YouTube Creators are Making a Splash This Awards Season. Here’s a Guide to the Platform’s Top Contenders
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- Brittany Broski launched "Royal Court" on YouTube in July 2023, a self-funded show filmed at OBB Studios in West Hollywood where celebrity guests are "knighted" after tests including sketching a family crest; the channel has over 1 million subscribers and has featured Harry Styles, Charli xcx, and Hannah Einbinder
- Kareem Rahma co-founded "Subway Takes" in 2023 with Andrew Kuo, an in-subway interview format nearing one million YouTube subscribers; notable guests have included Cate Blanchett and Julian Casablancas, and his companion series "Keep the Meter Running" extends the format to NYC cab back seats
- Michelle Khare became the second person in 2025 to complete Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation" plane hang, documented on her 5.4 million-subscriber series "Challenge Accepted"; she is currently competing in the Great World Race, running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days
- Cleo Abram runs "Huge* If True," an optimistic science and tech explainer with 7.8 million YouTube subscribers; her interview subjects have included Sam Altman (ChatGPT), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind), and "Project Hail Mary" author Andy Weir
- Sean Evans co-created "Hot Ones" with Chris Schonberger, a YouTube interview franchise where guests eat 10 chicken wings of progressively hotter sauce; the show has hosted hundreds of celebrities and spawned a "Hall of Shame" for those who fail to finish
- Julian Shapiro-Barnum expanded from his viral "Recess Therapy" series to "Celebrity Substitute," where A-list guests teach real New York City public school classrooms; recent episodes featured A$AP Rocky teaching rap, Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff coaching a talent show, and Gigi Hadid advising on confidence
- Sandra Jeenie Kwon (Jeenie Weenie), a former flight attendant, created the scripted YouTube series "Cabin Pressure," which follows an eccentric flight crew and their passengers "locked in an aircraft at 30,000 feet and fighting for survival"
- YouTube is entering the Primetime Emmy consideration space "in a huge way," with these creators driving global conversation during FYC season
Why it matters: YouTube's Emmy FYC push is elevating a new class of digital-native talent — from a self-funded Texas kombucha meme (Broski) to a former BuzzFeed producer doing Tom Cruise-level stunts (Khare) to an interview franchise built on hot wings (Evans) — into contention for Television Academy recognition traditionally reserved for scripted and prestige cable programming. The range of formats submitted (variety, short-form comedy, hosted nonfiction, reality) signals the Academy is taking digital-first production seriously as a competitive category.
