| “ | Sup Nation ! | ” |
―Philip DeFranco | ||
Philip DeFranco (born Philip Franchini, Jr. on December 1, 1985) also known as SXEPhil is an American YouTube video blogger and personality. His videos are centered on current events, politics and celebrity gossip in which he gives his opinion, usually presented in an ironic manner and with frequent jump cuts to create a fast-paced feel. He has over 4 million subscribers. His second YouTube channel is called "PhilipDeFranco" and he also makes a series of daily vlogs which he calls "The Vloggity". He also has 2 more channels that he operates. The third channel is SourceFed. Its just like his sxephil channel, except with more topics and more people in the videos. The 4th channel is SourceFedNerd where they will talk about movies, games, cell phone apps and whatever else they can think and is the new home to #TableTalk. DeFranco started his YouTube channel in 2006, and his videos regularly surpass one million views today. His large audience led to his winning of a Spore Creature Creator contest and Wired's Sexiest Geek of 2008 award, both open access online polls.
Personal life
Philip Franchini was born in The Bronx, New York, and he has a step mother who works at a car dealership. He has been a student at the University of South Florida, a biology student at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, and later a junior at East Carolina University. In 2007, Phil was living in Florida, but more recently Atlanta He also worked as a waiter in a number of restaurants while making videos in 2007. DeFranco lived in a car until moving back with his father in Tampa, Florida, on condition that he would return to college which he later failed to do. Before the YouTube partner program was available, he has asked for donations from his viewers after claiming to have run out of money, and selling everything except his Mac, camera, and clothes and overdrawing his bank account so he could spend a night in a hotel as he found it too scary sleeping in a car in Brooklyn. The video was eventually deleted. DeFranco also has polycystic kidney disease which he inherited from his father and grandfather; his family has a history of it.
His son Philip "Trey" DeFranco III was born on April 22, 2014.
On March 7, 2015, he got married to his long time girlfriend Lindsey
Criticism of Youtube's "advertiser friendly" policy
On 31st August 2016 DeFranco posted a video entitled YouTube Is Shutting Down My Channel and I'm Not Sure What To Do where he brought up how several of his videos had been demonetized, and he brought up how the guidelines for being considered being appropriate for advertising - specifically the guideline that reads
- Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown
DeFranco argued that this guideline bordered on censorship as it would make channels such as DeFranco's financially unsustainable if they had their advertising revenue pulled because they discussed subjects that were in the news, with DeFranco bringing up that one of his videos that had been demonetized mentioned the Brock Turner case. The video caused several other YouTubers to tweet or post videos discussing the guidelines or how many of their videos had been demonetized, and DeFranco even received mainstream media attention from the story.
The following day Defranco posted another video, Youtube Responded, But It Gets Even More Confusing..., where he brings up the issue that due to the guidelines being implemented in late 2015 the fact of the matter wasn't that YouTubers had a chunk of their videos demonetized on one specific date, but they had been demonetized weeks or even months ago but Youtube were only now informing them of this - which means that the users had spent weeks or even months missing out on ad revenue.
On 5th September 2016 Defranco posted yet another video, WOW! The Youtube Demonetization Fallout is Ridiculous, Biased, And Lazy, discussing some of the response to the story as well as some of the obvious errors made in the mainstream media coverage of the story.
Awards & Nominations
| Year | Work | Category | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Philip DeFranco | Sexiest Geek | Wired magazine | Won |
| 2010 | Philip DeFranco | Best Vlogger | 1st Streamy Awards | Nominated |
| 2013 | The Philip DeFranco Show | Best News Series | 2nd IAWTV Awards | Won |
| Best Writing (Non-Fiction) | Nominated | |||
| Best First-Person Series | 3rd Streamy Awards | Nominated | ||
| Best News and Culture Series | Won | |||
| SourceFed | Nominated | |||
| Audience Choice for Best Series of the Year | Won | |||
| Best Live Series | Nominated | |||
| SourceFed: #PDSLive 2012 Election Night Coverage | Best Live Event | Nominated |