After MTV's Jackass became a rowdy cultural phenomenon, thousands of younger men who were
inspired by their pranks tried to do the same thing.
The dust has since cleared, and Roman Atwood has emerged as the most successful Jackass
disciple.
The Columbus, Ohio resident owns two mega-popular YouTube channels through which he's performed
pranks all over the world and work with legends like Steve-O and The Dudesons.
He's also taken his viral videos to the big screen, producing a full-length movie called
Natural Born Pranksters.
But if you think Roman Atwood is just an overnight success who gets paid to goof around on camera
all day, you couldn't be more wrong.
Let's find out about Roman Atwood before all the fame...
It all begins
On May 28, 1983, Roman Atwood was born in Millersport, Ohio.
His relationship with the camera started not long after, and he soon became obsessed with
shooting and editing "stupid videos."
"I saved up like $300 bucks and bought my first camera when I was like a kid, and the
only reason I ever started filming was I wanted things to edit.
I love to edit."
By junior high, he graduated to shooting and editing sketch comedy videos with his friends.
That's around the time when he really checked out emotionally with school.
He claims that he just couldn't see how his classes would prepare him for a world of video,
and often fell asleep in the seat.
As Atwood once put it, "I didn't need to learn about World War II to make these videos."
He also fell in love with a fellow student named Shanna Reilly, whom he married in 2001,
five months after they graduated.
Having no more interest in college than high school, Atwood opted out of higher education,
despite his teachers' warning that he'd make nothing of his life if he didn't get a bachelor's.
Rough times
To support his new wife and video-making obsession, Atwood took a job working in his family's
business and felt discouraged by the time spent away from his video-making habits.
Despite his depression, he still made videos on the side with his friends and brother,
Dale Atwood, and worked on various film projects and commercials around Columbus.
One such project was a DVD of Atwood and his friends - collectively called The Nerd Herd
- doing Jackass-style comedy In 2006, Atwood and his brother traveled around the country
with the Warped Tour, selling hundreds of copies.
A year after that, Atwood got what he believed would be his big break, when a friend invited
him out to Los Angeles to help work on a movie.
However, when he arrived on set, the young videographer realized it was not what he'd
hoped: "It was this little low-budget thing, not a
movie at all."
Even still, Atwood seemed to be gaining more momentum in his professional life than before.
Unfortunately, his personal life was crumbling.
While on his LA trip, his wife reportedly cheated on him with a guy who had helped Atwood
with his videos.
Atwood didn't find out until 2008, and describes it as "the worst, most devastating time in
[his] life."
Fortunately, bad situations can inspire good creativity — He saw the divorce as a wake-up
call to completely re-dedicate himself to his passion of comedy and video production.
The realization that changed everything
In 2010, he and his friends created Roman Atwood's Sketch Empire.
For almost two years, the group uploaded a video every Tuesday, with the hope of someday
having one go viral.
Despite their high hopes, the videos didn't catch on.
Finally, Atwood got the idea to shoot a prank video where they pretended to pour an empty
water cooler on unsuspecting pedestrians.
Even though the people never got wet, their reactions earned the prank video more views
than all others combined.
While they continued uploading new sketch videos after the cooler prank, the feedback
was almost completely negative, so he decided to turn it into a full-blown prank channel.
The group got their first truly viral video when they started "pee pranks," where they'd
pretend to urinate on the street, and people were fooled, even the police, and the YouTube
views climbed upward.
Viewers really seemed to love the police pranking part, so somewhere along the way, Atwood rebranded
the Sketch Empire YouTube account as simply RomanAtwood.
Viral superstardom
Just as his name came into internet fame, Atwood's personal life began improving as
well.
He started dating Britney Smith, who soon started appearing in his videos as well.
By 2011, "pee pranks" had amassed millions of views, and just a year later, Atwood quit
the family business to pursue prank videos full-time.
His girlfriend later became an Internet star in her own right as well, when Atwood posted
"Anniversary Prank Backfires!!"
He was trying to prank her on their five-year anniversary by pretending he had cheated,
but she saw the camera beforehand and pranked him back by pretending she had cheated too.
In the end, the joke was on him.
"Oh My God."
"I thought you were going to propose."
The video was insanely popular, clocking in over 86 million views, and was a big part
of a full-on girlfriend pranking trend he's carried on over the years since.
"It’s not funny."
"I know."
"It’s not funny."
"It’s…
It’s kinda funny."
Every year seems to get better and better for Atwood, as he continues cranking out videos
for his channels and even promotes his Smile More store.
Keep your eyes peeled, because another viral prank is almost certainly coming along very
soon.
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