Taryn Southern is an American storyteller, public speaker, artist, and brand strategist who works with emerging technologies. She was formerly known for her work as a TV host, actress and YouTuber.
Jessica Lee Rose is an American-New Zealand actress who first gained popularity after playing the role of lonelygirl15, a fictional teenage homeschooled character named Bree who appeared in YouTube video blogs, beginning in June 2006. In September 2006, the Los Angeles Times outed the character, destroying any mystery surrounding the possible fictionality of lonelygirl15, which thrust Rose into the mainstream spotlight while also increasing the viewership of the series. In 2007, Rose won a Webby for this role.
Jessica Stroup is an American actress, best known for her role as Silver on 90210 (2008–2013), Max Hardy on The Following (2014–2015) and Joy Meachum on Iron Fist (2017–2018), which is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). She is regarded as a scream queen for starring in the horror films Vampire Bats (2005), Left in Darkness (2006), The Hills Have Eyes 2 (2007), Prom Night (2008) and Homecoming (2009).
Vuguru is an American independent multi-platform studio founded by Michael Eisner's The Tornante Company in March 2006. The company has produced content including the web series Prom Queen, The Booth at the End, Little Women Big Cars, The All-for-Nots, and Back on Topps. The company has signed content deals with AOL, HDNet, Yahoo!, Hulu, YouTube, Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment, and FremantleMedia. Its shows are distributed in over forty countries, on the Internet, mobile phones, and linear television platforms.
Prom Queen is the first web series produced by former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner's new production company Vuguru and veteran production company Big Fantastic, the creators of Sam Has 7 Friends. The series, consisting of 80 episodes of 90 seconds each, is one of the best-funded entrants into the world of original programming designed exclusively for online video.
A web series is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single instance of a web series program can be called an episode or a webisode. The scale of a web series is small and a typical episode can be anywhere from three to fifteen minutes in length. Web series are distributed online on video sharing websites and apps, such as YouTube, Vimeo and TikTok, and can be watched on devices such as smartphones, tablets, desktops, laptops, and Smart TVs. They can also be released on social media platforms. Because of the nature of the Internet, a web series may be interactive and immersive. Web series are classified as new media.
Sam Has 7 Friends is a 2006 series drama created, produced, and funded by the production company Big Fantastic and subsequently bought and distributed by the studio Vuguru. The series appeared on YouTube, Revver, iTunes and its own web site. The show revolved around its tagline, "Samantha Breslow has seven friends. On December 15, 2006, one of them will kill her," with each episode bringing Sam one day closer to her death.
Big Fantastic, LLC is a filmmaking collective and production company located in Santa Monica, California which creates, develops and produces online video entertainment. The company is currently most known for their popular web series Sam Has 7 Friends and Prom Queen. Recent project include the web experiment Control TV, the web sitcom Cockpit, Foreign Body, a prequel to the Robin Cook novel, and Sorority Forever for The WB.
Prom Queen: Summer Heat is the mini-series spinoff from the web series Prom Queen. Like Prom Queen, the show was produced by former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner's production company Vuguru and the returning internet series production company Big Fantastic, the creators of SamHas7Friends.
The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are an awards show presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented takes place in Los Angeles, California. It was the first awards show dedicated entirely to web series.
What's Trending is an entertainment publisher founded by Shira Lazar, and Damon Berger under What's Trending, Inc.
Grace Anne Helbig is an American comedian, actress, and internet personality. She is the co-creator and co-host of the podcast This Might Get Weird (2018–present) alongside frequent collaborator Mamrie Hart and is the voice of Cindy Bear in the Max animated series Jellystone! (2021–present).
Chris McCaleb is an American film editor, director and producer best known as the co-creator of the web series Prom Queen and co-host of the Better Call Saul Insider and New Mediacracy podcasts. McCaleb was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Drama Series, once for his work on the AMC neo-western crime drama series Breaking Bad (2013), and twice on the AMC legal crime drama series Better Call Saul (2015–2022).
The 3rd Annual Streamy Awards was the third installment of the Streamy Awards honoring streaming television series. The awards were held on February 17, 2013, at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California. It was hosted by the founder of Nerdist Industries, Chris Hardwick. Presented three years after the unsuccessful 2nd Streamy Awards which led to the International Academy of Web Television leaving the show, Tubefilter partnered with Dick Clark Productions in an attempt to bolster the credibility of the awards and with hopes of broadcasting the show on television. The show was viewed as more professional than previous years and was praised for its musical performances, but it also received a more mixed reception on its increased focus on mainstream shows and celebrities.
Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures is a British-American fantasy comedy web series created by PJ Liguori, Sophie Newton, Louis Grant and Jamie Swarbrick and directed by PJ Liguori. The series was produced by New Form Digital and was first aired digitally via Vimeo On Demand. Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures set a single-day sales record for Vimeo's On-Demand service, according to CEO Kerry Trainor. The episodes were previously available on Vimeo via paid subscription and as of November 2019, they are available on Amazon Prime.
Bernie Su is an American web series creator, writer, director and producer. He is best known for his work on the Emmy Award-winning web series The Lizzie Bennet Diaries with Hank Green, a modern vlog-style adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice which won YouTube's first primetime Emmy. His five-platform interactive re-imagination of Austen's Emma, called Emma Approved, won the same Emmy two years later. Su also worked on Vanity, was Multi-channel network StyleHaul's first original online series, with Maybelline New York attached as the exclusive sponsor for its centennial celebration.
Jessica Ann Rothenberg, known professionally as Jessica Rothe, is an American actress. After appearing in independent films and on stage, her breakthrough came with playing Tree Gelbman in the comedy slasher film Happy Death Day (2017) and its 2019 sequel, which established her as a scream queen.
The 4th Annual Streamy Awards was the fourth installment of the Streamy Awards honoring streaming television series. The awards were held on September 7, 2014 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. They were hosted by the YouTube stars Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart. To reflect the industry as it had evolved since 2009, 10 new award categories were added, including multiple awards honoring the short-form video hosting website Vine, a new category to honor traditional TV media engaging in online content, and categories reflecting recent YouTube trends. The event also honored the American comedian Joan Rivers whose funeral had been earlier in the day and who many of the attendees had previously met on her web chat series In Bed With Joan, including Jenna Marbles, Tyler Oakley, and Grace Helbig, which was praised as a heartfelt moment of the show. The show was received well in media publications and generated a high level of social media interest, although it did receive criticism for the influence of sponsors at the event.
The Temp Life is an American comedy web series created and produced by Wilson Cleveland, who also stars as Nick Chiapetta. The series, sponsored by Spherion debuted on YouTube on November 29, 2006, ran for five seasons and is considered to be the first and longest-running online branded entertainment series.
Brady Brim-DeForest is an American entrepreneur, investor and author. He is the CEO of Formula.Monks, the technology consulting division of .monks, and is the chairman of BluShift Aerospace. He is the founder and first CEO of Tubefilter and creator of the Streamy Awards. He is a founder of OpenPlay, a distribution and supply chain company for the music and media industry.
