Lauren Kobayashi Riihimaki (born August 11, 1993) is a Canadian

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 ...

known for her video content on the LaurDIY channel as well as her

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and

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content on the ''LaurDIY Vlogs'' and ''WILD 'TIL 9'' channels. As of January 2022, ''LaurDIY'' has over 8.5 million subscribers, and ''LaurDIY Vlogs'' and ''WILD 'TIL 9'' have a combined 535,000 subscribers.

Career

Riihimaki began posting DIY tutorial videos on her blog in her first year of university in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. She first joined YouTube on December 1, 2011, originally to post her

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videos on the platform. In 2015, she graduated from

Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a Public university, public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Gar ...

(previously

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District in downtown Toronto, although i ...

) with a degree in graphic communications management. She won a Shorty Award in the "House & Home" category at the tenth annual ceremony. She also won a

Streamy Award 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 wri ...

in the "Lifestyle" category at the Awards' debut ceremony in 2017. In the same year, her

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 ...

''Served By LaurDIY'' premiered on

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. In 2017, Riihimaki appeared as The Engineer, in season 2 of the YouTube Premium series,

Escape the Night ''Escape the Night'' is an American reality television web series that documents vlogger Joey Graceffa inviting his friends for dinner, who are then trapped in dark fantasy plots based on horror and murder mystery aesthetics. Graceffa serves ...

, created by

Joey Graceffa Joseph Michael Graceffa Jr. (; born May 16, 1991) is an American YouTuber, vlogger, actor, author, and producer. He runs four active YouTube channels, all named after him. His main channel is dedicated to vlogging, while the second features video ...

. In 2019, Riihimaki was announced to host and executive produce a future

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competition series called '' Craftopia''.

Personal life

Riihimaki is of Finnish and Ukrainian descent through her father, and of

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

descent through her mother. Riihimaki dated Sebastian "Baz" Morris from 2010 to 2015, with the pair remaining friends after they split. Morris died in late May 2020 after an accidental drowning. She started dating fellow YouTuber Alexander "Alex" Burriss, also known as Alex Wassabi on YouTube, in 2015. They broke up in 2018. In 2019, Riihimaki began dating singer and entrepreneur Jeremy Lewis. They met for the first time when she was filming the "Roast Yourself Rap" that was popular in 2015. He worked with her to create her video. She recounts in her podcast (Wild Til 9) that she and her assistant initially thought he was gay. In December 2022, Riihimaki and Lewis publicized their engagement on social media. On April 7, 2024, Riihimaki married Lewis.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Riihimaki, Lauren 1993 births Canadian bloggers Canadian people of Finnish descent Canadian people of Japanese descent Canadian people of Ukrainian descent Canadian YouTubers DIY YouTubers Living people People from St. Catharines Toronto Metropolitan University alumni Canadian women bloggers Women video bloggers YouTubers from Ontario Canadian video bloggers