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Toby Joseph Turner (born March 3, 1985), also known by his stage name Tobuscus, is an American Internet personality and actor. Originally from
Niceville, Florida Niceville is a city in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States, located near Eglin Air Force Base on Boggy Bayou that opens into Choctawhatchee Bay. The population was 11,684 at the 2000 census. The 2010 census population for Niceville was 12,7 ...
, he is best known for his
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 ...
videos. As of November 5, 2021, Turner has a total of over 14.33 million subscribers and over 3.867 billion video views over his three YouTube channels.


Early life

Toby Joseph Turner was born on March 3, 1985, in
Osborn, Mississippi Osborn is an unincorporated community located in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi. Osborn is approximately northeast of Starkville and approximately west of Tibbee. Notable people include comedian Toby Turner and blues singer Tony Hollins Tony ...
, and grew up in
Niceville, Florida Niceville is a city in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States, located near Eglin Air Force Base on Boggy Bayou that opens into Choctawhatchee Bay. The population was 11,684 at the 2000 census. The 2010 census population for Niceville was 12,7 ...
. He attended the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
, and having an interest in filmmaking, graduated with a degree in telecommunication production. Turner's mother later took out a loan and bought him a video camera, an act he appreciated, as it helped begin his YouTube career.


Career


YouTube

Turner has grown to become a popular personality on YouTube, achieving his early notability through his Tobuscus channel, and later through his secondary vlogging channel, as well as his gaming channel. Turner's style of content is often extroverted, rambling, and energetic, but he always avoids using severe profanity and censors any explicit content due to his target audience. Aside from his channels, Turner also worked with
Philip DeFranco Philip James DeFranco (born Philip James Franchini Jr.; born December 1, 1985), commonly known by his online nickname PhillyD, is an American YouTube personality. He is best known for ''The Philip DeFranco Show'', a news commentary show centered ...
on ''Like Totally Awesome'' (LTA) and ''Cute Win Fail'', after befriending and being employed by DeFranco. LTA was a gaming and review channel that ran during the late 2000s and early 2010s. In 2010, Turner signed with the
multi-channel network A multi-channel network (MCN) is an organization that works with video platforms to offer assistance to a channel owner in areas such as "product, programming, funding, cross-promotion, partner management, digital rights management, monetizat ...
Machinima, before switching to
Maker Studios Maker(s) or The Maker(s) may refer to: Film and television * ''The Maker'' (film), a 1997 American drama film *'' Makers: Women Who Make America'', a 2013 American TV documentary, a 2014 TV series, and related media * Maker Studios, now part of ...
in July 2013.


Main channel

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''. One of Turner's earliest popular 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 eheard ndrewyelling, eknew it would fit in a hip-hop song", and that he "wanted to give ndrewthe profits" from sales of related merchandise. The Tobuscus channel has since continued to focus on comedic skits and animated sketches, achieving recognition for those such as "I Can Swing My Sword", "Safety Torch" and "Nugget In A Biscuit". Turner's ''Literal Trailers'' series is also 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 ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...
'', who praised Turner's ''Literal Trailer'' of ''
Iron Man 3 ''Iron Man 3'' (titled onscreen as ''Iron Man Three'') is a 2013 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to ''Ir ...
''.


Vlogging and gaming channels

In April 2009, Turner began using his "TobyTurner" channel to upload daily unedited
vlogs A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...
detailing his personal life, which he dubbed "lazy vlogs." In July 2010, Turner registered his fourth (third in use) YouTube channel under the name "TobyGames", designating it for a new series of comedic
Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and/or a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough or strat ...
videos. The channel has featured playthrough videos of numerous
indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...
and
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games since its inception, including the long-running ''
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java (programming language), Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made pub ...
'' and '' Happy Wheels'' series.


