Reuben De Maid

Reuben was born on March 24, 2005, in Cardiff, Wales. His mother’s name is Vicki. He has a younger sister named Coco, who is about two and a half years younger than him. Coco has been featured on her brother’s channel several times. She also has her own self-titled YouTube channel, on which she sporadically posts fashion, shopping, and makeup related videos. He also has two brothers who have appeared in his videos as well.

When he was a child, his mother gave him a karaoke machine as a gift. This incited in him a deep interest in music and it was not long after that he started doing covers. Reuben also became interested in makeup at the age of eight and subsequently watched tutorials and read blogs on it. He then started going to school wearing makeup. At the time, he was attending a drama school and this made him the object of ridicule by other students there. They began bullying him. They would address him by various derogative names, push and kick him. Eventually, he realized that he had to stand up for himself. He also told his mother what was happening and she, in turn, contacted the school’s coach. In the following days, the bullying gradually stopped. However, he still experienced online trolling on a regular basis. He then became a part of an anti-bullying initiative called AntiBullyPro. Appearing in one of their videos, he stated, “It made me feel sad and confused why someone would want to be mean to me when I’ve done nothing to them.” He further elaborated, “It would always happen quite frequently, whether it was online or in person, but mainly in person.”

Reuben created his self-titled YouTube channel on May 4, 2013, and the oldest video on the channel was posted on June 25, 2014. In it, he can be seen performing the cover of ‘Listen’ by Beyoncé. In the ensuing few years, he also covered Jackson 5’s ‘Who’s Lovin You’, Elton John’s ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight’, Whitney Houston’s ‘I Have Nothing’, Celine Dion’s ‘Because You Loved Me’, and Emeli Sandé’s ‘Clown,’ to name a few. At present, he has thousands of subscribers on his channel and millions of views.

The producers of ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ came to know about him after watching these videos. They subsequently contacted him and invited him to the show. He made his first appearance on the show on episode 137 of season 14, which also featured Simone Biles, Sasha Farber, and John Mayer and aired on April 17, 2017. During his appearance, he was asked what he wished to become when he grows up, to which he answered, “A Kardashian”. He also performed ‘And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going’, which is a torch song from the Broadway musical ‘Dreamgirls’. He would make another appearance on the show about seven months later, on episode 52 of season 15, which aired on November 15, 2017. This is when he got the opportunity to meet his idol, Kim Kardashian, who attended the show as a guest to surprise Reuben.

In 2017, he was also featured in one episode of NBC’s variety show ‘Little Big Shots’. Co-created and co-produced by Steve Harvey and Ellen DeGeneres and hosted by Harvey himself, the show offers a national platform to prodigiously gifted children to demonstrate their respective talents. Furthermore, Reuben has been featured in episodes of ITV’s ‘This Morning’ and ‘Good Morning Britain’.