

Lester also appeared alongside Howell in Benjamin Cook's twelve-part web series Becoming YouTube, being interviewed on the various topics Cook covered. He is also confirmed to be in the second series.

Lester collaborated with YouTubers CharlieSkies and SarahGrace in early 2009 on a channel called pabloislove, but the collaboration ended after only a short time and now appears on YouTube under the name 'It Was Fun While it Lasted'.

### Radio 1 Edit

The BBC announced that starting in January 2013, Lester and Howell would present the Sunday night entertainment show for BBC Radio 1. Both had occasionally worked with the station before, making videos for the station's YouTube channel and two Christmas broadcasts. The show is an interactive, audio-visual segment involving music videos made by viewers, challenges performed on air by Howell and Lester, which are voted on in an online poll on Facebook, and song requests from listeners. The entire show is streamed in video, live on the BBC Radio 1 website. In 2013, Howell and Lester were voted UK’s favourite Radio Presenters and winners of the Sony Golden Headphones Award, presented by the Sony Radio Academy Awards, for Dan and Phil on BBC Radio 1.

### MediaEdit

Lester has appeared on television programs, including being on The Weakest Link. He played the role of Tim in the film Faintheart. 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.