Toby Joe Turner, also known by his stage name Tobuscus, is an American actor, comedian,
musician, and internet personality.
Originally from Niceville, Florida, he is currently based in Los Angeles, California,
and is best known for his YouTube videos as well as a number of television and film roles.
As of October 6, 2014, Turner has a total of over 14.9 million subscribers and over
3.2 billion video views over his three YouTube channels.
Early life Turner was born in Mississippi and grew up
in Niceville, Florida.
He attended the University of Florida, graduating with a degree in telecommunication production.
Career Internet videos
Toby Turner first joined YouTube on May 14, 2006, when he created a channel under the
name of "Tobuscus".
The first video that remains on the channel is a sketch based on the 2006 film Click entitled
"What I'd do with the remote from Click".
One of Turner's most popular early videos is "Don't Tase Me, Bro!", a remixed recording
of the University of Florida Taser incident in which his classmate Andrew Meyer was stunned
with a taser gun by a police officer.
Interviewed about the video by MTV, Turner explained that, after watching the clip, "as
soon as [he] heard [Andrew] yelling, [he] knew it would fit in a hip-hop song", and
that he "wanted to give [Andrew] the profits" from sales of related merchandise.
Having begun his video-making career in Niceville, Turner moved to Los Angeles, California in
2008.
In April 2009 he began using his "TobyTurner" channel for daily unedited vlogs dubbed "lazy
vlogs", and in July 2010 he registered his fourth YouTube channel under the name "TobyGames",
designating it for a new series of Let's Play videos.
The channel has featured playthrough videos of numerous games since its inception, including
the long-running Minecraft and Happy Wheels series.
As of October 6, 2014, the Tobuscus channel has over 6 million subscribers and 1 billion
video views, the TobyTurner channel has over 2 million subscribers and 334 million video
views, and the TobyGames channel has over 6.8 million subscribers and almost 1.8 billion
video views.
Turner's "Literal Trailers" series is one of his most popular, earning him mainstream
recognition from CBS News, who described his rendition of the Dead Island trailer as "amazing"
and "hilarious", and Wired, who praised the Iron Man 3 video.
In July, 2013, Turner signed with YouTube multi-channel network Maker Studios.
Collaborations
In addition to producing his own original content over three channels, Turner has worked
together with a wide range of other YouTube personalities on various projects.
In 2009 he performed a guitar collaboration with Joe Penna using two separate videos played
simultaneously; in 2010 he made an appearance on the fifth episode of The Annoying Orange,
titled "A Cheesy Episode"; in early 2011 he worked with iJustine on a number of Little
Big Planet 2 Let's Play videos; since 2011 he has worked on many projects with Jack Douglass,
including parody "Tobjackscus", sketch "Dubstep Tobuscus", and music videos "Take Off Your
Clothes", "Razors in Your Apple", and "The Valentine's Day Song"; and in 2012 he starred
in a short with Olga Kay entitled Olga Kay Goes Haywire.
Aside from these works, Turner has also presented a web series called CuteWinFail, created by
Turner and co-produced with Philip DeFranco and his production company FishBowl Worldwide
Media, since its inception in October 2010, although in November 2012 he was fired by
the producers after 100 episodes of the show.
He also works as a host on Tagged, a gaming-themed YouTube series produced by NODE Studios, and
plays the Satan character in the Fine Brothers web series MyMusic.
Film and television Turner's first feature-length film role came
in 2010 romantic comedy film New Low, in which he played stand-up comedian Dave, the best
friend of main character Wendell played by writer, producer and director Adam Bowers.
The film was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010, before it received
coverage at the Austin Film Festival in October and at the Glasgow Film Festival the following
February, and was later released on DVD in 2012.
Later, in 2012, he starred in psychological horror film Smiley, written and directed by
Michael Gallagher and starring fellow YouTube partner Shane Dawson.
From 2012-2014, Turner starred in the Cartoon Network animated series The High Fructose
Adventures of Annoying Orange.
Turner played Nerville, the only human character who can interact with the fruits.
The show featured such high-profile guest stars as parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic
and skateboarder Tony Hawk, among others.
Other work Aside from video production and other entertainment,
Toby Turner – who is described on his official website as a "viral marketer ... [and] consultant
for viral video and social media platforms" – has worked with a number of major companies
on advertising campaigns, including NBC, Disney, and others.
Among his online commercial credits are adverts for Fox crime drama series Lie to Me, footwear
manufacturer and retailer Timberland, snack food product Pop-Tarts, and social network
aggregation website Ouibox.
Toby has also secured hosting roles for a number of events and series, including reporting
on the Toshiba "Set Me Free Tour" for MTV in August 2009 and presenting holiday special
web shows for Comedy Central, Spike and VH1.
In December 2012, Turner was nominated for the award of Best Host at the 2013 Streamy
Awards, although eventually lost out to KassemG.
In May 2013, Turner set up a fundraising campaign on crowdfunding website Indiegogo for a game
based on his Tobuscus Adventures YouTube series, called Tobuscus Adventures: Wizards!.
The fundraiser surpassed its goal of $240,000 within two days.
The game will feature Turner as main character Tobuscus as he fights off hordes of zombies
to get to the Wizard of Darkness.
The game will also cameo Gabe Hohreiter as Gabuscus, and Turner's dog Gryphon.
Filmography Besides his primary YouTube career, Toby Turner
has also been featured in various other media roles:
References
External links Official website
Tobuscus on YouTube TobyTurner on YouTube
TobyGames on YouTube