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 (MysteryGuitarMan) using two separate videos played simultaneously; in 2010 he made an appearance on the fifth episode of ''
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 ...
'', titled "A Cheesy Episode"; in early 2011 he worked with
iJustine Justine Ezarik ( ; born March 20, 1984) is an American YouTuber. She is best known as iJustine, with over one billion views on her YouTube channel. She gained attention as a lifecaster who communicated directly with her millions of viewers on ...
on a number of ''
LittleBigPlanet 2 ''LittleBigPlanet 2'' is a puzzle-platform game that features user-generated content. The game is developed by Media Molecule, published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 3. It was released in January 2011. The game was released in ...
'' Let's Play videos; since 2011 he has worked on many projects with
Jack Douglass John Patrick "Jack" Douglass (born June 30, 1988), better known as jacksfilms, is an American YouTuber. Douglass began his online career in 2006. His YouTube channel initially consisted of infomercial parodies, sketches, and comedic music vide ...
, including parody "Tobjackscus", sketch "Dubstep Tobuscus", and music videos "Take Off Your Clothes (Like Scarlett Johansson)", "Razors in Your Apple (On Halloween)", and "The Valentine's Day Song"; and in 2012 he starred in a short with Olga Kay entitled ''Olga Kay Goes Haywire''., as well as starring in an episode of the YouTube series, "Retarded Policeman". Tobuscus has also appeared alongside notable celebrities on several occasions, including the music video for the song "Whistle While I Work It", featuring Chester See and
Wayne Brady Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American television personality, comedian, actor, and singer. He is a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series ''Whose Line Is It Anyway?'' He was the host of ...
, as well as starring in a three-parter YouTube series "Terminator Genisys: The YouTube Chronicles" to promote the film ''
Terminator Genisys ''Terminator Genisys'' is a 2015 American science fiction action film directed by Alan Taylor and written by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. Produced by Skydance Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film is a reboot o ...
''. A range of well-known personalities were involved in the series, including Arnold Schwarzenegger himself, and YouTube stars such as
Lilly Singh Lilly Saini Singh (born September 26, 1988) is a Canadian YouTuber. Singh began making YouTube videos in 2010. She originally appeared under the pseudonym Superwoman (stylized IISuperwomanII), her YouTube username until 2019. In 2016, she was in ...
, Olga Kay, Sean Klitzner, Epic Lloyd, The Warp Zone, and Kevin Lieber. Aside from these works, Turner has also presented a web series called ''CuteWinFail'', created by Turner and co-produced with
Philip DeFranco Philip James DeFranco (born Philip James Franchini Jr.; born December 1, 1985), commonly known by his online nickname PhillyD, is an American YouTube personality. He is best known for ''The Philip DeFranco Show'', a news commentary show centered ...
and his production company FishBowl Worldwide Media, since its inception in October 2010, although in November 2012 his involvement ended 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 React Media, LLC (also known as React; formerly as Fine Brothers Entertainment) is an American media company, founded by brothers Benny Fine (born March 19, 1981) and Rafi Fine (born June 9, 1983), creators and media entrepreneurs. React Media p ...
web series ''
MyMusic ''MyMusic'' is an American web transmedia mockumentary sitcom created by the Fine Brothers that premiered on April 15, 2012 on the MyMusicShow YouTube channel. The series follows a group of co-workers that are employed under a music production co ...
''.


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 A smiley, sometimes referred to as a smiley face, is a basic ideogram that represents a smiling face. Since the 1950s it has become part of popular culture worldwide, used either as a standalone ideogram, or as a form of communication, such a ...
'', written and directed by Michael Gallagher and starring fellow YouTube partner
Shane Dawson Shane Lee Yaw (born July 19, 1988), better known as Shane Dawson, is an American YouTuber, actor, fimmaker, writer, and musician. One of the first people to rise to fame on YouTube, he began making videos in 2008 at the age of 19 and garnered ...
. Turner also starred alongside Dawson in the 2015 comedy '' Bob Thunder: Internet Assassin'' and played a minor role in the 2015 film ''
The Great Gilly Hopkins ''The Great Gilly Hopkins'' is a realistic children's novel by Katherine Paterson. It was published by Crowell in 1978 and it won the U.S. National Book Award next year.Cartoon Network animated series '' The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange''. Turner played Nerville, the only human character who can interact with the fruits.


