Caspar Lee

Lee’s rise as a global star is closely connected with the rise of the popular video-streaming site, YouTube. He started his first YouTube channel, Dicasp, in 2011 and later renamed it to ‘Caspar’. As of 2017, the number of his subscribers has crossed 7 million and still counting. His is the 152nd most subscribed channel on the site. However, YouTube is not the only place that Caspar has gained popularity. He is quite popular on other social media sites such as Twitter, where he has 4.45 million followers, and Instagram, where he has a little less than 4 million followers.

Creative from a very young age, Lee first started uploading videos on YouTube in the year 2011 when he was a mere teenager. Before that, he regularly participated in various acting and dramatics events in high school. His YouTube channel, Dicasp, started getting famous because of the fresh and engaging content and his charismatic personality. Till date, the videos from Dicasp (later, Caspar) has generated more than 500 million views. He later started a second channel on YouTube, and named it ‘morecaspar’. This channel, though not as successful as its predecessor, still has close to 2 million subscribers and has generated about 106 million views.

To start with, it was not Lee’s primary intention to make a living out of YouTube. It was towards the end of 2012 that he moved to London and became serious about making a career doing what he does best- making videos. After moving to London, Lee came in contact with other star YouTubers. He eventually became the roommate of another popular YouTuber- Joe Sugg of ‘PointlessBlogs’ fame. There was no looking back from that point and Lee became totally engrossed in making a career as a YouTuber.

As brilliant as his videos are, Lee’s popularity is also somehow due to his association with other stars in the industry. Over time, he has collaborated with various YouTube stars such as Shane Dawson, Grace Helbig, Cara Delevingne, Tyler Oakley, Jack and Finn Harries, Connor Franta, Zoe Sugg, Marcus Butler, Troye Sivan, KSI, Dan Howell, Phil Lester, Joe Sugg, Eva Gutowski, Lilly Singh among others. Lee has appeared on video with all these stars, which has resulted in an increased popularity for him as well.

The fact that Lee has also grabbed the attention of moviemakers bears the testimony of his popularity in his field. He has starred in a couple of movies. In ‘Spud 3: Learning to Fly’, he plays the role of Garlic. The role was right down his alley as the film was a comedy. In 2015, Lee played the role of a seagull in ‘The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water’. The movie was the British version of the popular Hollywood franchise. It also featured his friend and fellow YouTuber, Joe Sugg. Later the same year, these two made a travel documentary, produced by BBC Worldwide, in which they travel 1000 miles and make a documentary of the entire trip. Apart from these impressive stints on the big screen, Lee has also hosted a talk show named “The Crew”, which aired on StyleHaul network.

For a celebrity of his status, Lee maintains a very low key profile in his real life. He was born in Paddington, London, on April 24, 1994, to Jonathan Lee and Emily Riordan Lee. He is the second child in the family and has an elder sister, Theodora Lee, who is a regular in Caspar’s videos and also runs an eponymous YouTube channel.

His family is of South African origin and he was raised in Knysna, Durban, and the Western Cape.

Through his mother, Caspar is connected to the English aristocracy. His grandfather was the famous poet Richard Murphy. He is also connected to Lady Sophia Cavendish, daughter of the 11th Duke of Devonshire and Hugh Cavendish, Baron Cavendish of Furness through his mother’s family.

He attended the Oakhill School in Knysna and later went to Crawford College in La Lucia.

In a tragic turn of events, he was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome at a very young age.