Emmett Auguston

**Emmett Jameson Maxwell Auguston** (born 21 June, 2000) is a British-American internet personality, activist, actor, and advertiser. Initially rising to prominence on TikTok and YouTube in 2019 during his sohpmore year of college, Auguston has since been named TIME's Voice of a Generation (among other accolades). His content is defined by his sarcastic humour matched with aesthetic cuts. Auguston is widely considered to be a pioneer of a new industry format of talent relationships and organization as a result of his business practices.

In 2023, Auguston will start as Andrew "Kip" Lockhart in Top Gun: Maverick.

## Early Life

Auguston was born at NHS Camberwell in London to Peter Auguston, an American diplomat, and Sheila Maxwell, a British interior designer. His sister Olivia was born in 2002. They lived at Winfield House until 2005, when his father resigned from his first term as U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. The family then moved to Washington D.C. to take care of Judy Auguston, Emmett's grandmother, who had been diagnosed with cancer.

Whilst living in Washington, Auguston attended Sidwell Friends School where he befriended Sasha Obama and Bailey Beckett. In 2006, his father was hired by the United Nations, and the family moved to Aspetuck, Connecticut. He continued his friendship with Beckett and Obama via AOL's AIM Chat and began attending Aspetuck Elementary School.

In 2010, his father was named as the United Nations Ambassador to the United States, prompting him to return independently to Washington as Auguston's mother wanted him and his sister to remain in Connecticut schools. They divorced in 2012, although Auguston has said that his parents still remained very amicable and close friends. Due to his father's move, Auguston and his sister were raised between Connecticut on the weekdays and Washington on the weekends from 2010 until 2018. Auguston and Beckett were frequent guests of the White House to visit Sasha Obama.

Auguston graduated from Hallistead-Westland High School in 2018, and subsequently began attending Everson University.

## Career

### Social Media

Auguston launched his YouTube channel in 2019 during the summer before his sophomore year at Everson University. As a result of his friends sharing his videos via TikTok and Twitter, Auguston garnered over 1 million subscribers within 36 hours, giving him the record of "Fastest Subscriber Growth in YouTube History." He has since broken his own record twice. Media analysts have opined that Auguston's popularity and growth was fuelled by the lack of trusted voices in the social media space following significant turbulence from popular cosmetic-based personalities of the time. His success continued to grow in 2020 due to the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and through media reporting.

Becoming one of the first voices to emerge on TikTok, which at the time had not achieved global success, Auguston leveraged the app's editing tools to break from traditional dancing and lip-synching videos. His content today primarily revolves around vlogs of his daily life, which was cut together in a blend of sarcastic humour and art. His popularity stems from his sheer relatability, exact comedic timing, and aesthetic capturing. Luke Harness at the New York Times called Auguston's videos "An honest to god time-capsule of the Gen Z experience. A documentation of the social ethos of that generation and it's most pure form." His videos are known to feature elements of modern and historical Americana and an encapsulate the experience of living in the South, and highlighting insular communities like hockey teams and the military.

Auguston joined the influencer collective "The Fire House" in July of 2020, before departing five months later. His affect on the influencer industry can be seen through the current model in which social media talent negotiates with advertisers. Auguston created an advanced, in-depth, and multi-phase review process called a Cascade Review, which allows talent to review a company or brand (and it's products) before agreeing to a sponsorship. It weighs the affectiveness of a brand deal on an influencer's channels, the sentiment of both the company and a post mortem after partnership, and whether a brand aligns to the talent's personal/public interests.

### Athletics

During his time at Everson University, Auguston worked as the student co-manager of the school's NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Team. This made him the first openly gay person to hold the position of student manager in the entirety of the NCAA's first division. His content frequently surrounded his life working and living with the hockey team. As a result, he became a spokesperson for queen representation in athletics, for which he ran multiple awards and sat on diversity boards for both the NCAA and the NHL. He was also known as the largest hockey influencer, despite not actually being a player. For all four years of college, he was roommates with NHL player Connor Whistler.

### Acting

In May 2022, Auguston announced he would star in Top Gun: Maverick as one of the leading members of the ensemble cast of recruits. Prior to filming, Auguston and cast mates Miles Teller and Jake Picking lived together in Atlanta for three months to complete daily flight training in order to perform the stunts in the F/A-18s in the film. Auguston's boyfriend was featured as his partner during the "WAGs" scene, making them the first openly gay characters in the Top Gun franchise, which caused minor controversy from anti-LGBTQ+ advocates.

## Personal Life

Auguston is a dual-citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom, and is fluent in both English and French. His younger sister, Olivia, is a student at Skidmore College. His father is currently serving his second term as U.K. ambassador to the U.S., and his Mother continues to work as an interior designer in New York. Auguston lives in the Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta, Georgia. He was given the key to the city in 2023 for his outspoken advocacy for the city.

Auguston is openly gay, and currently in a relationship with childhood best friend Bailey Beckett, who is an architect. Their relationship came to national media attention when Beckett was outed by the paparazzi in 2021 (see Outing of Bailey Beckett). In addition to Sasha Obama, he is also close friends with his former roommate Connor Whistler, who frequently appeared in videos.

