Rocketboom was a daily vlog produced by Andrew Baron in the format of a newscast with a comedic slant. Since 2004 Rocketboom has presented oddities, vlog excerpts, social and political commentary. The Rocketboom weblog and Apollo Pony featured supplemental material unfit for the vlog.
Taryn Southern is an American filmmaker, TV host and digital strategist known her for her work with emerging technologies. She was formerly known for her work as a YouTuber, singer, and actress.
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. The mystery surrounding the possible fictionality of her character led to an outing by the Los Angeles Times, which thrust her into the mainstream spotlight. In 2007, Rose won a Webby for this role.
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 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", however the term is not always used. In general, web series can be watched on a range of platforms and devices, including desktop, laptop, tablets and smartphones. They are different from streaming television, which can be watched on various streaming platforms.
Sam Has 7 Friends was 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.
The 1st Annual Streamy Awards was the first ever awards ceremony dedicated entirely to web series and the first installment of the Streamy Awards. The awards were held on March 28, 2009, at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The event had over 1,300 audience members in attendance and was simultaneously broadcast live online. The Official Red Carpet Pre-Show was hosted by Shira Lazar and the award show was co-hosted by Tubefilter, NewTeeVee and Tilzy.TV. The web series The Guild and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog were the biggest winners of the night, winning four and six awards, respectively, out of the 25 award categories. The show was met by positive reception by celebrities in attendance and the media.
Tubefilter, Inc. is a privately held company based in Los Angeles, California that operates media businesses focusing on the online entertainment industry. Tubefilter is best known for Tubefilter News, a blog targeted at the fans, creators, producers, influencers, and distributors of streaming television and web series content.
The 2nd Annual Streamy Awards, presented by the International Academy of Web Television, was the second installment of the Streamy Awards honoring streaming television series. The awards were held on Sunday, April 11, 2010, at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Paul Scheer served as the host of the presentation. Over 1,300 audience members were in attendance and the show was broadcast live online.
The Crew is an online sitcom following the lives of the engine room crew of the starship Azureas. A Comedy with a financed 15-episode first season run - distributed through blip.tv, YouTube and Koldcast.tv, the show was acquired for an exclusive second season run distributed by Babelgum.
Grace Anne Helbig is an American comedian, actress, and internet personality. She is the creator and host of the podcasts Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig (2014–present) and This Might Get Weird (2018–present). She is the voice of Cindy Bear in the HBO Max animated series Jellystone! (2021–present)
Chris McCaleb is an American film and television director, producer and editor, 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. In recent years, McCaleb has been Emmy-nominated for editing on the television series Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
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.
Mark Willingham Gantt IV is an American actor, director, producer and writer. Gantt is best known for his role as Neal Bannen in the Streamy Award-winning web series, The Bannen Way. Gantt grew up in Stockton, California, and comes from a law enforcement family; he drew upon those family experiences as part of the backstory for the title character in The Bannen Way.
The Rooster Teeth Podcast, formerly known as the Drunk Tank, is a weekly podcast produced by Rooster Teeth. It is hosted by Gus Sorola and features various members of Rooster Teeth's staff each week. It is sometimes advertised as simply The RT Podcast. It was named Best Gaming Podcast by the Podcast Awards in 2012 and 2013.
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.
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.
