Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou (born 13 November 1992), known together online as RackaRacka, are Australian twin filmmakers,
YouTubers
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 ...
, and stunt performers. They are known for their
horror comedy 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 ...
videos. They won numerous awards, including the Best International Channel
Streamy Award, Best Overall at the Online Video Awards, and the
AACTA Award for the Best Web Show.
Originally from
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
with
Greek heritage, the brothers 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 January 2019 but continue to make films in Australia. They made their
feature directorial debut when they wrote and directed the supernatural horror film ''
Talk to Me'', which premiered at the
2023 Sundance Film Festival and was released internationally on 27 July 2023. Their second film, ''
Bring Her Back'', was released in 2025; both received positive reviews.
YouTube career
Danny and Michael Philippou were born on 13November 1992.
They began filming their backyard wrestling matches with close friends in Adelaide when they were 11 years old, inspired by
WWE.
[ These included scenes of the brothers crashing into furniture, "flipping kids over and bashing them headfirst into the ground", and "jumping off everything", including roofs. They also filmed in a half-built house, and caused water to flood the site. They later said that some of the things they did were extremely risky and even life-threatening, and they were thankful to a friend's elder sister who helped steer them away from doing these things that could have taken them down a path of ]juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior younger than the statutory age of majority. These acts would be considered crimes if the individuals committing them were older. The term ...
. At the age of 13, they moved on to making a "TV show" and "movies".
In 2013 they started creating "fake fail" videos for Facebook, and a few months later started the YouTube channel ''RackaRacka''.[ Initially the channel was not monetised, with Danny financing the videos by volunteering for paid medical trials.
The channel's first huge success was '']Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven Fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
VS Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
'', which attracted 7 million views in a week, and won them a trip to the U.S.
In 2014, Michael and Danny both crewed on the Australian horror film, '' The Babadook''. The production company responsible for ''The Babadook'', Triptych Pictures, has also produced videos for RackaRacka, including: ''Versus'', a series of three short films; ''RackaRacka Live (Stunt Gone Wrong''); and ''Extreme Handball''. Written and directed by the Philippou Brothers, these were shown on the Foxtel
NXE Australia Pty Ltd, trading as the Foxtel Group, is an Australian pay television company that operates cable television, direct-broadcast satellite, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April ...
pay channel.
On 10 July 2017, Danny and Michael revealed that they moved into a mansion
A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...
with their close friends, marking the beginning of a series of videos for the channel titled ''House of Racka'', which combined their real-life adventures and special effect
Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...
s skills altogether into a vlog
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 ...
-like series. The ''House of Racka'' series became the majority of the channel's uploads for around a year. On 2 April 2018, among complaints of YouTube demonetising the channel, the brothers announced that they were being evicted from their mansion. Many fans thought this meant the end of the channel, as the video contained an emotional tribute to the experiences the twins had in the mansion, in a more sombre mood than they usually projected. This was later proven to be false, however, as the two later revealed that the ''House of Racka'' series was the only cancellation to their YouTube careers.
On 25 August 2018, Michael fought American YouTuber Scarce in an amateur boxing
Amateur boxing is the variant of boxing practiced in clubs and associations around the world, at the Olympic Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games, as well as at the varsity sports, collegiate level.
Amateur boxing bouts comprise three ...
match on the undercard of KSI vs Logan Paul at Manchester Arena
Manchester Arena (currently known as AO Arena for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the Manchester city centre, city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space. Pr ...
in England, winning via 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 ...
in the 3rd round.
Directorial career
''Talk to Me''
The twins' feature-length directorial debut is a horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
entitled '' Talk to Me'', produced by Australian production company Causeway Films and set in the filmmakers' hometown of Adelaide. The cast includes Sophie Wilde, Zoe Terakes, and Miranda Otto
Miranda Otto (born 16 December 1967) is an Australian actress. She is the daughter of actors Barry Otto, Barry and Lindsay Otto and the paternal half-sister of actress Gracie Otto. Otto began her acting career in 1986 at age 18 and appeared in a ...
, with the storyline about a young woman who summons dead spirits with a ceramic hand. ''Talk to Me'' sold to numerous international distributors at Cannes
Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...
in 2022. It had a preview screening at the Adelaide Film Festival
The Adelaide Film Festival (AFF, formerly ADLFF) is a film festival usually held for two weeks in mid-October in movie theater, cinemas in Adelaide, South Australia. Originally presented wikt:Special:Search/biennial, biennially in March from 2 ...
on 30 October 2022, the closing night of the festival. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2023, and its European premiere at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival on 21 February 2023, and was released in cinemas internationally from 27 July 2023.[ On August 3, they revealed that a prequel had been shot utilising a screenlife perspective, and on August 8, a sequel was confirmed to be in development.
]
''Bring Her Back''
The brothers followed up ''Talk to Me'' with another original feature film titled '' Bring Her Back''. It was also produced by Causeway Films, and distributed by A24. The film stars Sally Hawkins
Sally Cecilia Hawkins (born 27 April 1976) is an English actress of stage and screen. She began her career on stage and then moved into film, for which she has received several accolades including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominatio ...
and Billy Barratt.
The Philippous have said that they want to continue to make films in Australia, where they prefer the filmmaking culture. ''Bring Her Back'' began shooting in Australia in late June 2024.
Rumoured projects
In April 2023, the brothers were tapped to direct a new ''Street Fighter
is a Media mix, Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Capcom. Street Fighter 1, The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by List of Street Fighter video games, six other ma ...
'' film for Legendary Entertainment
Legendary Entertainment, LLC (also known as Legendary Pictures or simply Legendary) is an American mass media and film production company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull. The company has often collaborated with the major stu ...
and Capcom
is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...
. In June 2024, the duo were reported to have left the project, due to scheduling conflicts with ''Bring Her Back''.
During an interview on '' The Project'', the Philippous said they have met with Marvel Studios
Marvel Studios, LLC, formerly known as Marvel Films, is an American film and television production company. Marvel Studios is the creator of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), a media franchise and shared universe of films and television ser ...
for a "mystery project", while also further stating that ''Talk 2 Me'' is officially in the works.
Personal life
The brothers were born in Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
and raised in the Pooraka suburb of the city. They are of Greek descent.
In June 2025, Hideo Kojima
is a Japanese video game designer. Regarded as one of the pioneering auteurs of video games, he developed a strong passion for film and literature during his childhood and adolescence, which in turn has had a significant influence on his game ...
revealed via Instagram that the brothers would be featured as non-playable characters in Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.
Controversies
In December 2019, Michael was charged by South Australia Police
South Australia Police (SAPOL) is the police force of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of South Australia. SAPOL is an independent statutory agency of the Government of South Australia directed by the Commissioner of Po ...
with numerous crimes related to a video uploaded on 16 January 2019, which depicted him driving a heavily modified and watertight car on public roads while completely submerged and breathing partially through a hole in the roof. He was ordered to appear in court on 14 January 2020, but avoided conviction after entering a plea deal that saw him pay $2,000 in fines and court costs and disqualified him from driving for two weeks.
Filmography
Awards and nominations
References
External links
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Left On Red
o
Youtube
{{authority control
Australian YouTubers
Australian filmmakers
Living people
Australian people of Greek descent
Comedy-related YouTube channels
Streamy Award-winning channels, series or shows
YouTube channels launched in 2013
1992 births
English-language YouTube channels
Australian male professional wrestlers
YouTubers from Adelaide
YouTube filmmakers
Australian horror film directors