Jonathan Charles Cozart (born April 26, 1992), also known by his online alias Paint, is an American

YouTube personality 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 200 ...

, musician, and comedian. As of November 2024, his main

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 ...

channel has 4.54 million subscribers.

Personal life

Cozart was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and raised in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, from the age of six. After graduating from Cypress Creek High School in 2011, he moved to

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

and studied film at

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

. Cozart took

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

lessons as a child. Cozart is

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, and came out publicly in June 2017. In late January 2022, he announced on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

that he has been in a relationship with Sarah Sharpe since early 2021.

Career

YouTube career

His

channel "Paint", an account gifted to him by his brother, was created on December 27, 2005, and has over 4.63 million subscribers as of May 2023. Cozart's career in video started in middle school as a way to avoid writing papers, offering to make videos instead, and he continued this through high school. On July 17, 2011, Cozart uploaded "Harry Potter in 99 Seconds", which quickly became a

viral video Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...

, with 61 million views as of November 2022. Cozart grew his audience on YouTube with his

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

parody videos, which place

Disney Princess ''Disney Princess'', also called the ''Princess Line'', is a media franchise and toy line owned by the Walt Disney Company. Created by Disney Consumer Products chairman Andy Mooney, the franchise features a lineup of female protagonists who hav ...

es into modern circumstances through

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

layering of his own voice to supply the music. "After Ever After" was uploaded in 2013, and has amassed 94 million views as of November 2022. "After Ever After 2" was released in 2014 and "After Ever After 3" was released in 2018. He then went on hiatus after November of that year, but returned in October 2020 with the video "If Trump Was In

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

Live shows

In 2015, Cozart performed his own one-man show, "Laughter Ever After", at the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. His live performance of musical comedy was well-reviewed by attendees, stating, "Jon Cozart delights with his witty, heartfelt music." Cozart joined fellow YouTube musicians

Dodie Clark Dorothy Miranda Clark (born 11 April 1995), known mononymously as Dodie (stylised dodie), is an English singer, songwriter, author and YouTuber. Dodie began her career uploading original songs and covers to YouTube. , her main channel has over ...

Tessa Violet Tessa Violet Williams (born March 20, 1990) is an American singer-songwriter, social media personality, actress, music video director, and former child model. Originally a vlogger under the username Meekakitty, Violet has since focused primari ...

, and Rusty Clanton in 2016 for selected shows of the small and intimate ''Transatlantic Tour'' along the east coast.

Other work

Cozart hosted the 7th Streamy Awards on September 26, 2017. His hosting turn was described as "vicious" by ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'', and the show included a musical number in which Cozart compared nominee

Jake Paul Jake Joseph Paul (born January 17, 1997) is an American Professional boxing, professional boxer, influencer and actor. He began his career posting videos on Vine (service), Vine in September 2013 and had amassed 5.3 million followers and 2 bi ...

to then-U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

. Cozart described his approach as satirizing the perceived "hypocrisy of the new media industry." Cozart played the role of Donny Meadows in the 2020 web series '' Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye'', and the role of the bard Diedrich Knickerbocker in Shipwrecked Comedy's 2022

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

Headless: A Sleepy Hollow Story.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Paint
on YouTube * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cozart, Jon 1992 births 21st-century American LGBTQ people 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American male musicians American comedy musicians American LGBTQ comedians American bisexual men American bisexual musicians Bisexual male musicians Bisexual comedians Comedians from Arkansas Comedians from Austin, Texas Comedians from Houston LGBTQ YouTubers LGBTQ people from Arkansas LGBTQ people from Texas Living people Moody College of Communication alumni American music YouTubers Musicians from Houston Musicians from Little Rock, Arkansas YouTubers from Austin, Texas YouTubers from Houston YouTubers from Arkansas