Yousef Saleh Erakat (; ; born January 22, 1990), also known as FouseyTube or Fousey ( ), is a Palestinian-American
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 ...
,
online streamer
An online streamer or live streamer is a type of social media influencer who broadcasts themselves online through a live stream to an audience.
History
Streaming arose in the early 2010s, originating on sites like YouTube where users could upl ...
, actor, and musician. His YouTube channels include ''FouseyTUBE'' (later renamed ''Crashout YSE''), and the reality vlog-channel ''DOSEofFOUSEY''. As a YouTuber, he produces prank videos, parodies, vlogs, comedy sketches and interviews. He is the recipient of two
Streamy Awards
The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are an awards show presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and wr ...
. As an actor, he starred in
Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is an American actor, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of Madea, Mabel "Madea" Simmons, a tough elderly woman, and also portrays her brother Joe Simmons and her ...
's comedy horror film ''
Boo! A Madea Halloween
''Boo! A Madea Halloween'' is a 2016 American comedy horror film directed, written, starring and co-produced by Tyler Perry. The idea for the film originated from a fictitious Madea Halloween movie that was mentioned in Chris Rock's 2014 film '' T ...
'' (2016) and its 2017 sequel. In January 2025, he released his debut album, ''G7: The Death of Fousey'', which earned mixed reviews.
Personal life
Yousef Saleh Erakat was born in
Fremont, California
Fremont () is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area, Fremont has a population of 230,504 as of 2020, making it the fourth List of cities and towns in the San F ...
, to
Palestinian
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
parents. He has three older siblings, including
Noura Erakat
Noura Saleh Erakat (, ; ; born ) is a Palestinian-American activist, university professor, legal scholar, and human rights attorney. She is currently a professor at Rutgers University, specializing in international studies. Her primary focus is ...
, who is a legal scholar and professor at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
. Erakat attended
San Jose State University
San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...
and majored in theatre arts. He 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, ...
after graduating in 2013 to pursue his acting career.
Erakat was brought up in a religious
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
family, and has on several occasions criticized negative stereotyping of Muslims.
Erakat has spoken on his ongoing struggles with depression, porn addiction,
anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...
and
bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of Depression (mood), depression and periods of abnormally elevated Mood (psychology), mood that each last from days to weeks, and in ...
, mentioning them frequently in his daily
vlogs
A vlog (), also known as a video blog or video log, 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 one ta ...
and once on
VH1
VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...
.
YouTube career
2011–2014: Beginnings, fitness and controversy
Erakat has had multiple YouTube channels in the past, namely ones relating to fitness. His past channels included him following a workout routine,
P90X P9 or P-9 may refer to:
* Planet Nine, a hypothetical new planet in the far outer solar system
* Boeing XP-9, a prototype fighter aircraft from the 1930s
* Heckler & Koch P9, a semi-automatic pistol
* Springfield Armory P9, a semi-automatic pistol
* ...
, and giving a review and before and after of his journey. In 2012, Erakat was listed 3rd on the list of "40 Inspiring Muslims Under 40" by ''MBMuslima Magazine''. It was not until he began making comedic skits about his Middle Eastern upbringing that his popularity grew.
He later began creating prank videos and further grew his audience. These videos have been criticized both for being dangerous and others staged. Nonetheless, he is often considered one of the original YouTube pranksters.
2021–present: Return to YouTube and book
In 2021, Erakat returned to YouTube with a new YouTube Boxing related channel named Fousey (stylized in
all lowercase
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing systems ...
). On this channel he has uploaded boxing related videos with Slim Albaher, AnEsonGib and other YouTubers. He started to call himself DanaTube. In the same year, he also returned to his DOSEofFousey channel. He told that he will use his DOSEofFousey channel for clips.
In January 2021, it was announced that he was going to release a book, titled ''Warning: This Is Not a Motivational Story''.
Streaming career
On August 6, 2023, while
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 c ...
streaming at an airport, he encountered an intoxicated woman who had been a victim of
sex trafficking
Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Perpetrators of the crime are called sex traffickers or pimps—people who manipulate victims to engage in various forms of commercial sex with paying customers. Se ...
. After flirting and kissing, he and the woman disappeared for around 20 minutes. After bragging that they had sex, however, Erakat received criticism. He then claimed the event was a prank, before starting to cry because he felt "guilty". He abruptly terminated the stream soon after. After a wave of backlash, he proceeded to take a hiatus from Twitch, citing mental health issues. The day after the incident he was banned for hateful conduct towards the
LGBT
LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...
community. Shortly after his Twitch ban, Erakat announced that he would be streaming on
Kick
A kick is a physical strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of ...
.
On August 23, 2023, Erakat was arrested on livestream by police in
Miami, Florida
Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
after calling 911 on himself following a dispute with another streamer.
Boxing career
Erakat made his boxing debut against Slim Albaher on September 29, 2019, losing by a
technical knockout
A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...
. Erakat suffered a broken nose and needed two surgeries to fix it. Following that experience, he vowed never to fight again. On August 27, 2022, he faced Deji Olatunji and lost via TKO, vowing to never fight again for the second time.
Music career
In January 2025, Erakat released his debut album, ''G7: The Death of Fousey'', which earned mixed reviews.
Brentwood, Tennessee
Brentwood is a city in Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 45,373 as of the 2020 United States census.Permuted Press