Logan Paul

Logan Paul Biography

Logan Alexander Paul (born April 1, 1995) is an American actor, director, internet personality, screenwriter, rapper, and white collar boxer. Paul first gained fame through videos shared on former internet video service Vine. Paul's television and film work includes guest appearances on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Weird Loners, and starring roles in films The Thinning and The Space Between Us.

Early life

He has claimed to possess English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Jewish ancestry. Growing up in Ohio with younger brother Jake, Paul began creating internet videos for a YouTube channel called Zoosh when he was 10 years old.

Paul attended Westlake High School, achieving the ranks of the Plain Dealer's All-Star linebacker on the football team in 2012, and qualifying for the state-level Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) 2013 Division I Wrestling Individual Championships.

By the time he was ready to attend college, his YouTube channel had attained a modest following. He majored in Industrial Engineering at Ohio University before dropping out in 2014 to pursue a career as a full-time social media entertainer in Los Angeles, moving into an apartment complex in LA with other Vine stars. Paul was only 19 at the start of his entertainment career.

Entertainment career

2013-2015: Vine and YouTube beginnings

Paul rose to fame as a member on the Internet video sharing service Vine. In February 2014, he had over 3.1 million followers on various social media platforms. By April 2014 he had attained 105,000 Twitter followers, 361,000 Instagram followers, 31,000 likes on his Facebook page and about 150,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. A YouTube compilation video of his Vine work garnered more than four million views the first week it was posted. In 2015 he was ranked as the 10th most influential figure on Vine, with his six-second videos earning him hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue. By that October, his Facebook videos alone had more than 300 million views.

"TheOfficialLoganPaul" is the YouTube account used by Paul to upload short films and comedy sketches. Paul also posts a daily vlog to "Logan Paul Vlogs", uploading every day from September 12, 2016, to January 1, 2018. While his first channel has a following of 4.36 million, his vlog channel surpassed it with a following of 15.7 million as of January 10, 2018.

2015-2016: television roles, YouTube Red series, and Airplane Mode

In early 2015, Paul appeared on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He also appeared on the Fox TV series Weird Loners, where he appeared in the role of the Paul Twins. He starred in two episodes of the Freeform series Stitchers. In 2016, Paul starred in the YouTube Red movie The Thinning opposite Peyton List. In early 2016, Paul trained with drama coaches and the comedy troupes The Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade.

Paul wrote the screenplay for an adult comedy, Airplane Mode, which has been described as "American Pie for Gen Z", and by Paul himself as "Expendables with Internet stars." The film has yet be to released. Paul was also involved in a number of advertising campaigns, including for Hanes, PepsiCo, and HBO. In 2016, Comcast purchased a short form digital TV series from Paul called Logan Paul VS.

2017-present: Baywatch

In February 2017, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson released on his own YouTube channel "Logan Paul has been cut from, like, all of The Rock's movies", a video starring himself and Paul, in which Johnson informs Paul that he has been cut from all of Johnson's films, and consoles Paul by making him the "ambassador" to his upcoming Baywatch feature film. That April, Johnson and Paul reunited for "Logan Paul is, like, totally terrible at falling in love with Alexandra Daddario", the first part of a video sketch in which Paul tries to impress Johnson in order to win a part in the film, and falls in love with actress Alexandra Daddario in the process. It was later revealed in a deleted scene that Paul really was cut from the 2017 film Baywatch. He would have cameoed as Zane, who bullies Ronnie for taking his shirt off.

Amateur boxing career

On February 3, 2018, following his white collar amateur boxing match with Joe Weller, British YouTube personality JJ Olatunji, better known as KSI, challenged Paul to a boxing match while also challenging Paul's brother Jake, and retired footballer Rio Ferdinand.

On February 24, 2018, it was announced that the Paul brothers would be fighting the Olatunji brothers (KSI and his younger brother Deji, also known as ComedyShortsGamer) in a series of boxing matches, with Logan boxing Olajide in one match and Jake boxing Deji in the other.

Amateur boxing record

	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
1			Olajide Olatunji		- (6)	Aug 25, 2018

Controversies and legal issues

"No Handlebars" controversy

On November 23, 2017, Paul released his new single, "No Handlebars", a track based heavily around an interpolated sample of the song "Handlebars" by the American alternative hip hop group Flobots. The song was heavily criticized for its perceived sexual objectification of women, including a scene in its music video where Paul rides several women like a bicycle. Flobots frontman Jamie Laurie lambasted Paul for both the "sexist" lyrical content of the song and for unauthorized use of the sample, calling him the face of "douchebag entitlement [sic]". Laurie would later go on to release a track with lyrics deriding Paul, titled "Handle Your Bars". Paul did not respond to Laurie's comments nor the backlash towards "No Handlebars".

