GloZell

Not to be confused with Glozel.
GloZell

GloZell in 2014
Personal information
Born GloZell Lyneette Green
(1972-07-30) July 30, 1972[1][2]
Orlando, Florida, United States
Residence Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation YouTube personality, comedian
Spouse(s) Kevin Simon (m. 2013)
Website glozelllovesjayleno.blogspot.com
glozell.com
Internet information
Web alias(es) GloZell1 (changed to GloZell Green)
Web hosting service(s) YouTube
Signature phrase "Hello this is GloZell! Is you ok? Is you? Good, 'cause I wanted to know!"[3]

GloZell Lyneette Simon[4] (née Green, born July 30, 1972) better known as GloZell Green, or simply GloZell,[1][2] is an American comedian[5] and YouTube personality.[6]

GloZell established her YouTube channel in 2008, with video interviews, comedy about her life and song parodies. By 2015, the channel had accumulated more than four million subscribers and more than 700 million total views.[7] Her most popular videos include her cinnamon challenge video, which has accumulated more than 50 million views, and "My Push up Bra will help me get my man" video, with more than 24 million views.[8][9] She gained wide notice when her blog about meeting Elijah Wood was mentioned by the actor during a 2011 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. In 2012, she appeared in the web series Dr. Fubalous.

In 2015 GloZell interviewed Barack Obama in a YouTube livestream hosted at The White House.[10]

Early life

GloZell was born to Gloria and Ozell Green, her name being a portmanteau of the names of her parents.[11] She has one sister, DeOnzell, who is an opera singer.[12] In 1997, GloZell graduated from the University of Florida with a BFA degree in musical theatre.[6][8]

Career

In 2003, GloZell moved to Hollywood, California, to pursue a career in acting and comedy. She joined The Groundlings[13] and studied her favorite comedian, Jay Leno, by attending 600 consecutive tapings of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.[8][14] She began a blog that included a series of interviews with other audience members at Leno's show,[11] but she soon began using YouTube as a video host for the interviews.[8][15] She began to create and post original comedy videos when people she met at Leno tapings told her that she was funny on her own.[11] Her first viral YouTube video, in 2008, was "My Push up Bra will help me get my man"; by 2013, it had gained over 20 million views.[6][8] She began to make more frequent YouTube comedy videos focusing on her daily life, celebrity impersonations, song parodies, and Internet fads.[6][8] Some of her most popular early videos were her "translations" of pop songs, such as Kesha's "Tik Tok" and Rihanna's "Rude Boy".[11][16]

In 2011, GloZell gained wider notice when her vlog about meeting Elijah Wood was mentioned by the actor during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.[17] Her 2012 cinnamon challenge video became quickly popular[6] and was ranked fourth on The Guardian's "Viral Video Chart" in February 2012.[18] As of 2016, it had amassed more than 48 million views.[9] In June 2012, she was featured in the video Beauty and the Beat by Todrick Hall, which reimagines the opening of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, in which Belle lives in an urban African-American neighborhood.[19] Also 2012, GloZell was featured alongside Danny Trejo and Flavor Flav and fellow YouTube personalities Antoine Dodson and Colleen Ballinger in the musical web series Dr. Fubalous, where GloZell played the titular doctor's "ranch dressing-loving secretary", Maude "Ma" Cakes.[6][20]

GloZell has performed her stand-up act at such comedy venues as The Comedy Store, The Improv, the Laugh Factory, Showtime at the Apollo, Steve Harvey Talent Show, and the J. Anthony Brown's J Spot Comedy Club. She has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show, 20/20, ABC News and MTV and has been featured in The Washington Post,[21] the Los Angeles Times,[22] U.S. News & World Report,[23] Ebony, Cosmopolitan, People and Forbes magazines, among other media.[15] Each year since 2013, GloZell has hosted a free live variety show called GloZell Fest, with celebrity and YouTube guests including Sisaundra Lewis, Meghan Tonjes, Frankie Grande, Miranda Sings and Far Young.[24][25] She has also published a book of inspirational poems called Wait! Let Me Tell You.[26]

GloZell (left) with her talent manager and husband Kevin "SK" Simon, in 2009.

