Matthew Santoro (born July 16, 1985) is a Canadian YouTuber, live streamer, and educator. He creates top ten lists and "50 Amazing Facts" videos. Santoro previously produced

vlogging 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 gaming videos, which are no longer available. As of June 2023, Santoro's channel has 6.02 million subscribers and 1.5 billion views.

Channel history

Santoro most frequently uploads top ten lists, such as "10 Forbidden Places You’re Not Allowed to Visit!" and "10 Extremely BIZARRE Phobias People Actually Have!".

Personal life

Santoro grew up in

Welland Welland is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. As of 2021, it had a population of 55,750. The city is in the centre of Niagara and located within a half-hour driving distance to Niagara Falls, Niagara-on ...

, Ontario, and later moved to

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

, Ontario. He is of Italian descent through his father, while his mother is French-Canadian. In May 2015, he moved to

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 ...

, Ontario. A fan of

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

and

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

culture, Santoro often refers to Toronto as "The 6ix". In January 2016, he uploaded a video titled ''My Abuse Story''. He tearfully talked about an unnamed romantic partner, whom he claimed was manipulative and forced him to turn his friends and family away in favour of her and she had also psychologically and physically abused him during their relationship. It was claimed by his friend, Rob Gavagan (

né The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Dyke), that the "unnamed partner" mentioned in the video was Nicole Arbour. Santoro 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, ...

in the first week of January 2017 and possesses a U.S. green card, but maintained his Canadian citizenship. On October 21, 2017, Santoro released a video revealing that he suffers from

clinical depression Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...

. Santoro made several videos afterwards explaining his progress and improvements. On July 27, 2020, Santoro explained that after moving back to

, someone or some group stole a trailer from the moving company that housed most of his belongings, leaving him nothing other than what he had moved back to Toronto with himself. The stolen trailer was found on July 30, and its contents were returned to Santoro on July 31, although some items were still missing, and several were damaged.

Career

After Santoro graduated from

Brock University Brock University is a public university, public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The ...

with a

Master of Accountancy The Master of Accountancy (MAcc, MAcy, or MAccy), alternatively Master of Science in Accounting (MSA or MSAcy) or Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAcy, MPAcc, MPA or MPAc), is a graduate professional degree designed to prepare students for pu ...

in 2010, he became an accountant. He also started making videos on

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 ...

that year, mostly skits. In 2012 he got laid off from his accounting job. He described that experience in a vlog titled "I Lost My Job Today". He then started focusing on his YouTube career and thus began posting videos weekly. Also during this time, he recalls in an interview, that he noticed that his opinionated fact compilation videos, such as his top ten lists and "50 Amazing Facts To Blow Your Mind" series, were viewed more than his other videos. That made him begin uploading those types of videos more frequently. He believes that his more frequent of uploading of these videos helped increased his viewership from only a few thousand per video in the past, to the millions he currently has. He is able to make a career out of YouTube through the money he earns from ad revenue, which is more than what he made as an accountant. In a tweet published on August 15, 2021, Santoro announced that he was leaving

after 10 years of uploading, in favor of streaming on Twitch. In December 2022, Santoro announced his return to YouTube.

Notable collaborations

Santoro has been a special guest narrator on

CinemaSins ''CinemaSins'' is a YouTube channel created by Jeremy Scott and Chris Atkinson.CinemaSins - YouTube.
Re ...

' ''Everything Wrong With...'' series. He was featured in the '' Underworld: Evolution'' video which was published on October 10, 2014. He also collaborated with Matthias, creating a song, "The Booty Song", and Barely Political in their video, "YouTube Complaints 2015". Santoro and Vsauce3 collaborated with

The Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Musical theatre, musical Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Cre ...

, in a video titled, "What if Quicksilver Ran Past You?", which was the first video in the Muppet collaboration initiative on YouTube. He collaborated with

Lilly Singh Lilly Singh (born September 26, 1988) is a Canadian YouTuber, television host, comedian and author. She began making YouTube videos in 2010. She originally appeared under the pseudonym Superwoman (stylized IISuperwomanII), her YouTube username ...

, Olga Kay, Toby Turner, and

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, former politician, and former professional bodybuilder, known for his roles in high-profile action films. Governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger, ...

, among others, in ''Terminator Genisys: The YouTube Chronicles,'' a promotional series for the 2015 film ''

Terminator Genisys ''Terminator Genisys'' is a 2015 American cyberpunk action film that is the fifth installment in the Terminator (franchise), ''Terminator'' franchise. It is a Reboot (fiction), reboot of the franchise, taking the premise of the The Terminator, ...

''. In July 2018, Santoro released the 100th episode of his "50 Amazing Facts" video series; for the occasion, Santoro had each fact presented by a different YouTuber. Those who took part included Rhett and Link, Kanwer Singh, Daym Drops,

MatPat Matthew Robert Patrick (born November 15, 1986), known professionally as MatPat, is an American internet personality, political advisor, and former YouTuber. He is the creator and former host of the YouTube series ''Game Theorists'', and its s ...

Hank Green William Henry Green II (born May 5, 1980) is an American YouTuber, science communicator, novelist, Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian, and entrepreneur. He produces the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers with his older brother, author John Green, a ...

, iJustine, and the Fine Brothers.

Other work

Santoro is the host of Quest Nutrition's "Food for Thought" webseries. The first episode, "10 Incredible Facts About Chicken", premiered on May 28, 2015. Santoro, along with Yousef Saleh Erakat,

Soledad O'Brien María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien (born September 19, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. Since 2016, O'Brien has been the host for '' Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien,'' a nationally syndicated weekly talk sho ...

and

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "will I am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the frontman of the musical group Black Eyed Peas, which he ...

hosted the Global Citizen 2015 Earth Day event. On September 26, 2015, Santoro, along with AsapScience,

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

Hugh Jackman Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian and British actor, singer, and producer. Beginning in theatre and television, Jackman landed his breakthrough role as Wolverine in the ''X-Men'' film franchise and the Marvel Cinem ...

hosted the Global Citizen festival. In June 2015, Santoro obtained a global publishing deal from

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

for his book, titled ''MIND=BLOWN'', which was released on August 9, 2016. Santoro retired with the title of #1 "most loved" Periscoper in the world with over 177 million hearts on the live streaming app

Periscope A periscope is an instrument for observation over, around or through an object, obstacle or condition that prevents direct line-of-sight observation from an observer's current position. In its simplest form, it consists of an outer case with ...

on November 11, 2015.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Matthew Santoro's channel
on

Matthew Santoro Vlogs's channel
on YouTube * {{DEFAULTSORT:Santoro, Matthew 1985 births Canadian people of Italian descent Canadian emigrants to the United States Living people Brock University alumni Canadian YouTubers People from Welland Canadian accountants Streamy Award winners Educational and science YouTubers YouTubers from Ontario