Sam Denby

Last updated

Sam Denby
Sam Denby in December 2023.jpg
Denby in 2023
Personal information
Born
Samuel Robert Denby

(1998-03-17) March 17, 1998 (age 26) [‡ 1] [‡ 2]
Washington, D.C., United States
Occupation YouTuber
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2015–present
Genre Educational entertainment
Subscribers
    • 4.73 million (Wendover Productions)
    • 2.79 million (Half as Interesting)
    • 809 thousand (Jet Lag: The Game)
    • 160 thousand (Extremities)
    • 56.5 thousand (Sam from Wendover)
Total views
    • 736 million (Wendover Productions)
    • 707 million (Half as Interesting)
    • 86 million (Jet Lag: The Game)
    • 1.76 million (Extremities)
    • 753 thousand (Sam from Wendover)
Website
YouTube Silver Play Button 2.svg100,000 subscribers2016
YouTube Gold Play Button 2.svg1,000,000 subscribers2018
Last updated: January 25, 2025

Samuel Robert Denby [1] (born March 17, 1998) is an American YouTuber who created the edutainment YouTube channels Wendover Productions and Half as Interesting, and the travel competition show Jet Lag: The Game, alongside other projects. Across all of Denby's channels, he has accumulated more than 1 billion views and more than 7.8 million subscribers. He is the chief content officer of streaming service Nebula.

Contents

Career

Wendover Productions

Created in 2010, Denby's primary channel is Wendover Productions. As of January 2,2025, that channel has over 4.71 million subscribers, 244 published videos, and more than 731 million total video views. [2] His videos most commonly feature the topics of logistics, most notably those of aviation, as well as geography, economics, [3] and the military. The Wendover Productions video about tourism in Iceland received significant attention from Iceland's national newspapers. [4] Wendover Productions is based in Aspen, Colorado. [5]

Half as Interesting

Launched on August 26, 2017, Denby's second YouTube channel, Half as Interesting, publishes weekly releases on an unrestricted range of curious topics delivered in a witty style. The videos are often in the 5-10 minute range,[ citation needed ] and are dedicated to a single little-known fact each. According to the launch announcement, the channel continues the well-liked coverage of topics from the Wikipedia:Unusual articles list, referred to as "That Wikipedia List" or TWL, which was previously published on the Wendover Productions channel, but doesn't restrict its scope to it. [6] As of January 2,2025, the channel has over 2.77 million subscribers, 493 published videos and more than 700 million views. [7]

Extremities

In June 2019, Denby created a scripted podcast called Extremities about the logistics of living in the world's most isolated and populated locations. [8] The show's format has since been modified into short documentaries exclusive to the streaming service Nebula with the same concept.

Jet Lag: The Game

"It is a brutally exhausting show to film. Imagine a bad travel day where you end up waiting between flights on connections and going in and out of airports all day." [9]

Sam Denby, on Jet Lag: The Game

Denby's YouTube channel Jet Lag: The Game hosts a travel competition show created by Denby and Half as Interesting's writers, Ben Doyle (the son of writer Larry Doyle) and Adam Chase. [9] Inspired by The Amazing Race , the season usually consists of three or four players (with the fourth player being another YouTuber). The show was nominated for Best Editing at the 13th Streamy Awards.

All air travel on the show is carbon-offset by a multiple of 10 via Gold Standard carbon credits. [10] As of January 2,2025, the channel has over 775 thousand subscribers, 73 videos, and more than 79 million total video views. [‡ 3] The episodes were released on Nebula one week earlier than YouTube, causing large spikes to Nebula's usage traffic. [11]

Nebula

On August 25, 2023, Nebula announced that they had appointed Denby as their chief content officer. [12] Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus stated, "the process for developing Nebula Originals should be creator-led, so we turned to a creator with a solid track record for format development across production styles and genres to lead the charge on content as we continue to expand our Originals slate for Nebula." Denby also holds a minority stake in the content distribution platform. [13]

The Getaway

On April 8, 2024, Denby's production company, Wendover Productions, announced production on The Getaway, a reality game show which premiered exclusively on Nebula on July 10, 2024. [14] [‡ 4] The game involves six content creators competing on a road trip through the American West. The contestants are led to believe that there is one secret saboteur among them (much like The Mole or The Traitors), with the rest of them working collaboratively in challenges they are tasked to complete during their trip. In actuality, all six contestants are told that they are the saboteur. Denby, Wiskus, and Trenton Waterson executive produced the project. Denby also directed, with Doyle and Chase involved in production. [14]

