Philip DeFranco

Philip DeFranco was born as Philip James Franchini, Jr. on December 1, 1985 in the Bronx, New York City, New York, U.S. He studied at the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, University of South Florida. Later he moved to East Carolina University but dropped out of college without completing his studies. He dated Lindsay Jordan Doty for a long time before marrying her in 2015. Their wedding received vast media coverage. They have one son and are expecting another in late 2017. One sad fact about this jovial YouTuber is that he suffers from polycystic kidney disease which he inherited from his father and grandfather.

Philip DeFranco began his YouTube career while still a student at the East Carolina University. The year was 2006 when he opened his first YouTube channel, ‘sxephil.’ At that time there weren’t many people posting online content and it was relatively easier to gain notice with one’s videos. Within a short span of time DeFranco was able to gain a small but loyal following that mostly comprised teenaged girls. His channel became even more popular following the premiere of ‘The Philip DeFranco Show’ in 2007. The next year, he co-starred with Jessica Rose and Kevin Wu in ‘Hooking Up,’ a HBOLabs webseries. In January 2012, he created a news website and YouTube channel ‘SourceFed,’ which was originally produced by James Haffner. This new channel mainly focused on news, popular culture, and technology. The channel proved to be an extremely successful one and had accumulated over 1.7 million subscribers and 907 million video views before being cancelled in March 2017.

Over the years Philip DeFranco’s fame climbed to greater heights, and in 2012, he signed a deal with Revision3, an internet television network. The following year, DeFranco's assets, including ‘The Philip DeFranco Show’ were acquired by Revision3, and he was made the Senior VP of a new Revision3 subsidiary, Phil DeFranco Networks and Merchandise. Later in 2013, he launched another channel, ForHumanPeoples, which is basically a YouTube channel dedicated to his merchandise line. In addition to his social media career, DeFranco has also organized live shows and meet-up events in locations such as Arizona, Los Angeles, and Toronto. In May 2017, DeFranco created DefrancoElite, a fan-fun initiative through popular fan funding website Pateron. He is now an independent creator and is no longer associated with any MNC. Right now he is also focused on building his own 'The Philip DeFranco Network.’

Philip DeFranco is the recipient of several awards. He was named the "Sexiest Geek” by the ‘Wired Magazine’ in 2008. His channel ‘SourceFed’ won the Streamy Award for Audience Choice for Best Series of the Year in 2013. His popular series, ‘The Philip DeFranco Show,’ won the Streamy Awards for Best News and Culture Series and Audience Choice for Best Show of the Year in 2016.