Suicide video controversy

On December 31, 2017, Paul uploaded a vlog to his YouTube channel depicting the recently deceased corpse of a man who had committed suicide by hanging in Aokigahara at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, known as the "suicide forest" due to its infamy as a suicide site. Initially intended to be part three of his "Tokyo Adventures" series, Paul and his group had planned to camp in the woods, but in response to finding the corpse, decided to notify the authorities and cancel their plans. The video gained 6.3 million views within 24 hours of being uploaded.

Paul was criticized for posting the video by celebrities and politicians, and was accused by other members of the YouTube community of being insensitive to suicide victims. Several petitions were made to Change.org urging YouTube to delete Paul's channel, the largest of which received more than 500,000 signatures as of January 12, 2018.

As a result of the backlash, Paul removed the video from his YouTube channel, following up with a written apology on Twitter on January 1, 2018. On January 2, 2018, a subsequent video apology was released to YouTube in which Paul describes his behavior as a "coping mechanism," asking his fans to stop defending his actions in the process. While acknowledging his actions as irresponsible, he denied that his intention was to mock the victim. The video has garnered over 51.5 million views as of June 2, 2018.

On January 9, YouTube issued a statement via their Twitter account condemning Paul's video. In the series of tweets they said, "It's taken us a long time to respond, but we've been listening to everything you've been saying. We know that the actions of one creator can affect the entire community, so we'll have more to share soon on steps we're taking to ensure a video like this is never circulated again." On January 10, YouTube announced it was removing Paul's channels from Google Preferred, its preferred ad program, and the sequel to his YouTube film The Thinning was placed on hold, with the airing of Logan Paul VS. being halted as well. Paul was also cut from season 4 of the YouTube Red series Foursome and the role of Alec Fixler was terminated. On January 15, Paul was seen at LAX by reporters from TMZ. Paul said that he has learned a lot from his mistakes and believes he has been treated "fairly." When asked whether or not he deserves a second chance, Paul replied, "Everyone deserves second chances, bro."

On January 24, Paul uploaded his first video to the "Logan Paul Vlogs" channel since the apology video uploaded three weeks prior. In this video, Paul takes an in-depth look at suicide prevention, interviewing Golden Gate Bridge jumper Kevin Hines, musical activist Bob Forrest, and National Suicide Prevention Lifeline director Dr. John Draper. The video was met with mostly positive feedback and has a total of 29 million views as of June 2, 2018. In addition, Paul has donated $1 million to suicide prevention agencies, with a quarter of the proceeds going to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

On February 4, Paul officially returned to his daily vlogs on YouTube, after taking a month-long hiatus.

Maverick Apparel lawsuit

In wake of the controversy regarding the suicide video, Maverick Apparel, a brand for juniors and children, threatened Paul with legal action for giving his clothing line a similar name ("Maverick by Logan Paul"), believing shoppers are confusing their line with Paul's, resulting in a deep decline in sales.

Temporary suspension from ad revenue on YouTube

On February 9, 2018, YouTube suspended all advertising on Logan Paul's channels due to his "pattern of behavior", since he had recently joked about participating in the Tide pod challenge, removed an ill fish from his pond to "jokingly give it CPR", and tasered two dead rats. The income stream estimated to be worth more than a million dollars a month was halted, however temporarily.

Personal life

In October 2015, Paul lived in the same apartment complex on Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood, California as other social media celebrities including Amanda Cerny, Juanpa Zurita, and Andrew Bachelor, with his roommates Mark Dohner and Evan "Dwarf Mamba" Eckenrode. This proximity facilitated various collaborations on their respective videos. In October 2017, Paul and Eckenrode relocated to an estate in Rancho Mirage, California, having been evicted from their previous residence. On February 10, 2018, Paul revealed that nearly twenty individuals were living with him in his estate.

Health

In October 2017, Paul revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he was missing 15% of his right testicle from the result of a stunt. For one of his Vine videos, Paul was at a shopping mall and during the stunt had landed onto a chair with his right testicle afflicted. Three days after the stunt, Paul decided to go to a hospital where he was told the right testicle had been damaged.

