Jenna Nicole Mourey (born September 15, 1986), better known as Jenna Marbles, is an American former

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influe ...

. Over the span of ten years, her

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel has accumulated approximately 1.7 billion video views and over 20 million subscribers.

Early life and career

Mourey was born and raised in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

. She then moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where she earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

Suffolk University Suffolk University is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. With 7,560 students (includes all campuses, 7,379 at the Boston location alone), it is the eighth-largest university in metropolitan Boston. It was founded as a la ...

and

Master of Education The Master of Education (MEd or M.Ed. or Ed.M.; Latin ''Magister Educationis'' or ''Educationis Magister'') is a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. This degree in education often includes the following majors: curriculum a ...

in sport psychology and counseling at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...

. In the summer of 2010, Mourey was sharing a three-bedroom apartment in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. She supported herself by bartending, working at a tanning salon, vlogging, and

go-go dancing Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at nightclubs or other venues where music is played. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s at the French bar Whisky a Gogo located in Juan-les-Pins. The bar's name was taken ...

at nightclubs. That year, Mourey started her career with ''

Barstool Sports Barstool Sports is an American blog website and digital media company headquartered in New York City that produces content on sports and pop culture. Founded by David Portnoy in 2003 in Milton, Massachusetts, the company's two primary owners ...

'', where she wrote for their female-oriented site StoolLaLa. She left the publication in 2011.

YouTube career

Among the first of Mourey's videos to gain traction on the platform, "How to Trick People into Thinking You're Good Looking", released in 2010, was viewed over 5.3 million times in its first week. Her video "How to Avoid Talking to People You Don't Want to Talk To" was featured in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ''

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show '' Good Morning America'', '' ...

'' in August 2011. In the video, she said, "I'm sick and tired of guys thinking that just because I showed up at a club or a dance or a bar that I want to have their genitalia touching my backside." Mourey adopted the pseudonym Jenna Marbles after her mother complained the search term "Mourey" resulted only in Jenna's videos on Google. Jenna's mother was unemployed when Jenna's first video went viral and was concerned that the content might put off potential employers. The name "Marbles" stems from her dog's name, Mr. Marbles. Mourey portrayed Eve in the ''

Epic Rap Battles of History ''Epic Rap Battles of History'' (ERB) is a YouTube web series and music project created by Peter "Nice Peter" Shukoff and Lloyd "EpicLLOYD" Ahlquist. The series pits historical and pop culture figures against one another in a rap battle format. ...

'' episode "Adam vs. Eve", and she made appearances in ''

The Annoying Orange ''Annoying Orange'' is an American live-action/animated comedy web series created by Dane Boedigheimer (known online as DaneBoe). The series follows an anthropomorphic orange who annoys fruits, vegetables, and various other objects by telling ...

'', ''Ridiculousness'', and '' Smosh: The Movie''. Mourey was featured in the rapper

Pitbull Pit bull is a term used in the United States for a type of dog descended from bulldogs and terriers, while in other countries such as the United Kingdom the term is used as an abbreviation of the American Pit Bull Terrier breed. The term was f ...

's "

Fireball Fireball may refer to: Science * Fireball (meteor), a brighter-than-usual meteor * Ball lightning, an atmospheric electrical phenomenon * ''Bassia scoparia'', a plant species Arts and entertainment Films * '' The Fireball'', a 1950 film starring ...

" music video alongside fellow YouTubers

Bart Baker Bart Baker (born May 5, 1986) is an American entertainer, web-based comedian, video producer, singer, rapper, and parody artist. He is best known for making parody videos of notable songs, for which ''Billboard'' dubbed him one of the most prolif ...

and

Brittany Furlan Brittany Jayne Furlan Lee (born September 5, 1986) is an American Internet personality, actress and comedian based in Los Angeles. She was the most followed female video star on Vine until November 2015. She was the 5th most followed viner wit ...

. Alongside the creators of the YouTube channel

Smosh Smosh is an American YouTube sketch comedy- improv collective founded by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox. In 2002, Padilla created a website named "smosh.com" for making Flash animations, and he was later joined by Hecox. They began to post vid ...

, Mourey became the first YouTube personality to have her likeness appear as a wax figure displayed at

Madame Tussauds New York Madame Tussauds New York (UK /təˈsɔːdz/, US /tuːˈsoʊz/; the family themselves pronounce it /ˈtuːsoʊ/) is a tourist attraction located on 42nd Street in the Times Square neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Madame Tussaud ...

, which she unveiled in 2015.

Controversy and indefinite hiatus

On June 25, 2020, Mourey uploaded an apology video following accusations of

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagoni ...

. In this video, she addresses offensive content in her videos posted between 2011 and 2012. This included an impersonation of

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accents ...

featuring her wearing dark facial makeup, rapping anti-Asian slander while wearing traditional Asian clothing, and shaming women who had slept with multiple people, which she attributed to internalized misogyny. Mourey states it was never her intent to hurt or offend anyone, acknowledging that these actions were "shameful" and "awful", wishing "it wasn't part of erpast". She followed up these remarks by announcing her indefinite hiatus from YouTube. On June 26, Mourey's boyfriend, Julien Solomita, announced on Twitter that the couple's joint podcast and

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

streams would also be put on indefinite hiatus. ''

The Berkeley Beacon ''The Berkeley Beacon'' is the student newspaper of Emerson College, founded in 1947. The paper is published weekly on Thursdays during the fall and spring semesters of Emerson's academic year. In 2012, the ''Beacon'' redesigned its website, ma ...

'' noted that Mourey "was not the first to use the term 'accountability' in a YouTube apology, but she may have been the first one to actually mean it".

Other ventures

Mourey released a brand of dog toys called Kermie Worm & Mr. Marbles. The toys are modeled after her dogs' likenesses. She also created items with some of her most popular phrases printed on them, including "What are this?" and "Team legs!" Mourey previously hosted a weekly pop countdown on

SiriusXM Hits 1 ''Sirius XM Hits 1'' is a Top 40 radio station on Sirius XM Radio channel 2 and Dish Network channels 6002 and 099-02 (099-02 is only for Hopper users). Like most Sirius XM stations, it plays no commercials. The channel was formerly known as US- ...

named ''YouTube 15''. In 2016, Mourey became an executive producer for ''Maximum Ride'', a film based on

James Patterson James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author. Among his works are the '' Alex Cross'', '' Michael Bennett'', '' Women's Murder Club'', '' Maximum Ride'', '' Daniel X'', '' NYPD Red'', '' Witch & Wizard'', and ''Private'' ...

's series of novels of the same name.

Personal life

In April 2021, Mourey became engaged to long-time partner Julien Solomita. They married in November 2022.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marbles, Jenna 1986 births 21st-century American women American podcasters American women podcasters American YouTubers Boston University School of Education alumni Comedy YouTubers American female YouTubers Living people People from Rochester, New York Shorty Award winners Streamy Award winners Suffolk University alumni American video bloggers Women video bloggers YouTube podcasters YouTube vloggers