In May 2013, GloZell released her first single, titled "Pick Up After Your Dog", on the iTunes Store,[27] and the music video was soon released on YouTube.[28] She released her second single, "Glozell's Cinnamon Challenge", later in May.[29] By 2013, GloZell's YouTube channel had received more than 400 million total views, with 2.7 million subscribers, and was ranked the 25th most viewed comedy channel on YouTube.[30] By 2015, the channel had accumulated more than 4 million subscribers and more than 700 million views.[7]

On January 22, 2015 GloZell interviewed Barack Obama in a YouTube livestream hosted at The White House.[10] She talked to him about, among other issues, racial profiling and officer-involved shootings, relations with Cuba and cybersecurity. At the end of the interview she handed Obama green lipstick to give to the first lady and their children, but misspoke saying, "One for your first wife…" resulting in some laughs from the audience in the room.[31][32] GloZell made a guest appearance in the Nickelodeon sitcom, Game Shakers and played a role in the 2015 film The Wedding Ringer.[33] She is set to play the voice role of Grandma Rosiepuff in Dreamworks' upcoming animated film, Trolls.[34] She also has a docuseries, Glo All In, about her and her husband's quest to have a child, ultimately with a surrogate mother.[35][36]

In June 2016, GloZell released an autobiography, Is You Okay?, written in collaboration with Nils Parker.[15][33]

Personal Life

From 2000 to 2003, Glozell was married. She described her relationship with her ex-husband and their divorce in her autobiography "Is You Okay?". GloZell lives in Los Angeles with her manager and husband Kevin Simon.[37] The two were married on August 9, 2013.[38] In December 2015, the couple announced they were expecting their first child, a girl, via surrogate. On August 4, 2016 at 2:45 pm, Glozell's surrogate Shawna gave birth to a girl, O'Zell Gloriana De Green Simon, weighing 8 lbs. and 9 oz.[39]

