Kevin Thomas Strahle (born January 6, 1984), better known as the L.A. Beast, is an American professional competitive eater who hosts a challenge-based channel on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Strahle started making videos in his hometown of

Ridgewood, New Jersey Ridgewood is a Village (New Jersey), village in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Ridgewood is a suburban commuter town, bedroom community of New York City, located approximately northwest of Midtown M ...

, before moving to

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. After several years at his home in California, he moved back to his hometown of Ridgewood. As of 2024, his channel has over three million subscribers & over 500 million total views. In addition to his online presence, he has made appearances on '' The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', '' The Today Show Australia'' and '' Tosh.0''. In 2015, Strahle led a successful campaign to bring back the soft drink Crystal Pepsi. His accomplishments also include earning 12

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, list ...

, eight of which he currently holds.

Early life

Kevin Thomas Strahle was born on January 6, 1984, and grew up in

. As a child, Strahle developed a love for eating and later used his natural bulk to join the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

team at Ridgewood High School. In his free time he would often accept money from his classmates to complete outrageous food challenges. Strahle is of Italian and Irish ancestry on his maternal side and German and Irish on his paternal side. After high school, Strahle was recruited to play football for the Fordham Rams of

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

in New York. In his four years on the team, he started on the offensive line in almost every game for the 2004–2006 seasons. In 2008, Strahle moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and obtained a job working for Pepsi. After two years, he quit after a manager told him he was not "persistent enough" to be a salesman within PepsiCo. That criticism would later drive him to spearhead the 'Bring Back Crystal Pepsi' campaign.

Internet videos

While Strahle was in Los Angeles, he uploaded his first YouTube video where he performed a milk chugging challenge. Noticing the positive response the video received, he started his own channel under the user name "skippy62able" on August 7, 2010. Having completed Fatburger's XXXL burger challenge, Strahle's roommate commented that he was 'a beast' for finishing it so fast. Starting in 2011, Strahle would often refer to himself as either "Beast" or "L.A. Beast", eventually choosing the latter as his official nickname. In September 2015, Strahle and fellow eaters Takeru Kobayashi, Bob Shoudt, Patrick Bertoletti and Tim Brown assembled in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

to consume an entire cooked goat. This eating challenge was performed with the intention of lifting the infamous Chicago Cubs curse. The Cubs would go on to win the World Series the following year. L.A. Beast's YouTube channel features dozens of videos in which he films himself performing a variety of over-the-top eating and drinking challenges. In some cases when he is unsuccessful at these challenges, the featured entertainment value is the schadenfreude and gross-out humor of him experiencing pain and vomiting copious amounts of food and drink. His comedic approach also includes outlandish but extremely specific descriptions of what the experience of eating or drinking these substances is like. In addition, Strahle has a number of humorous catchphrases and frequently used terms, and he usually edits his videos to include picture-in-picture visual puns and other images to accompany the sayings, such as a map of the

Bering Strait The Bering Strait ( , ; ) is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia–United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' ...

(or a photo of machine bearings) when he says "I need to get my bearings straight," or amusing photos of animals such as seals that appear as if they are making the vocalizations that L.A. Beast makes as he dry-heaves and retches.

Competitive eating

In November 2011, Strahle competed in his first professional eating contest at the Wild Turkey 81 Eating World Championship in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In 2012, Strahle was ranked the 16th best competitive eater in the world, and ranked 17th in 2013. In June 2012, Strahle consumed 25 hot dogs in 10 minutes at the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest qualifier in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

. Though Strahle lost to eating veteran Crazy Legs Conti, he was beaten by only a quarter of a hot dog. In February 2016, Strahle competed at Wing Bowl 24 where he ate a cactus live on stage. To qualify for the competition, Strahle ate 24 raw eggs in under four minutes. On May 3, 2017, Strahle broke the Guinness World Record for the most chicken nuggets eaten in 3 minutes by consuming of chicken nuggets beating the previous record of . Later that morning, Strahle also broke the Guinness World Record for the most

bhut jolokia The ghost pepper, also known as ''bhut jolokia'' ( or 'Ghost pepper' in Assamese language, Assamese), is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in Northeast India. It is a hybrid of ''Capsicum chinense'' and ''Capsicum frutescens''. In ...

peppers eaten in 2 minutes by consuming of peppers, beating the previous record of . On May 12, 2017, Strahle broke two additional Guinness World Records for both the most powdered doughnuts eaten in 3 minutes, and the record for fastest time to drink a 32-ounce bottle () of pure maple syrup. The previous record for most powdered doughnuts eaten in 3 minutes was 6 doughnuts, set by Shamus Petherick of Australia. It was beaten when Strahle managed to consume 9 whole doughnuts in the same amount of time. For the second record, Strahle drank of pure maple syrup in 10.84 seconds, beating the former record of 26 seconds. In September 2018, Strahle entered a competition at Jimmy Geez in Haledon, New Jersey, in which he ate 40 nuclear wings. Strahle completed the challenge in a span of 57 minutes and 22 seconds.

"Bring Back Crystal Pepsi" movement

In April 2015, Strahle rallied his fans to comment on

Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...

