Esteban "Steve" Zaragoza (born June 9, 1982) is an American online personality, singer-songwriter, musician and web series host, notable for his work on the current events and news series ''
SourceFed
SourceFed was a YouTube channel and news website created by Philip DeFranco in January 2012 as part of YouTube's original channel initiative, and was originally produced by James Haffner.
The main SourceFed channel mainly focused on popular c ...
''. Zaragoza became a host on the series in 2012. The following year, Zaragoza became a host on its spin-off channel, ''SourceFedNERD''. On his personal YouTube channel, Zaragoza frequently combines or crosses between
dark
Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown.
Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low l ...
,
deadpan
Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blu ...
,
surreal,
character
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
, and
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and ...
in a non-sequitur fashion.
Early career
Zaragoza's first appearance was in 2008 for a music video by
Buckcherry
Buckcherry is an American rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1995. The band released two albums, '' Buckcherry'' (1999) and ''Time Bomb'' (2001), before dissolving in 2002. Buckcherry's first album ''Buckcherry'' was DreamWorks first ...
titled "Too Drunk...". According to his
IMDb
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...
profile, Zaragoza became involved with filmmaking in 2009, receiving a sound department credit for ''
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs''. In 2011, Zaragoza appeared on an episode of the television series, ''
1000 Ways to Die
''1000 Ways to Die'' is an American anthology television series that aired on Spike from May 14, 2008 to July 15, 2012, and also aired on Comedy Central during its run. The program recreates unusual supposed deaths, true events, and debunked ...
''. Prior to SourceFed, Zaragoza worked as a sound designer at
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
.
Online projects
Making his first appearance on March 1, 2012, Zaragoza joined ''
SourceFed
SourceFed was a YouTube channel and news website created by Philip DeFranco in January 2012 as part of YouTube's original channel initiative, and was originally produced by James Haffner.
The main SourceFed channel mainly focused on popular c ...
'' early on as a recurring host, before developing into a full-time co-host. Zaragoza would become ingrained with the SF community, appearing at live meetups and being interviewed by online publications. In February 2013, Zaragoza, along with
Philip DeFranco
Philip James DeFranco (born Philip James Franchini Jr.; born December 1, 1985), commonly known by his online nickname PhillyD, is an American YouTube personality. He is best known for '' The Philip DeFranco Show'', a news commentary show centere ...
& his ''SourceFed'' co-hosts at the time,
were awarded the Audience Choice
Streamy Award
The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The formal ...
. In May, Zaragoza became a co-host on the spin-off channel, ''SourceFedNERD''. In August 2013, Zaragoza joined boss Philip DeFranco and co-host
Meg Turney in the meetup event, "DeFranco Loves Dat
AZ". Zaragoza would appear at VidCon 2014, as well.
In September 2014, Zaragoza co-hosted a video with
Lee Newton
Ashley Rose Newton (born April 13, 1985), known professionally as Lee Newton, is an American actress, comedian and Web personality. She is a former co-host of the YouTube news channel ''SourceFed'', as well as a regular performer of The Gym Come ...
, focusing on charities refusing donations from
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news news aggregator, aggregation, Review site#Rating site, content rating, and Internet forum, discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") subm ...
following the leaks of celebrities' nude photographs, which Reddit commonly referred to as "
The Fappening." According to StatSheep, the SourceFed channel lost over 20,000 subscribers due to the video, which were quickly recovered. Days later, Zaragoza along with the rest of the ''SourceFed'' crew were awarded the Streamy for Best News & Current Events series.
Zaragoza starred as the male lead, Paul Schue-Horyn, in the 2020 YouTube miniseries ''Wayward Guide'' created by the Tin Can Bros. The series features many notable supporting stars, such as
Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss (born February 5, 1987) is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He rose to fame starring on the television series ''Glee'' (2010–2015) and received Emmy and Golden Globe acting awards for his leading role as spree ...
,
Sean Astin
Sean Patrick Astin ( né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in '' The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in '' Rudy'' (1993), ...
, and
Carlos Valdes.

Aside from hosting series for
Phil DeFranco Networks & Merchandise, Zaragoza has frequently collaborated with YouTube personality
Dane Boedigheimer. Zaragoza has been a recurring guest voice actor on Boedigheimer's ''
The Annoying Orange''. Zaragoza also appeared as the lead role on ''
The Misfortune of Being Ned'', and on the pilot episode of ''Orange'' spin-off, ''The Marshmallow Show''. ''
PBS Newshour
''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of i ...
'' would publish an article commenting on Zaragoza's reception of
Taco Bell
Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, incl ...
's breakfast waffle taco.
