Dan And Phil

Dan and Phil are an English entertainment and business duo, consisting of Daniel Howell and Phil Lester. They are best known for their collaborative work on YouTube since meeting in 2009. Additionally, they have collaborated on television and radio presenting, books, tours, and original films.

Background

Dan and Phil met on the internet in 2009 and in person that October. They have lived together since August 2011, first in Manchester before moving to London in July 2012. In January 2021, they announced they bought and designed a home together, where they currently reside.

In June 2019, Howell came out as gay via a YouTube video on his channel. Lester followed suit by posting a coming out video to his own channel later that month. In Howell's video, he divulged that the pair had been romantically involved at the beginning of their relationship, but refrained from clarifying its current status out of respect for his and Lester's privacy. As of October 2024, the duo has still declined to publicly state their current relationship status.

YouTube

Lester uploaded his first video on his channel, ''AmazingPhil'', in March 2006. Howell initially found Lester through YouTube and was a fan of his videos. After messaging with Lester online, Howell posted his first video to his YouTube channel, at the time called ''danisnotonfire'', in October 2009. Later that month, Dan and Phil met in person and created their first collaboration, a Q&A video titled ''phil is not on fire,'' posted to Lester's channel. The video sparked what would become a 10-part series, with one installment uploaded a year until the last one in 2018. Since 2009, Dan and Phil have frequently appeared in videos on each other's channels.

''DanAndPhilGAMES''

On 12 September 2014, Dan and Phil posted the first video on their joint gaming YouTube channel, ''DanAndPhilGAMES''. On 8 March 2015 the channel hit 1 million subscribers. At the time, it was the fastest growing channel on YouTube. The channel reached over 3.1 million subscribers. The channel features Dan and Phil playing a variety of games. Some of the most popular series on the channel include the pair's ''Sims 4'' Let's Play and "Gamingmas," an annual series where the duo uploads videos to the channel every day in December until Christmas.

In December 2018, the channel went on an indefinite hiatus. On 15 October 2023, Dan and Phil announced that they would both return to making videos on the channel in a video titled ''Saying Goodbye Forever'', directed by PJ Liguori and guest starring Jacksepticeye. In February 2024, they commissioned Lowave Records for a custom lo-fi and synthwave-inspired soundtrack for the channel, released as an album titled ''All or Nothing'' under the artist name DanAndPhilBEATS. In continued partnership with Lowave Records, they released four additional albums in 2024.

For Lester's birthday in January 2024, the pair hosted a two-hour charity livestream on the channel, through which they raised over $100,000 for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. They hosted another livestream for Howell’s birthday in June 2024 for the same charity, which also raised over $100,000.

Other YouTube projects

''The Super Amazing Project''

In 2011, Dan and Phil created a collaborative YouTube channel through the network My Damn Channel. Titled ''The Super Amazing Project'', it featured the duo discussing and investigating paranormal events. Segments included "Viewers Spooky Happenings", where the audience of the show would send in "scary" items for the video bloggers to react to, and "In The News This Week", where the duo recapped recent light-hearted news items and viral videos. In October 2014, Dan and Phil announced that they would not carry on working on ''The Super Amazing Project'' in order to concentrate on their Radio 1 show. Dan and Phil later announced that ''The Super Amazing Project'' would be hosted by new presenters, Alastair James Murder and Victoria Atkin.

''DanAndPhilCRAFTS''

On 1 April 2015, Dan and Phil launched a spin-off crafts-based channel, ''DanAndPhilCRAFTS'', as an April Fools joke. It featured a single video of them creating square snowflakes out of paper, with an amateur editing style and humour throughout. It reached over 154,000 subscribers and 500,000 total video views in one week. Additional videos were uploaded on April Fools' Day in 2016, 2017, and 2024. In April 2025, they jokingly announced they were having a Phaby (Dan and Phil baby) which they deemed their "most important joint project ever".

Radio

In November 2012, the BBC announced that from January 2013 onwards, Dan and Phil would present the Sunday night entertainment and request show for national UK radio station BBC Radio 1. The duo had occasionally worked with Radio 1 before, making videos for the station's YouTube channel and presenting two Christmas broadcasts.

The show was designed to be an interactive, audio-visual broadcast involving music videos made by viewers, physical challenges performed on air by Dan and Phil, and song requests from listeners. It was streamed in a video, live on the BBC Radio 1 website, and accessible worldwide.

In August 2014, it was announced that the last Dan and Phil show would be broadcast on 24 August, with the duo moving to a different show on Monday nights, featuring other popular video bloggers. This new show was titled ''The Internet Takeover'', and featured Lester alongside Howell live on the first Monday of every month, before coming to an end in April 2016.

