Is anyone else obsessed with Collins Key? The YouTuber has over 18 million subscribers, and we cannot get enough of his videos!
Starting out as a magician, the 23-year-old appeared as a finalist on America’s Got Talent‘s eighth season, and the world quickly fell in love with him. He even opened up for Demi Lovato on her Neon Lights tour! Now, his YouTube channel has become known as the world’s largest family-friendly channel in the world, with each episode averaging over 25 million views. And that’s not all. Get this — he also recently became the executive producer for an upcoming Nickelodeon sitcom with his brother, Devan — who is just as talented!
Well guys, we just talked exclusively to the two social media stars, and they spilled all the tea on their rise to fame, upcoming Nickelodeon show and more.
J-14: Your channel has grown from 2 million to 18 million subscribers in just 2 years — what has it been like seeing your fan base grow in such a short amount of time?
Collins Key: This whole journey and growth has been extremely exciting and humbling for us because our content is all driven by our fans. We wouldn’t be here without them. It’s their comments and ideas that help drive what we create. As more people have joined our “Keyper” family, we’ve received so many amazing video ideas, so the more things they throw out there, the more we’re able to give back to them.
Devan Key: Watching the community grow and experiencing them coming together and finding lifelong friendships within the fanbase has been so amazing as well.
Collins: We feel so fortunate and lucky to have the incredible community of fans that love what we do. We always want to make sure our videos are meeting their expectations. It’s important to us to deliver only the best to our fans.
J-14: What are your favorite and least favorite parts about working together? Are there ever times you guys disagree on something, and how to do work to compromise?
Collins: We’ve genuinely been best friends our entire lives. If we have differing opinions, which usually only relates to content decisions, we collaborate to find the correct answer. Devan is so incredibly talented and it’s amazing how he’s able to apply that talent to everything he does. It’s one of my favorite things to witness as an older brother.
Devan: Aw, thanks bro. And my favorite thing about Collins is his ambition and supportive older brother nature.
J-14: Who are some YouTubers you guys would love to collab with and why?
Devan: We’re excited to say that we’ve collaborated with so many amazing creators including the Merrell Twins, Brooklyn and Bailey, Wengie, RCLBeauty101, Brent Rivera, Natalies Outlet and many others, so mostly all of the top people we’ve wanted to collaborate with, we’ve been able to work with. There’s always new and exciting people coming up, and if someone stands out that we want to collab with, we’ll reach out.
J-14: When you were young, what did you see yourself doing career-wise?
Collins: I’ve always loved entertaining. I started doing Shakespeare and acting when I was 4 years old and at 12 years old I started learning magic. I remember watching America’s Got Talent on YouTube and I never imagined that I’d not only be on that show but also on YouTube. So it’s turned into this crazy journey that thankfully, our parents have always encouraged and supported. They’ve always wanted us to go after what we’re passionate about, and following what we’re passionate about has led to all of these amazing opportunities that I could have never imagined.
Devan: When I was younger, I had different goals at different times but always imagined I would do something in the arts. I’ve always loved visual storytelling, and I’m able to turn that into what we’re doing now. Also, not a lot of people know that I’m a painter, so it’s been fun to bring those skills to the channel like in the pancake art challenges.
J-14: Being the world’s largest family-friendly YouTube channel, how do you feel when you see controversies with YouTubers who might be setting a negative example for their young audiences?
Collins and Devan: We focus on the way we grew up and the values we learned — always very positive, fun, encouraging, inclusive and respectful. We feel a big personal responsibility to our audience and fanbase to create content that represents that. It’s all organically included in the content we make. We always make sure the comedy in our videos is never at the expense of someone else as we strive to make sure we create an inclusive environment.
J-14: How did you start working with Nickelodeon? What can fans expect from your new show?
Collins and Devan: It’s super exciting because we get to work with a phenomenal partner like Nickelodeon to bring what our fans love about our content to their network and combine it with what their fans love about what they do. We’re going to deliver a really cool, different and exciting hybrid that hasn’t been seen before. Unfortunately we gotta keep it under wraps for the time being, but that’s part of the fun of it and I guarantee our fans are not expecting the show we’re creating but I know they’ll love it.
J-14: Collin — What was something you learned about Demi while working with her that fans might not know? Have you kept in contact with her since then?
Collins: Something fans might not know about Demi is that she is an expert bowler. One of the fun things we did on tour was that anytime we had some free time, we would go bowling, do laser tag or different fun things like that. I’ve been in contact with her. I was at her birthday party a while ago. She’s great, she’s such a talented artist and an incredibly nice person too.
J-14: Sometimes there’s pressure to look a certain way on social media. Have you ever given into the pressure? How do you deal with that?
Collins: What we see on social media is oftentimes only the best parts of someone’s life, and we shouldn’t compare ourselves to that. We encourage our fans to be confident in themselves and authentic to who they are. The main thing for us, for our channel and for our content is being authentic to who we are.
Devan: For us, we’re just creating content based on what we’re passionate about and what we want to give the audience. I’m having fun just being myself, and I think that’s very important for everyone to keep in mind when being on social media — just have fun being yourself.
J-14: What advice would you give young people who want to break into YouTube, acting, magic, etc. but don’t know where to start?
Collins and Devan: Find what you’re passionate about and start now. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t make up excuses as to why you can’t do it. In the beginning, we had to learn how to use a camera and how to edit. As soon as you start to put in the work, you will begin to learn. In the beginning, just focus on creating the best you can at that time, and you’re going to learn so much as you continue to do it. Above all, have fun. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s not worth it. Find what you love to do, and then just put in the work.
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