Vitus Spehar, better known as V Spehar, is an American journalist and

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

host best known for their

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

account, UnderTheDeskNews.

Career

Before entering journalism, Spehar worked in the culinary and

hospitality Hospitality is the relationship of a host towards a guest, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill and welcome. This includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, ...

industries in New York City,

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, and

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. This included working at catering companies, the

James Beard Foundation The James Beard Foundation is an American non-profit culinary arts organization based in New York City. It was named after James Beard, a food writer, teacher, and cookbook author. Its programs include guest-chef dinners to scholarships for asp ...

and Hungry Harvest, an organization which addresses

food insecurity Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Similarly, househo ...

. Their first TikTok videos focused on preparing and cooking food during the early months of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. During the January 6 Insurrection in 2021, Spehar created a short video addressed to then-Vice President

Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Repub ...

while lying under a desk. The video took off, and Spehar continued to make videos focusing on explaining current events simply. After UnderTheDeskNews gained popularity, Spehar was hired to oversee the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

' TikTok account for six months. They also signed with Lemonada Media to produce V Interesting, a weekly podcast which expanded Spehar's news coverage, which launched in 2022. Spehar attended VidCon in June 2022. The following month, they received a New York Commendation Award for their journalistic efforts. In September 2022 Spehar appeared on the Today Show. By October 2022, Spehar's TikTok had 2.7 million followers. That same month, Spehar was one of several TikTok

influencers A social media influencer, or simply influencer (also known as an online influencer), is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates. This is done by using direct audience intera ...

to be invited to attend briefings at the White House on the

Inflation Reduction Act The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) is a United States federal law which aims to reduce the federal government budget deficit, lower prescription drug prices, and invest in domestic energy production while promoting clean energy. It was ...

and on encouraging voter turnout for the 2022 Midterm Elections.

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

worked with the invitees to create videos encouraging voter turnout. In November 2022 Spehar covered the

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade in New York City presented by the American-based department store chain Macy's. The Parade first took place in 1924, tying it for the second-oldest Thanksgiving parade in the United States ...

on their and

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's TikTok accounts. In March 2023 Spehar attended the congressional hearing on the RESTRICT Act, during which they sat directly behind Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok. Spehar criticized the proposed act both on their TikTok account and in-person at a press conference hosted by Rep. Jamaal Bowman the day before the hearing. In late March Spehar appeared as a guest of Mercury Stardust's 30-hour livestream, which in total raised more than $2 million for transgender healthcare. In April 2023 Spehar received a Webby Special Achievement Award.

Personal life

Spehar, who is originally from Shelton, Connecticut, has lived in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

since 2020. Spehar is nonbinary, uses they/them pronouns, and has

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

References

External links

Official website

V Interesting at Lemonada Media
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spehar, V 1982 births Living people 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American LGBTQ people American LGBTQ journalists American LGBTQ broadcasters American non-binary writers American news podcasters American TikTokers Journalists from Connecticut LGBTQ people from Connecticut LGBTQ podcasters LGBTQ TikTokers LGBTQ writers with disabilities Non-binary journalists People from Shelton, Connecticut Webby Award winners