's official social media accounts with the hashtag "#BringBackCrystalPEPSI" in an effort to revive the once-popular soft drink. This led to the creation of a Change.org petition and as of August 2016, it has over 34,000 signatures. The popularity of the movement also produced 15 billboards placed all around the Los Angeles area. On June 8, 2015, Strahle received a message from Pepsi via

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, acknowledging his efforts to get Crystal Pepsi brought back to store shelves and hinting at the soft drink's potential return. The next day, a Pepsi spokeswoman confirmed the message's authenticity. On July 26, 2015, Strahle released a song on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

called "The Crystal Pepsi Song" featuring production company That's Classic Media (now named Mac N’ Cheese Media). A music video was later released August 5, 2015. On December 8, 2015, Pepsi announced the re-release of Crystal Pepsi in a limited quantity sweepstakes. In June 2016, Pepsi announced that Crystal Pepsi would be released in the U.S. on August 8, 2016, for an eight-week run.

Other ventures

In February 2025, Strahle was announced to be one of the boxers in iDubbbz's '' Creator Clash 3'', going up against Harley Morenstein. Morenstein dropped out of the event in April, and a month later in May, Strahle left the event, citing "multiple red flags and irreversible damage it can do to one’s brand by being associated with the event."

Notable challenges

Eating

* Two cacti * The entire menu of burgers from the

Burger King Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...

menu while wearing a shock collar * A of Haribo sugarless gummy bears * Two jars of Vegemite * An entire

watermelon The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a Glossary of botanical terms#scandent, scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is plant breeding ...

, including the rind * 2 Chocolate Bhutlah Peppers * 21 dimes covered in olive oil * A 72-ounce steak meal in less than an hour * A cluster of bananas and drinking two liters of Sprite * An entire

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

* Two wooden

pencils A pencil () is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage and keeps it from marking the user's hand. Pencils create marks by physical abrasion (mechanical), abrasi ...

* 27 ghost peppers, including a video from 2011. * 110

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

Chicken Nuggets * 5 light bulbs in under 10 minutes * 60 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups * A cupful of

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

Drinking

* Drinking a 20-year-old bottle of Crystal Pepsi * A gallon of

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

while covered with bees * A whole bottle of

Syrup of ipecac Syrup of ipecac (), or simply ipecac, is a drug that was once widely used as an expectorant (in low doses) and a rapid-acting emetic (in higher doses). It is obtained from the dried rhizome and roots of the ipecacuanha plant ('' Carapichea ipe ...

* A mixture of

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...

and Red Bull from a 3-liter beer glass * Two liters of Sprite after consuming 18

bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – berry (botany), botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called pla ...

* Drinking a whole Mega Gulp iced drink as fast as possible, afterwards trying to cross a butter-covered floor with an armful of presents, then suffering from a

compound fracture An open fracture, also called a compound fracture, is a type of bone fracture (broken bone) that has an open wound in the skin near the fractured bone. The skin wound is usually caused by the bone breaking through the surface of the skin. An open fr ...

of one of his toes after falling and hitting a fridge * A gallon of Habanero Tabasco sauce * Approximately 3 pounds of Sriracha * An entire bottle of Cristal Champagne * 24,000 calories worth of

olive oil Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...

from a 3-liter beer glass * 50 raw eggs in two and a half minutes * 32 oz of chocolate milk through his nose * One gallon of spoiled milk

Other stunts

* Inserting his hand into a jar full of hot ice (sodium acetate trihydrate) and burning his hand * Placing his hands inside gloves filled with bullet ants for 10 minutes * Solving a Rubik's Cube blindfolded while walking barefoot over a large pile of

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

bricks * Inhaling various vaporized alcoholic beverages * Ripping 30 phone books in half in 3 minutes * Consecutively running through a door, ripping a phonebook in half, rolling up a frying pan, crushing 6 empty soda cans with his head, and jumping onto a 2x4 plank of wood groin first

World records

Strahle currently holds eight

: * Most powdered doughnuts eaten in three minutes. * Fastest time to drink a 32 oz. bottle of maple syrup. * Fastest time to eat all chocolates from an advent calendar. * Most peanut butter cups eaten in one minute. * Most gummy bears eaten with a stick in one minute. * Fastest time to drink two liters of soda through a straw. *Farthest distance walked on

bricks barefoot with a relay team. * Most ice lollies (popsicles) eaten in one minute. * Fastest time to drink 6 beers through your nose In the past, he has held the records for: * Most chicken nuggets eaten in 3 minutes (642.12 grams). Beating the record previously held by Todd Fernley (531 grams) on February 26, 2016. * Most

Bhut jolokia The ghost pepper, also known as ''bhut jolokia'' ( or 'Ghost pepper' in Assamese language, Assamese), is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in Northeast India. It is a hybrid of ''Capsicum chinense'' and ''Capsicum frutescens''. In ...

chili peppers (Ghost Peppers) eaten in two minutes. * Most marshmallows eaten in one minute (no hands). * Fastest time to drink a cup of coffee.

References

External links

* *
Kevin Strahle Fordham Rams profile

Psychology Today article, "Understanding the LA Beast"
{{DEFAULTSORT:L.A. Beast 1984 births Living people American competitive eaters Fullscreen (company) channels People from Ridgewood, New Jersey Ridgewood High School (New Jersey) alumni Fordham Rams football players American comedy YouTubers American YouTube vloggers 21st-century American comedians American male comedians Comedians from Bergen County, New Jersey YouTubers from New Jersey