Personal life

Denby was born and raised in Washington, D.C. [‡ 5] In 2018, Denby stated he had been living in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the past two years for university. [‡ 6] : 1:32 As of April 2018, he was studying international business. [‡ 7] He has said that he has also lived in Rennes, France and Sydney, Australia. [15] As of 2020, Denby stated he has lived in Colorado, somewhere around Aspen. [‡ 8] [‡ 9] Through Standard, he became a minority owner in the streaming service Nebula in 2020. [‡ 10]

On January 2, 2025, LegalEagle announced that he and Denby have filed a class action lawsuit against PayPal Honey for poaching creator commissions. [16]

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryWork(s)ResultRef.
2023 13th Streamy Awards Editing Jet Lag: The Game Nominated [17]

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References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved December 23, 2024.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. ↑ Youtube.com. "Wendover Productions - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  3. ↑ Dudley, David (August 19, 2020). "Bad Trains, Explained". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  4. ↑ Hafstað, Vala (June 7, 2019). "Iceland's Tourism Explosion Explained". Iceland Monitor. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  5. ↑ Reynolds, Jacqueline. "Film takes a deep dive into river issues". Aspen Daily News. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
  6. ↑ "TWL is back! (But not here...)". YouTube.com. Wendover Productions. August 31, 2017.
  7. ↑ "Half as Interesting". YouTube.com. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  8. ↑ Scott, Richard (July 5, 2019). "'Extremities': taking you to the world's most isolated places" (Audio). Radio New Zealand. The Podcast Hour. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  9. 1 2 Anderson, Pearse (June 29, 2022). "This Travel Game Takes Connect Four to the Extreme". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  10. ↑ Griffiths, James (September 16, 2022). "Are travel-centric reality shows like The Amazing Race worth their carbon footprint?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  11. ↑ Rose, JSam (January 13, 2023). "Jet Lag: The Traffic" . Retrieved October 8, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Nebula taps Wendover Productions creator Sam Denby as its chief content officer". Tubefilter. August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  13. ↑ Nebula. "NEBULA ELEVATES TOP CREATOR SAM DENBY TO CCO". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  14. 1 2 Maas, Jennifer (April 8, 2024). "'Jet Lag: The Game' Creators to Launch New Travel Competition 'The Getaway' on Nebula This Summer (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  15. ↑ WendoverProductions (May 5, 2020). "I've lived in Washin…". r/watchnebula. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
  16. ↑ LegalEagle (January 2, 2025). I'm Suing Honey . Retrieved January 3, 2025– via YouTube.
  17. ↑ Brant, Brian (August 27, 2023). "Streamy Awards 2023: Complete Winners List". People . Retrieved August 28, 2023.

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ↑ Half as Interesting's Crime Spree (February 16, 2022). "We have no idea why he's using the ruler - 1. The chase begins" . Nebula TV. Timestamp 1:00.
  2. ↑ "Crime Spree: The World's Most Illegal Game Show" . Nebula TV. Half as Interesting.
  3. ↑ "Jet Lag: The Game - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  4. ↑ Denby, Sam (June 19, 2024). "Basically @WatchNebula paid me to gaslight creators into thinking they were on a different show than they actually were. The Getaway: coming July 10th". X. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  5. ↑ "We Raced To Visit The Most US States In 100 Hours". YouTube . December 14, 2022. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  6. ↑ Denby, Sam (March 27, 2018). A Moderately Successful Face Reveal (Video). Sam from Wendover. Event occurs at 1:25. Retrieved April 6, 2018– via YouTube.
  7. ↑ Denby, Sam (March 27, 2018). "Economics has too much math. I studied International Business". Reddit. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Life update: I've moved to Colorado Pictured: Skiing, a week ago". Instagram. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  9. ↑ "In case you didn't know, I'm a #influencer". TikTok. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  10. ↑ How a Small Group of Creators Built a $150 Million Business (Video). Wendover Productions. June 15, 2023. Event occurs at 15:10. Retrieved June 15, 2023– via YouTube.

Further reading

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