Paul claims to be red-green colorblind. However, he has been parodied and criticized by YouTube personalities such as h3h3 Productions and iDubbbz for faking his reactions in a video, in which he used color-corrective glasses for the first time. Paul himself admits that he "embellished" and "exaggerated [his] reactions" to the glasses, while adding that he "did not lie" about his impairment.

Filmography

Film

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
2015	Close Before Midnight	Miles	Short film
2016	Chainsaw	Craig	Short film
2017	The Space Between Us	Roger
	Where's the Money	Eddie
	Can't Take It Back	Clint Plotkin
2018	Valley Girl	Mickey	Post-production; potentially cancelled
	Liked	Logan	Post-production
	Airplane Mode		Post-production
	Superstition: The Rule of 3's	Preston	Production halted; potentially cancelled

Television

Television
Year	Show	Role	Notes
2015	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Ryan	Episode: "Intimidation Game"
2015	Weird Loners	Logan Twins	Episode: "Weird Pilot"
2016	Stitchers	Theo Engelsen	Episodes: "The Two Deaths of Jamie B." and "The One That Got Away"
	Walk the Prank	Himself	Episode: "So You Think You Can Middle School Dance"
	Bizaardvark	Kirk	Episode: "The First Law of Dirk"

Web exclusive

Web-exclusive
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	Rainbow Man	Thomas Trainor/Rainbow Man	Short film
2015	Lyin' Ryan	Ryan	Short film
2015-present	Logan Paul Vlogs	Himself	Daily video series

YouTube Red
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	The Thinning	Blake Redding	Film
2016-present	Logan Paul VS.	Himself	Series placed on hold in January 2018
2016-17	Foursome	Alec Fixler	Main role for 3 seasons; cut from the fourth season in January 2018
2018	The Thinning: New World Order	Blake Redding	Post-production; film placed on hold in January 2018

Discography

Singles

As a lead artist

Title	Year	Peak chart positions			Certifications	Album
Title	Year	US Bub.	AUS	NZ Heat.	Certifications	Album
"Help Me Help You" (featuring Why Don't We)	2017	5	90	"?	RIAA: Platinum MC: Gold	rowspan="3"
"Outta My Hair"		"?	"?	"?
"No Handlebars"		"?	"?	6

As a featured artist

Title	Year	Album
"The Song of the Summer" (Seven Bucks featuring Logan Paul and Desiigner)	2017

Promotional singles

List of promotional singles, with selected chart positions, showing year released and album name
Title	Year	Album
"2016"	2016	rowspan="5"
"The Fall of Jake Paul" (featuring Why Don't We)	2017
"I Love You Bro" (with Jake Paul)
"The Rise of the Pauls" (featuring Jake Paul)
"Hero" (featuring Zircon)

Music videos

Title	Year	Director
2016	2016	Str
Help Me Help You (featuring Why Don't We, Shay Mitchell)	2017	Logan Paul
The Fall of Jake Paul (featuring Why Don't We)		Logan Paul
The Fall of Jake Paul (Full Song) (featuring Why Don't We)		Logan Paul
The Rise of the Pauls (featuring Jake Paul)		Logan Paul
Hero (featuring Zircon)		Logan Paul
No Handlebars		Logan Paul
Outta My Hair (featuring Bella Thorne)		Eli Sokhn & Logan Paul
Santa Diss Track		Logan Paul

Awards and nominations

|- | 2014 | Logan Paul | Shorty Awards - Vine of the Year | |- | 2014 | Logan Paul | Shorty Awards - Videographer | |- | 2015 | Logan Paul | Shorty Awards - Best Vine Comedian | |- | 2016 | Role in Foursome | Streamy Awards - Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series | |- | 2016 | Logan Paul | Streamy Awards - Best Comedy Series | |- | 2017 | Logan Paul | Teen Choice Awards - Male Web Star | |- | 2017 | Logan Paul | Teen Choice Awards - Comedy Web Star | |- | 2017 | Logan Paul | Teen Choice Awards - YouTuber | |- | 2017 | Role in The Thinning | Streamy Awards - Best Comedy Series | |- | 2017 | Logan Paul | Streamy Awards - Audience Choice Creator of the Year | |- | 2017 | Logan Paul | Streamy Awards - Storyteller | |}