Douglas Darien Walker (born November 17, 1981) is an American comedian, film critic, actor and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

. He is best known for creating and starring in the satirical film review web series ''

Nostalgia Critic ''Nostalgia Critic'' is an American review comedy web series created, directed by, and starring comedian Doug Walker. The series initially launched on YouTube on July 3, 2007, before moving to Walker's own site, That Guy with the Glasses, and f ...

'', wherein the titular character reviews

nostalgic Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek, consisting of (''nóstos''), a Homeric word meaning "homecomi ...

media in an exaggeratedly angry manner. After an initial run on YouTube, Walker co-created the website That Guy with the Glasses (later merged into

Channel Awesome Channel Awesome, Inc. is an American online media production company based in Lombard, Illinois. The company was created in 2008 by Mike Michaud, Mike Ellis, and Bhargav Dronamraju. Channel Awesome operated the ''That Guy with the Glasses'' we ...

) in 2008, where he and the series gained wider popularity. The site also presented other media critics who created similar content, including

Lindsay Ellis Lindsay Ellis (born November 24, 1984) is an American science fiction author, video essayist, film critic, and YouTuber. Her debut novel, '' Axiom's End'', published in July 2020, became a ''New York Times'' Best Seller. Education and career ...

and

Angry Joe Jose Antonio Vargas (born June 18, 1984) is an American media commentator and YouTuber. He is notable for his portrayal of Angry Joe, the titular host of his media review-oriented YouTube channel ''AngryJoeShow''. YouTube Vargas launched his Y ...

. Walker and his series returned to YouTube in 2012. As of 2025, Walker still creates the show but with less of an angry or profane approach.

Early life and education

Walker is the son of Barney Walker (b. 1946), a

naval officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent ...

and musician, and Sandra Ruth (née Polkow) Walker (1947–2016), a

therapist A therapist is a person who offers any kinds of therapy. Therapists are trained professionals in the field of any types of services like psychologists, social workers, counselors, etc. They are helpful in counseling individuals for various mental ...

. Both parents, as well as Walker's older brother Rob (b. 1979), would later appear regularly in his videos. Due to his father's career, Walker was born on a

naval base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that usu ...

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, Italy, and moved frequently as a child, spending parts of his childhood in Rhode Island, Washington, and

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, before moving to the

Chicago 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 ...

, Illinois, area in his teen years. Walker attended and graduated from

Northern Illinois University Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois, United States. It was founded as "Northern Illinois State Normal School" in 1895 by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, initially to provide the state with c ...

, majoring in mass communication and minoring in visual art, also serving as an editor and cartoonist for the school newspaper.

''Nostalgia Critic''

After graduating from college, Walker worked as an illustrator and janitor. He started making videos on the then fairly new video sharing site

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 ...

in his spare time. Although his early ''Nostalgia Critic'' videos were popular, Walker claims his rise to internet fame first came from the success of his ''5 Second Movies'' edits. Walker has stated that the Nostalgia Critic character is primarily inspired by

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Me ...

and the

Queen of Hearts The queen of hearts is a playing card in the standard 52-card deck. Queen of Hearts or The Queen of Hearts may refer to: Books * "The Queen of Hearts" (poem), anonymous nursery rhyme published 1782 * ''The Queen of Hearts'', an 1859 novel by ...

, as well as by comedians

Lewis Black Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion and cultural trends. He hosted the Comedy Central series ''Lewis Black's ...

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program ''The Colbert Report'' from 2005 to ...

, and

Bill Murray William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor and comedian, known for his deadpan delivery in roles ranging from studio comedies to independent dramas. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Bill Murra ...

. In 2008, Walker moved his skits from YouTube to independent site That Guy With the Glasses, later renamed

, with videos hosted via Blip.tv. The majority of his skits have since been reuploaded to YouTube, and form a full web series spanning several seasons. Walker now works as a full-time content creator and staff member of Channel Awesome in Chicago, under the leadership of CEO Mike Michaud. In September 2012, Walker announced that the ''Nostalgia Critic'' series would be ending and that he and his brother would create the

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

web series ''Demo Reel''. In January 2013, however, Walker released "The Review Must Go On", a short film announcing that the series would continue. The new incarnation would co-star Malcolm Ray and Rachel Tietz of ''Demo Reel'', playing fictionalized versions of themselves as well as performing in sketches. Tamara Chambers would later join the series following Tietz's departure. In March 2018, numerous former Channel Awesome contributors and employees accused the company of widespread mismanagement and mistreatment, culminating in the

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 ...

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...

#ChangeTheChannel and a

Google Doc Google Docs is an online word processor and part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. Google Docs is accessible via a web browser as a web-based application and is also available as a mobile app on Android and iO ...

entitled "Not So Awesome" chronicling the complaints of over 20 contributors.

Influences

Walker has cited many influences on his acting and style of comedy, including ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on WUCW, KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then ...

'',

Monty Python Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...

, ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'',

, ''

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series ...

'',

Mel Brooks Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodie ...

, ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'',

Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (abbreviated to ZAZ) was an American comedy filmmaking trio consisting of Jim Abrahams and brothers David and Jerry Zucker who specialised in writing slapstick comedy films during the 1980s. Members of the team have ...

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, writer, producer, director, political commentator, actor, and television host. The long-running host of ''The Daily Show'' on Comedy Central from 1999 to 20 ...

Rowan Atkinson Rowan Sebastian Atkinson (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles in the sitcoms ''Blackadder'' (1983–1989) and '' Mr. Bean'' (1990–1995), and in the film series '' Johnny English'' (2003– ...

, ''

Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American Animated series, animated Comedy television, comedy Musical film, musical television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Television Animation. It originally aired on Fox Broadcasting Company ...

'',

Dave Chappelle David Khari Webber Chappelle ( ; born August 24, 1973) is an American stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian and actor. He starred in and co-created the satirical comedy sketch series ''Chappelle's Show'' (2003–2006) before quitting in the middle ...

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedie ...

, and especially ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

'' (particularly

Personal life

Walker has been married to clinical social worker and therapist Robin Poage since 2012. In his Nostalgia Critic review of ''

The Land Before Time ''The Land Before Time'' is a franchise consisting of American animated film, animated Adventure film, adventure Children's film, family films centered around dinosaurs, including a Movie theater, theatrical movie, various Direct-to-video, st ...

'' in 2024, he mentioned that he very likely has

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple ...

and OCD. In his review of '' Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief'' in 2019, he mentioned having slight

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Web

Discography

Singles

References

Notes

External links

Official Channel Awesome website
*
Official YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Doug 1981 births Living people 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American male actors American comedy musicians American comedy YouTubers American male comedians American male film actors American male web series actors American parodists Slapstick comedians American people of German descent Channel Awesome Comedians from Chicago Comedians from Naples Italian emigrants to the United States Male actors from Chicago Male actors from Naples Male actors from Jacksonville, Florida Northern Illinois University alumni Parody musicians Writers from Chicago Writers from Naples Writers from Jacksonville, Florida YouTube channels launched in 2007 YouTubers from Chicago YouTubers from Florida