Television and film

In 2013, Dan and Phil appeared on Friday Download, a BAFTA award-winning CBBC TV show.

From 2014 to 2016, Dan and Phil hosted the worldwide YouTube livestream of the Brit Awards as well as making backstage videos for their channel.

In 2015, Dan and Phil had voice cameo appearances in the UK cinema release of Walt Disney Animation Studios' '' Big Hero 6'' as Technician 1 & 2. However, this version is not in the UK home release. That same year, the duo also guest-starred in fellow YouTuber PJ Liguori's online series Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures, voicing anthropomorphic food items Brie and Rash.

In December 2016, Dan and Phil voiced two gorilla princes named Majinuni and Hafifu respectively, in the episode "The Lost Gorillas" in Disney Junior's ''The Lion Guard''.

Business ventures

IRL Merch

In 2014, Phil Lester's brother, Martyn, co-founded IRL Digital, Ltd., a company that creates and sells the merchandise of various other media personalities, starting with Dan and Phil Shop and branching out from there.

Games

In August 2015, Dan and Phil created an app, ''The 7 Second Challenge'', based on a YouTube challenge started by Lester in a 2014 video on his main channel. The app was discontinued in 2019. In October 2017, the duo released a party board game via Big Potato, ''Truth Bombs'', also the brainchild of Lester. They later leased ''Truth Bombs'' to Warner Bros for a ''Mean Girls''-themed version of the game.

Books and tours

''The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire'' and ''The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire''

On 26 March 2015, Dan and Phil announced via a trailer on Howell's channel that they had co-written a book titled ''The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire (TABINOF).'' It was released in the UK on 8 October 2015 and worldwide on 15 October 2015, published by Ebury Press and Random House Children's Books. The book topped the General Hardbacks Sunday Times Bestsellers list having sold 26,745 copies in the UK in the first week of its release. It also became a #1 New York Times Bestseller in the young adult hardcover list.

In the same trailer the pair announced their theatrical stage show '' The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire (TATINOF)'', which travelled around the UK during October and November 2015, ending with a show at the London Palladium. During the show, they sung an original song "The Internet Is Here," which they later released as a charity single for Stand Up To Cancer, earning them a gold record disc for the sales of the song.

In 2016, they took the tour to the US and Toronto, starting with a show in Orlando, Florida on 22 April and ending on 24 June with a show at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. It was the largest tour ever achieved by YouTube creators. They later toured Australia in August 2016, starting in Perth and ending in Brisbane, and finished the tour with a European leg, performing in Stockholm, Berlin, and Dublin.

YouTube Red Originals and ''Dan and Phil Go Outside''

In October 2016, '' The Amazing Tour Is Not on Fire'' was released as a YouTube Red Original film by the same name along with a documentary, ''Dan and Phil's Story of TATINOF''. They are the first British YouTube creators to release content on the YouTube Red platform.

Alongside these films, they released a photo book, '' Dan and Phil Go Outside'', in November 2016, which includes a personal collection of candid photos and insightful stories from the tour. The book became a #1 ''New York Times'' bestseller.

''Interactive Introverts''

In November 2017, Dan and Phil announced their second tour, '' Interactive Introverts'', a world tour that took place in 2018. The tour ran from April, starting in Brighton, to September, ending in Mumbai, and included 80 shows in 18 countries, making it one of the biggest YouTuber tours of all time.

Dan and Phil partnered with BBC Studios' TalentWorks to release a movie of ''Interactive Introverts'' with bonus features, such as behind the scenes content and directors' commentary, on DVD, Blu-ray, and available for digital download in December 2018.

''Terrible Influence''

In June 2024, Lester and Howell announced their third joint tour titled ''Terrible Influence'', which would begin that September in Antwerp. From there, the tour stretched from the remainder of 2024 into early 2025 with dates in mainland Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, and the UK and Ireland. Further UK dates were added in July 2024 due to demand.

Reception

A 2024 YouGov survey asked young LGBTQ+ Britons (16–25) which public figures made a "positive impression" on them growing up in terms of making them feel more comfortable and less alone in their identities. Though the list was "long and widely varied", Dan and Phil came second and fourth respectively.

Awards and nominations

References

{{Dan and Phil

1991 births
21st-century English LGBTQ people
21st-century English people

English gaming YouTubers
English comedy duos
LGBTQ YouTubers
Living people
YouTubers who make LGBTQ-related content