Sexual assault allegations

On April 8, 2016, Turner's ex-girlfriend April Fletcher, known online as AprilEfff, made several allegations against the YouTuber, including that he was addicted to drugs, that he had cheated on several of his former partners (including Fletcher), and that he drugged and
rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
d her in February 2013. Writing a blog post on
Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...
, Fletcher claimed that she had contemplated suicide following the episodes, and that Turner had likely committed the same acts to other women. YouTuber and ex-girlfriend of Turner, Amelia Talon, corroborated Fletcher's accounts shortly after, alleging that she had been drugged by Turner as well. On April 9, 2016, Jaclyn Glenn, another of Turner's ex-girlfriends, posted a video on YouTube responding to the allegations. Glenn claimed that Turner had affairs in their relationship, and that while she thought the rape allegations were possible, she personally believed that they were untrue. Former Turner girlfriends Olga Kay and Melanie Murphy both denied that they were ever assaulted by Turner, though Murphy admitted Turner was not faithful to her. While not endorsing the rape allegations, both former Turner girlfriend Tara Babcock and former collaborator with Turner,
Philip DeFranco Philip James DeFranco (born Philip James Franchini Jr.; born December 1, 1985), commonly known by his online nickname PhillyD, is an American YouTube personality. He is best known for ''The Philip DeFranco Show'', a news commentary show centered ...
, attested that Turner has a drug problem, is non-monogamous in his relationships and needs mental help. Turner responded to the accusations on April 11, 2016. In a short video, he dubbed Fletcher's claims as "false" and claimed that he had "never done anything without her consent ndnever tried to trick her into anything". On June 14, 2018, Turner released another video titled " #MeToo ...late?" where he claims he was advised not to say anything when the Tumblr post was published, then proceeds to give his accounts of what happened. In the video he insists nothing wrong occurred that night, just him letting a friend (Fletcher) sleep over at his house, due to her insisting she was too afraid to return home that late at night. He also claims that Fletcher wanted a romantic relationship with him, while he wanted only to remain friends. In the video, Turner also suggests Fletcher hinted at making a Tumblr post falsely accusing him of rape. As a result of the allegations, Turner was replaced as the voice of Ant-Man/Scott Lang for ''Marvel Avengers Academy''.