Auguston graduated from Everson University *magna cum laude* with a Bachelor of Arts in Advertising and Public Relations. He was the commencement speaker at his graduation.

Auguston is a licensed pilot, having earned an instrument certification in 2021 for Top Gun: Maverick, and multi-engine certification in 2023. He has flown with former cast mate Tom Cruise on multiple occasions. He owns an amphobious Cessna Grand Caravan which is based at Fulton County Airport.

## Public Image

### Microsoft Tweets

In November 2020, Auguston made a series of tweets calling out inefficiencies, poor user experience, and bugs within the Microsoft Office suite of products, and the Windows operating system. The posts subsequently went viral after being retweeting by several major Fortune 500 CEOs, entrepreneurs, billionaires, and other prominent business people, including major celebrities. Conversations continued prominently throughout the month, and Microsoft became a GenZ punching bag, replacing the "Thanks, Obama" meme to use the company to blame everyday faults.

In January 2021, Microsoft reported the lowest quarterly earnings in the company's history in both consumer and business purchaess (both hardware and software), whilst Apple and Google both recorded higher than predicted purchases. Twitter announced Auguston's musings were the most popular Q4 tweets in both engagement, views, and exposure.

In Februaury 2021, Microsoft announced it had begun initial planning for a widescale redevelopment of it's software. Forbes opined this was due to a combination of both pressure from large organisations who leveraged Microsoft's software, and from the number of major companies who stopped using the products in favour of other systems. As of March 2023, these changes have not been realised.

### Departure from the Fire House

In July 2020, Auguston joined the influencer collective known as the Fire House, and moved into the team home in Los Angeles. Although independent at the time of his joining, Auguston was assigned a management team after the collective was sold to media group Studio88.

On 3 January 2021, Auguston posted a video to his YouTube channel entitled "the absolute state of affairs," in which he announced his departure from The Fire House. His stated reason was due to a significant deterioration of his mental health due to stress, which had manifested into early signs of anorexia nervosa. He announced a one month hiatus, and moved back to Washington D.C. to receive mental health treatment with his family.

Two weeks later, Studio88 announced their attention to sue Emmett Auguston for breach of contract. However, over a hundred major influencers (many of whom were signed under Studio88) denounced the lawsuit in light of Auguston's mental health. Many of these influencers were signed with Studio88, who announced they were cutting ties with the organization. Former Fire House members claimed Auguston had suffered extreme emotional abuse from his manager, who ignored his obligations for school and refused to let him leave the house. Auguston had obtained a diagnosis from Cedars Senai (for Extreme Stress Crisis and Early Onset Anorexia Nervosa) in secret, with fellow influencer Noah Beck chaperoning him. Studio88 was also illegally leveraging Auguston's name, image, and likeness after he successfully negotiated that usage out of his original signed contract.

The media group dropped the lawsuit two days later, and was then purchased by a media conglomerate dissolved a month later due to insolvency. The aftermath rasied concerns over the treatment and rights of talent within the entertainment industry.

### Political Testing

Between 2016 and 2018, Auguston was a frequent participate in Washington's elite youth gala circuit, and was known to be part of the group called "The Capitol Quintet" (alongside Sasha Obama, Bailey Beckett, and other friends Rose Harlinger and Charlotte Wabash). The group infamous for publicly confronting politicians at events, garnering social media responses and in some cases actual political change.

In November 2020, Auguston had discovered that the Capitol Quintet was used to focus test future politicians with a Gen Z audience, a fact which Sasha Obama confirmed through New York Times articles and the current political landscape based off their experiences. In response, he uploaded a video to his channel entitled "quick chat," in which he revealed his familiar ties to politics and his regret of being unaware the group was being used for testing. Auguston was commended for his transparency, and for providing an open look into politics as an industry.

Today, Auguston uses his platform to promote social good, but does not speak about politics publicly.

### Outing of Bailey Beckett

In May 2021, photos of Auguston and childhood best friend Bailey Beckett (son of conservative Georgia senator Bull Beckett) were published by an L.A.-based paparazzi outlet, which depicted them kissing in Colorado in January of that year. Prior to these photos, Auguston had never shared that he been in a relationship, and Beckett had not publicly identified his sexuality.

In a video uploaded to his channel the next day, Auguston confirmed his relationship with Beckett, claiming they concealed it out of fear of backlash from Beckett's father and family. Auguston also took the opportunity to condemn tabloid media for outing a college student, and revealed the photos were taken illegal on his grandmother's private property. He further re-iterated his avoidance of politics, but was speculative of the timing of the photo releases, which were published five months after being taken.

Auguston received widespread public support from major celebrities, the Obama family, and many others. Prior to his video, Bull Beckett released a statement supporting "his son and his relationship, [hoping] the two find happiness," making him the first conservative Senator to acknowledge a same sex relationship. Auguston thanked Beckett in the video, but mentioned that "actions speak louder than words" in regards to his anti-LGBTQ+ voting record in Georgia.

In June 2021, Marlin Ottagrazzo, the photographer who took the photos, was arrested and convicted of criminal trespassing, criminal intent, and stalking. The court case resulted in significant moves to restrict tabloid media.