| “ | What's up, ladies and gentlemen of YouTube - Boogie2988 coming at you live, once again, through the power of the internet... | ” |
―Boogie's intro | ||
Steven Jay Williams (born July 24, 1974 [age 43]), more commonly known by his username Boogie2988, or his character Francis, is a popular YouTuber and winner of The Game Awards, who makes gaming related videos discussing gaming news, personal "rambling" vlogs, and character sketches - the most famous of which is his character "Francis", a childish adult with a lisp and a tendency to smash stuff.
About
Boogie has over 600 million video views total, and currently has over 4 million subscribers. He made a video commemorating his 1000th video and took this moment to truly thank his fans for their support and the overwhelmingly positive effect the channel and the whole experience has had on his life.
Steven began the channel on April 5, 2006 and has been expanding since then. His first video was a 49 second clip titled "Playing Dungeons and Dragons" and simply showed Boogie playing the game with a few friends. Before this, he had a video titled "promiscuous girl, fat guy" which is currently unlisted due to copyright infringement.
Steven has mainly dedicated his channel to vlogs, where
he talks about gaming news and upcoming games, he also does "Rambling" vlogs where he shares things about his everyday life. His most popular videos have been those involving his character "Francis" , where he rages on various topics, and more often than not, smashes stuff. Other characters include the patriotic southern redneck "Jessy", who features in his own series ""Jessy Weighs In"".
Biography
Boogie was born on July 24, 1974 in a town called "St. Paul", in Virginia. His father, Carl, was a coal miner, and his mother was a teacher. Boogie had an older brother named Bryan, and an older sister called Karla. After his siblings left home, he was left alone with his mother, as his father was always working.
When he was a teenager, he went to a pre-collegiate program called "Upward Bound", where he made many friends and his first girlfriend. He then went to the University of Virginia, but flunked out after breaking-up with his girlfriend. His brother then gave him the opportunity to move to Fayetteville, Arkansas to "re-invent" himself. He learnt how to code and became a web designer. He made many friends who he played Magic the Gathering with. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with lymphedema, and a doctor tried to amputate his leg, but Boogie wouldn't let him. The lack of being able to exercise caused Boogie to become more overweight, and he became more depressed. Shortly after, his father died of cancer. His mother then had a fall and broke her leg. It would never heal, so she couldn't work. Boogie has said that this event "pushed her over the edge."
As the internet got bigger, the demand for web designers decreased, until Boogie had no money left. He was supported by his roommate until he discovered YouTube in 2006. He was very surprised that not everyone who watched his videos were mean - some were kind and found it funny. After making a video of his character, Francis, being hacked in World of Warcraft, Boogie was given a shoutout from Ray William Johnson, which caused him to have a boom in subscribers, and could start to support himself from YouTube.
Unfortunately, in 2009, he received a phone call that his mother was in the hospital. He went to visit her, and she died whilst he was there. He later met Dez, who had seen his videos. She eventually moved down to Arkansas to live with him, and they got married in 2013.
Much of this is recorded in his "Draw My Life" video. His "Draw My Life" is one of the most viewed videos on the channel. He is very open about the health issues he has been living with as a result of being so overweight, and touches on the topic often in his "Rambling" vlogs.
He also streams on Twitch.tv 3-5 times a week. Where he plays various video games, often in a comedic way. He also sings karaoke versions of songs and even has a few original raps.
His main source of content is through YouTube and Twitch, but he has also created other fan bases on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Tumblr and has recently rebooted his gaming channel boogieplays. He currently resides in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
On the 24th or 25th June 2016, Boogie2988 was hacked and the hackers closed his channel. Thanks to being at VidCon at the time of the hack, Steven was able to recover his channel and videos with expert assistance from staff at Google and YouTube who were in attendance.
In late 2016, McJuggerNuggets and Boogie2988 created a collaboration series on McJuggerNuggets' YouTube channel that followed the premise of Boogie being a guy with a multiple personality, Francis, that wanted nothing more than to have Jesse (McJuggerNuggets) in his posession and revived the beloved McJuggerNuggets series, The Psycho Series, which he ended in June of that same year. The series supposedly ended in December 2016, but later resurfaced in July 2017 in McJuggerNuggets' 2017 series, The Devil Inside. In this collaboration, his multiple personality issue and obsession with Jesse was resolved. The collaboration for that series has since then ended the same month it started.
On August 1st 2017, Steven received Gastric Bypass Surgery. Since receiving the surgery, he has lost over 30 LBS.
Trivia
- Boogie2988 won in the trending gamer category of the Game Awards 2016.