Other work

Aside from video production and other entertainment, Toby Turner – who is described on his official website as a "viral marketer ... ndconsultant for viral video and social media platforms" – has worked with a number of major companies on advertising campaigns, including
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
,
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, and others. Among his online commercial credits are adverts for
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
crime drama series ''
Lie to Me ''Lie to Me'' (stylized as ''Lie to me*'') is an American crime drama television series. It originally ran on the Fox network from January 21, 2009, to January 31, 2011. In the show, Dr. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) and his colleagues in The Lightma ...
'', footwear manufacturer and retailer Timberland, snack food product Pop-Tarts, and social network aggregation website Ouibox. Turner has also secured hosting roles for a number of events and series, including reporting on the
Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...
"Set Me Free Tour" for MTV in August 2009 and presenting holiday special web shows for
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...
,
Spike Spike, spikes, or spiking may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Books * ''The Spike'' (novel), a novel by Arnaud de Borchgrave * ''The Spike'' (book), a nonfiction book by Damien Broderick * ''The Spike'', a starship in Peter F. Hamilto ...
and VH1. In December 2012, Turner was nominated for the award of Best Host at the 2013
Streamy Awards The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The forma ...
, although eventually lost out to KassemG. In May 2013, Turner set up a fundraising campaign on crowdfunding website Indiegogo for an
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
(and later Android) game based on his ''Tobuscus Adventures'' YouTube series, called ''Tobuscus Adventures: Wizards!''. The fundraiser surpassed its goal of $240,000 within two days, reaching more than $644,000. The game features Turner as main character Tobuscus as he fights off hordes of zombies to get to the Wizard of Darkness, and also cameos Gabe Hohreiter as Gabuscus, and Turner's dog Gryphon. The game was released in March 2015 for iOS and later for Android, and in May 2018 for PC, with plans to extend this to PlayStation 4,
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
, and Nintendo Switch. Before the release of ''Tobuscus Adventures: Wizards!'', Turner also revealed that a second, albeit smaller game, was in development at the same time and based on the popular sandbox game ''
Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java (programming language), Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made pub ...
'', titled "Mine The Diamond", which was later released in June 2015 for iOS. In May 2014, Turner signed a three-book deal with Tegen Books, an imprint of
Harper Collins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...
, to help create an illustrated journal-style series based on ''Tobuscus Adventures''. The first, second, and third books were published in the fall of 2015, summer of 2016, and winter 2017, respectively. As of 2018, Turner had written a fourth book in the series. Turner was chosen to voice the character of Ant-Man/Scott Lang for the 2016 mobile game ''
Marvel Avengers Academy ''Marvel Avengers Academy'' was a freemium mobile game for iOS and Android, based on the characters featured in Marvel Comics. It was released on February 4, 2016. The game was shut down three years later. Despite the name, the game was not rel ...
''.


Reception

Within the first few years of his three channels running concurrently, Turner was considered one of the most popular
YouTube personalities YouTubers are people mostly known for their work on the video sharing platform YouTube. The following is a list of YouTubers for whom Wikipedia has articles either under their own name or their YouTube channel name. This list excludes people who ...
, later recognised as a "mainstay", "pioneer", and "one of the site's greatest innovators." Turner has on occasion expressed how his channels have suffered from management issues on YouTube that ultimately restricts how many video views he receives. For example, in an interview with ''
Heavy Heavy may refer to: Measures * Heavy (aeronautics), a term used by pilots and air traffic controllers to refer to aircraft capable of 300,000 lbs or more takeoff weight * Heavy, a characterization of objects with substantial weight * Heavy, ...
'' in 2018 and a video uploaded in 2019 titled ''Dear Algorithm'', he stated that content creators such as himself were occasionally not appearing in subscribers feeds and as a result the majority of his subscribers were not notified when he uploaded new content. Turner has also attempted to reach out to YouTube directly, such as in 2017 tweeting to their administration that neither the subscribe button nor the more recently introduced bell icon, which immediately notified subscribers of new uploads, were working properly at the time. Harrison Jacobs of ''Business Insider'' in 2014 meanwhile wrote of how Turner had been pursuing various projects outside of YouTube. He found that while he still published frequently to his channels, he seemed particularly devoted to other work in the hope that it could direct him into more "traditional media", citing Turner's first book based on his web series ''Tobuscus Animated Adventures'', as well as his mobile game ''Tobuscus Adventures: Wizards!''. Jacobs noted how the development of the game, which ultimately took place over an almost two-year period, had run over-budget, despite having received more than double the requested funds, and had been met with a number of delays, which Turner himself ascribed to a lack of experience.


Personal life

Having begun his video-making career in Niceville, Turner moved to Los Angeles in 2008. Turner has speculated that he may have ADHD and some have similarly made this assumption due to his boisterous and sometimes inappropriate behavior.


Filmography


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Toby 1985 births American comedy musicians 21st-century American comedians American male television actors American male video game actors American male voice actors American male web series actors 21st-century American male actors American YouTubers Living people American male YouTubers Musicians from Florida People from Niceville, Florida People from Oktibbeha County, Mississippi Maker Studios channels University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications alumni Video bloggers Video game commentators Web series producers Male bloggers The Annoying Orange Minecraft YouTubers