In 2014, Zaragoza appeared in SoulPancake's ''The FlipSide'' series. Zaragoza was also announced to play the role of Iggy DeLacey on the Pemberley Digital and
PBS Digital Studios
PBS Digital Studios is a non-profit organization that through which PBS distributes original educational web video content based in Arlington, Virginia. It comprises both original series and partnerships with existing YouTube channels. Most of ...
collaborative series ''
Frankenstein MD''. The series is produced by
Bernie Su
Bernie Su is an American web series creator, writer, director and producer. He is best known for his work on the Emmy Award-winning web series ''The Lizzie Bennet Diaries'' with Hank Green, a modern vlog-style adaptation of Jane Austen's ''Pride ...
who has won Emmy Awards for his previous webseries projects, ''
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries'' and ''
Emma Approved''.
Zaragoza's character is based on the
Igor character.
[ Due to his role on ''Frankenstein, MD'', Zaragoza appeared at ]LeakyCon
Mischief Management, LLC is a company that organizes annual Fan convention, fandom-based conferences, including ''BroadwayCon'', ''GeekyCon'', ''Con of Thrones'', and ''LeakyCon''.
Events
BroadwayCon
BroadwayCon is a fan convention for the thea ...
2014, with co-actress Anna Lore. ''Frankenstein, MD'' is an online video adaptation of Mary Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...
's ''Frankenstein
''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific exp ...
'', and is shot at YouTube Space LA.
Zaragoza was the MC for the NMR! Live event.
Zaragoza also appeared in '' Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures'' portraying Manny, the mantis
Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...
landscaper at the titular hotel.
In 2015, Zaragoza confirmed he would releasing an album titled ''Animals''. It would feature songs written by various other web personalities, including Chelsea Dunaway, Owen Carter and Andy Kaufman's Ghost. In the same year, Zaragoza hosted a short-lived online revival of the classic game show ''Password
A password, sometimes called a passcode (for example in Apple devices), is secret data, typically a string of characters, usually used to confirm a user's identity. Traditionally, passwords were expected to be memorized, but the large number of ...
'' for YouTube's Official channel Buzzr
Buzzr is an American digital terrestrial television, digital broadcast television network owned by Fremantle North America, a unit of the Fremantle (company), Fremantle subsidiary of RTL Group. The network serves as an outlet for the extensive li ...
featuring various web personalities as contestant until 2016.
In 2016, he started to host ''Mostly Harmless'' for ComicConHQ, as well as launching three podcasts: ''Cloverfeels'' with comedian Mike Falzone; ''Dynamic Banter'' also with Mike Falzone; and ''It Feels Like the First Time'' with Owen Carter and Brett Register. All of these podcasts are a part of the HeadGum Network.
In 2017, Steve Zaragoza guest starred in the ''Bizaardvark
''Bizaardvark'' is an American comedy television series created by Kyle Stegina and Josh Lehrman that premiered on Disney Channel on June 24, 2016. The series ran for three seasons consisting of 63 episodes, airing its final episode on April 13, ...
'' episode "In Your Space" portraying Sore Loser Guy. In that same year, Zaragoza also guest starred in '' Parker Plays''.
In 2017, Zaragoza released an Internet series called "Torty Cloud" the first episode being named "Welcome to Torty". The series features Steve Zaragoza and McKenzie Stith acting.
In 2018, Zaragoza co-founded '' The Valleyfolk'', a YouTube channel and production company, with fellow ''SourceFed'' members Joe Bereta, Elliott Morgan
Elliott Christopher Morgan (born February 22, 1987) is an American stand up comedian, actor, writer, host, producer and YouTube personality. Morgan is best known for being a co-host of the YouTube channel ''SourceFed''. Morgan attended the Unive ...
(former host of the online revival of the classic game show ''Beat the Clock
''Beat the Clock'' is an American television game show that involves people trying to complete challenges to win prizes while faced with a time limit. The show was a creation of Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions.
The show began on radio as ' ...
''), and Lee Newton
Ashley Rose Newton (born April 13, 1985), known professionally as Lee Newton, is an American actress, comedian and Web personality. She is a former co-host of the YouTube news channel ''SourceFed'', as well as a regular performer of The Gym Come ...
. In 2019, the Valleyfolk competed on the short-lived NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...
reality comedy competition show '' Bring the Funny'' hosted by Amanda Seales
Amanda Ingrid Seales (born July 1, 1981), formerly known by the stage name Amanda Diva, is an American comedian and actress. Since 2017, she has starred in the HBO comedy series '' Insecure''. In 2019, HBO released her first stand-up comedy spe ...
, winning the show's first season.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaragoza, Steve
1982 births
21st-century American male actors
American male actors of Mexican descent
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American male web series actors
American male YouTubers
American podcasters
American sketch comedians
American YouTubers
Living people
Male actors from Oxnard, California
SourceFed people