References

  1. 1 2 GloZell and Rob fix Wikipedia I The Creator Show. 4 June 2015 – via YouTube.
  2. 1 2 Chindamo, Frank; Chindamo, Lynn. "GloZell Uses Age, Experience, and #Green To Ascend YouTube". tubefilter. Tubefilter, Inc. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  3. ↑ DeGraaf, Mia. dailymail.com, January 16, 2015, "Nicki Minaj parodies, the Cinnamon Challenge... and an interview with the President? Meet the YouTube celebrity granted an interview with Obama as he tries to reach out to her 21 million viewers". Accessed November 4, 2016.
  4. ↑ "GloZell Green on Twitter". Twitter.
  5. ↑ Kitchener, Shaun (March 17, 2012). "YouTube Sensation GloZell: 'If I Meet One Direction I'm Going To Jail!'". Entertainmentwise. Giant Digital. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Holcomb, Alyssa (February 23, 2012). "GloZell talks YouTube, Gator dreams and cinnamon battles". The Independent Florida Alligator. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  7. 1 2 "Glozell Green: About", YouTube, accessed August 27, 2014
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Champ, Sarah (March 10, 2011). "Q & A: Glozell Green". University Daily Kansan. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  9. 1 2 Green, Glozell. Most popular videos on the Glozell Green YouTube channel, YouTube, accessed June 7, 2016
  10. 1 2 Kelly, Amita. "5 Surprises From President Obama's YouTube Interviews", NPR, January 23, 2015
  11. 1 2 3 4 Venerable, Dana (June 1, 2010). "Internet Meme of the Week: GloZell Green Revisited". The Dartmouth. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  12. ↑ GloZell (June 8, 2012). "Live Green... Google GloZell1 on You Tube". Glozelllovesjayleno.blogspot.com. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  13. ↑ Vigil-Romero, Andrae (June 20, 2011). "YouTube Sensation GloZell Green Takes On The World". UCLAradio.com. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  14. ↑ "L.A. woman is a repeat Jay-watcher". Chicago Tribune. May 16, 2007. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  15. 1 2 3 Schawbel, Dan. "GloZell Green: How She Built Her YouTube Career by Accident", Forbes magazine, June 7, 2016
  16. ↑ "Internet Meme of the Week: GloZell Green". The Dartmouth. April 26, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  17. ↑ "Elijah Wood on Jimmy Kimmel Live PART 2". Jimmy Kimmel Live!. September 7, 2011. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Guardian Viral Video Chart: George Alagiah, Adele, and a mad monkey". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. February 24, 2012. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
  19. ↑ Hall, Todrick. "Beauty and the Beat", June 2012, accessed January 14, 2013
  20. ↑ Maude Cakes, Dr. Fubalous, YouTube, accessed August 12, 2012
  21. ↑ Henderson Nia-Malika. "This is the green-lipstick-wearing YouTube star who will interview President Obama today", The Washington Post, January 22, 2015, accessed June 7, 2016
  22. ↑ Villarreal, Yvonne. "GloZell Green, YouTube sensation, stars at VidCon too", Los Angeles Times, June 30, 2014, accessed June 7, 2016
  23. ↑ Schwab, Nikki. "Who Are the YouTube Stars Interviewing President Obama?", U.S. News & World Report, January 21, 2015, accessed June 7, 2016
  24. ↑ Kelly, Rock. GloZell Fest 2014 rolls into Orlando", Orlando Weekly, October 10, 2014
  25. ↑ "3rd Annual GloZell Festival", Glitter Magazine, September 14, 2015
  26. ↑ Green, GloZell. Wait! Let Me Tell You, Certa Publishing (2014) ISBN 1939748445
  27. ↑ "iTunes - Music - Pick up After Your Dog - Single by GloZell Green". Itunes.apple.com. 2013-05-05. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
  28. ↑ "Pick Up After Your Dog (Official Music Video) GloZell". YouTube. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
  29. ↑ "iTunes - Music - GloZell's Cinnamon Challenge - Single by GloZell Green". Itunes.apple.com. Retrieved 2013-05-29.
  30. ↑ "YouTube Top 100 Most Viewed Comedy Video Producers", VidStatsX.com, accessed November 26, 3013
  31. ↑ The White House. "The YouTube Interview with President Obama". YouTube. Google Inc. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  32. ↑ Bruce, Mary. "YouTube Star GloZell Green Accidentally Called Out Obama's 'First Wife'". ABC News. ABC News Internet Ventures. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  33. 1 2 Nolfi, Joey. "YouTube star GloZell: My new book is 'making reading great again!'", EW.com, June 7, 2016
  34. ↑ GloZell (January 6, 2016). "HAIR we Go! Meet Grandma Rosiepuff! So glad to voice one of the #DreamWorksTolls xoxo - GloZell ( I'm @JustinTimberlake 's Grandma!!!! )". Facebook. Retrieved January 6, 2016.
  35. ↑ Sander, Brice. "Exclusive: YouTube Star GloZell Green Reveals Biggest Fear About Becoming a Mom: I Just Hope the Kid Thinks I’m Funny", ETonline.com, March 8, 2016
  36. ↑ "GloZell Green: YouTube Star Pregnant". People.com.; and "GloZell Green Reveals Baby's Gender: Glo All In". People.com.
  37. ↑ "Internet Meme of the Week: GloZell Green". TheDartmouth.com. 2010-04-26. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  38. ↑ "Log into Facebook - Facebook". Facebook.
  39. ↑ "GloZell Green Welcomes Daughter O'Zell Gloriana De". people.com. 2010-08-05. Retrieved 2016-08-05.
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