Before Erika Costell would surpass 3 Million YouTube subscribers, 2.8 Million on Instagram
& another 1/2 a million on Twitter at the time of this recording.
Before Erika would team up with Jake for their song 'Jerika' which would land the couple
on the Billboard 200 alongside Kesha and French Montana.
Before Erika Costell would become the “Wifey” to Jake Paul.
Although that relationship was recentley exposed as a sham it was a well executed stunt as
Erika's social media number ballooned.
Her YouTube channel received 100K Subscribers out the gate and hit 1.5 Million after just
3 days.
What isn't a sham is Erika's previous endeavours as a model struggling to book work in LA,
that and her love of goats... the girl is absolutley obsessed.
What's going on guys?
My name is Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Erika Costell prior to
fame, here for you on Before They Were Famous.
You guys requested this video, in the past we have done similar videos on the likes of
Nick Crompton, Alissa Violet and Sommer Ray.
As always, be sure to let us know who is next in the comments down below – here we go.
Erika Costell was born on November 12th, 1993 in Bedford Michigan.
Population 31K.
Her mom's names Angel dads names Dennis and her parents divorced when Erika was young.
They went on to start new relationships and father their own children with Erika having
12 siblings in total.
Although Erika has moved to the other side of the country she still remains super tight
with her family back home.
During Erika's formative years she devloped a few major interests, she wanted to one day
be like the women and magazines working as a model and she also wanted to join the football
team, sadly her dad wouldn't allow her so she got into a much safer sport, cheerleading.
Erika continued to Cheer for 11 years all through school and on a team that competed
all over america and she won a couple National Championship Competitions.
Erika attended Bedford Senior Highschool in Bedford Michigan graduating in 2011.
There was also a period in time where she was playing with the idea of becoming a cop,
instead she would go on to become a model which is a way ... way safer career.
She first started modeling at the age of 16 and even documented it on Twitter with a picture
stating I could get used to this.
On a girls trip to Florida Erika hit it off with a dude named Blake and the two began
a long distance relationship.
Hoping to give things a serious go Erika decided to move out his way bringing a few friends
with her and enrolled herself at MTS University studying Business Admin.
There she kept herself busy with school, her boyfriend and partying cause Tennessee is
dope – I was just in Nashville for a bachelor party and I swear they should rename that
place Smashville officially if you know what I'm saying.
Oh ya!
After two years of dating Erika found out that Blake had been cheating on her the entire
time.
See what I'm saying about Smashville.
Seriously though, poor Erika was heartbroken, she didn't know what to do with herself, she
returned to Michigan for the summer to reflect.
Eventually this break up would be her break through moment she moved back to Tennesse
and decided to go after what she was most passionate about.
From there she went all in to make it as a model.
She signed up with DAN Talent Group, She was booking gigs as a swim, fitness and lingerie
model.
Much to the dismay of her father who text her asking her if she could model some coats.
She entered a Supre Tan Model Search which I believe she won.
She appeared as an extra on the TV show Nashville.
Eventually she was flown out to Miami and then L.A. And signed with Wilhelmina International
which boasts itself as one of the most prominent talent management agencies in the world.
Erika decided to go full force, dropped out of school and made the move to L.A. Unfortunatly
the breaks weren't coming her way as fast as she had hoped.
She was quickly running out of money, stacking up debt and was sleeping in a living room
she found on Craigslist with 7 bucks in her bank account.
Despite her set backs she was determined to press forward.
She crossed path with Jake Paul who at the time was looking for a jack of all trades
assistant to help him with his day to day and big picture ideas.
She began living with Jake at 1600 Vine street where all the Viners had made a home for themselves.
Erika was sleeping on a bean bag chair but saw Jake's hustle and stuck by him as he pushed
forward.
Eventually things for Team 10 would fall into place and Erika was there during it's formative
days doing absolutley everything.
Erika was Jake Pauls first official hire and would go onto become the head of operations
for Team Dom.
She worked this position for two years before making the jump from behind the scenes to
front and centre as a talent member of the crew.
This all played out following the exit of Alissa Violet and when Jake initially called
the meeting poor Erica though she was going to get fired.
Not only did she jump at the opportunity to be working in front of the camera, she agreed
to get wifed up in Vegas on June 18th 2017.
Jake recentley lifted the veil on their showmance revealing to the New York Times that the couples
relationship has all been an act all along.
Although some might feel cheated by this lie, what harm did this lie really cause?
They are selling entertainent after all.
In the real world, would Rachel really ever fall for a guy like Ross?
This is entertainment.
The move to have Erika move from behind the scenes to front and centre seemed to be the
right play as she quickly became adored by the Jake Paulers and her own channel sky rocketed.
With this new gig Erika was able to pay off her debt and get back to her number one passion
which is modeling.
I'm gonna be honest with you guys, a lot of this info comes straight from Erika's video
titled The Truth About Team 10 Erika Costell – which you can find on her channel.
A link is down below.
As for the rest of the story, well you know the story, because this is Before They Were
Famous.
My name is Michael McCrudden.