If you like both baking and wacky YouTube videos, chances are you've come across Rosanna
Pansino's Nerdy Nummies channel.
It teaches fans how to create unique treats based on video games, comic books, and sci-fi
characters.
With over 8 million subscribers, Pansino has become YouTube royalty.
But how much do fans actually know about Ro?
Here are some facts you may not know about Rosanna Pansino.
She was an actress
Before she ever appeared on YouTube, Pansino was pursuing her first love: acting.
She told The Huffington Post, "In high school I participated in drama club and theater.
Although no one in my family worked in entertainment, it's what I wanted to do more than anything.
I decided to pursue it after college, so I moved to Los Angeles and took any oddball
jobs I could find."
Among those jobs: an extra on Glee playing a background cheerleader, and the hand double
for the boy on Ghost Whisperer.
Yup...that's pretty odd!
Perhaps her biggest role, though, was on VH1's 2008 reality show Scream Queens.
"I don't think there's anything creepier than a little Stepford Wife."
"Those are the muscle fibers!"
The ultimate ultimatum
While working in Hollywood, Pansino filmed YouTube videos for fun in her spare time.
But soon she was presented with an ultimatum.
She told Cosmopolitan, "My agent pulled me into a meeting and told me I had to choose.
They said, 'You either have to quit your YouTube channel or I'm going to drop you.
All this time you're spending making these videos, you should be spending that time interning.
You should be spending that time auditioning.
You should be spending that time on sets.'"
It wasn't an easy choice, but Pansino ultimately decided to give up her childhood dream and
quit acting to commit to her YouTube channel full time instead.
Looks like she made the right choice.
All in the family
Now that her YouTube channel has become a full time career, Pansino has hired a bunch
of people to help her with production — and most of those people are family members, including
her sister, mother, father, and brother-in-law.
She told The Huffington Post, "I know some families would have a hard time working together
but my family are all very close.
I find it's a huge benefit and asset to have people you know you can trust."
"This one says, 'Do you have any party tricks?'
Does this count?"
"Hahaha!
So the answer is 'no'!"
It's fitting, considering her family inspired the Nerdy Nummies channel in the first place.
Pansino told Business Insider, "I was originally introduced to baking as a child by my grandmother.
I continued to bake for friends and family throughout the years for special occasions.
I began to create themed treats after receiving continued requests from a lot of my friends."
And her father's money management lessons paid off in a big way when it came time to
start her channel.
By following his teachings, she was able to save up a nest egg of $20,000, which she spent
getting Nerdy Nummies off the ground.
She told Cosmopolitan, "$20,000 isn't big, but for me, it was everything.
I had to be really careful about the best camera I could get on that budget, the best
lighting I could get, the best computer."
It's really hard work
Pansino's viral baking tutorials usually range between six and ten minutes, but the amount
of time it takes to actually shoot a video is much, much longer.
How long?
Pansino estimates she spends 70 hours a week in the kitchen just doing the prep work.
She told Business Insider,
"... the average Nerdy Nummies episode takes over five days to create and produce.
The process includes developing ideas, gathering the ingredients, testing the recipes, filming,
editing and posting the videos.
After [more than] 120 episodes, the process hasn't changed much, but I am always looking
for ways to be more efficient."
Books and music
Despite the fact that she seemingly spends every waking hour making cookies that look
like Darth Vader and stuff, Pansino still found times to write a New York Times bestselling
book and launch a music career.
In 2015, The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook: Sweet Treats for the Geek in All of Us debuted at
No. 5 on The New York Times' Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous list.
And that same year, she premiered the video for her first single, "Perfect Together."
"If you were a candy, I would be the wrapper.
And if you were marshmallows, then I would be the cracker."
Nintendo game fame
A quick glance at Pansino's channel reveals her deep love of video games.
In fact, her debut Nerdy Nummies video involved a Super Mario star cake.
Nintendo decided to return the love in 2014 by featuring Pansino in one of its games,
including her in the StreetPass Mii Plaza on Nintendo 3DS.
She told Nintendo News, "It is such an honor [...] It has been really exciting to see everyone's
pictures of finding my Mii on their StreetPass."
No signs of slowing down
All of Pansino's hard work is paying off.
According to Forbes, Pansino makes about $2.5 million per year from her YouTube videos,
endorsement deals, and book sales.
And with more hit videos coming out all the time, it sure looks like Pansino's future
is shaping up to be nummy, indeed.
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