| Hank Green | |
|---|---|
| Born | William Henry Green II May 5, 1980 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.A. |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | "Vlogbrothers" "Hankgames" |
| Occupation | http://youtube.com/vlogbrothers http://www.ecogeek.org |
| Known for | blogging, vlogging, Green Technology, Singing |
| Notable works | Brotherhood 2.0, EcoGeek, Project for Awesome |
| Spouse | Katherine Green |
| Relatives | John Green (brother) |
| Website | |
| www.HankGreen.com | |
William Henry "Hank" Green II (born May 5, 1980, in Birmingham, Alabama[1]) is a professional vlogger and entrepreneur. He is the founder of VidCon and EcoGeek.org and the co-founder of DFTBA Records. He is also a singer/songwriter and has released three studio albums. Hank Green achieved Internet fame through his YouTube-based video blogs (or vlogs), known as Brotherhood 2.0, along with his brother, author John Green. Their channel, Vlogbrothers, has more than 900 videos which, together, have been watched more than 180 million times. [2]
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Soon after his birth, Hank Green and his family moved to Orlando, Florida.[1] There he attended Winter Park High School; he graduated in 1998. He earned a Bachelor's Degree in biochemistry from Eckerd College and a Master's Degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana.[3] He currently resides in Missoula, Montana, with his wife Katherine Green (whom he refers to as "The Katherine"), his greyhound Lemon and his cat Cameo.[4]
In high school, Green was fascinated by Mars and the prospect of human colonization. This led to his first publication, a piece for the Marswest Project,[5] titled "Let's go to Mars" which was re-published as lead editorial in Space Times Magazine.[6] According to his vlog on April 2, he was also one of the "founding members" of the Mars Society.[7] This fascination also led him onto the internet, where he created a top-ranked website on Mars Exploration.
The success of this site led Hank to create more websites. After high school, Hank created ihatei4.com, a community for people in the Orlando area who were tired of their commutes. The site was featured on radio, television and in the Orlando Sentinel.[8]
Hank continued as a web developer after moving to Montana for graduate school, focusing on developing websites for educational institutions (including the University of Montana) and environmental non-profit organizations.
In graduate school, he created EcoGeek, the Web's first environmental technology website.[9] Starting out as a class project,[10] EcoGeek evolved into a major environmental blog,[11] the largest blog on environmental technology.
EcoGeek is well respected among environmentalists and even caught the attention of Time,[12] where it was described as "porn for hardcore science, tech and enviro freaks". Writing about environmental issues, Green has been published on numerous environmental blogs, including Treehugger.com, Yahoo! Green, The National Geographic Green Guide, and Scientific American.
His expertise is often requested across the media, ranging from appearing on The Weather Channel and Planet Green to occasional work for the New York Times[13] to providing news commentary for NPR.[14] His blog posts are often quoted in various publications.[15][16][17] Green has written several articles for Mental Floss, and was one of three authors of the book Mental Floss: Scatterbrained.[18]
During Hank Green's original year-long run in the Brotherhood 2.0 project, he accepted the challenge to perform an original song biweekly (known as "Song Wednesdays") and he continued, though less frequently, to write songs during 2008. By the spring of 2009, he was once again writing and performing songs on a biweekly basis. The songs he writes, sings, and records are often humorous ditties, such as "I'm Gonna Kill You," "Baby, I Sold Your Dog on eBay," and "People Who Love Giraffes Who Love Giraffes". Hank's most successful song during Brotherhood 2.0 was "Accio Deathly Hallows," which was featured on YouTube preceding the release of the final Harry Potter book.,[19] and has been viewed over one million times.[20] The front-page feature gave the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel a boost in their viewers and subscribers, leading to the beginning of the fanbase that they have now: Nerdfighteria.
The vast popularity of Green's songs prompted the introduction of his first album, So Jokes, which was released whilst Green was on tour with his brother, promoting the book Paper Towns. The album reached number 22 on the Billboard top 25 revenue generating albums online.[21] He has since released 3 other albums- I'm So Bad at This: Live! (2009), This Machine Pwns n00bs (2009) and most recently Ellen Hardcastle (2011) which was named after a Vlogbrothers fan who won his raffle to raise money for The Project For Awesome in 2010.
Green's latest business move has been the creation and marketing of "2-D" glasses, glasses allowing one to watch 3-D movies in 2-D, originally created for those who experience discomfort watching 3-D, such as Green's wife, and consisting of either two right or two left lenses from a pair of regular 3-D glasses.[22]
Hank and his brother John ran a video blog project called Brotherhood 2.0.[23][24] The original project ran from January 1 to December 31, 2007, with the premise that the brothers would cease all text-based ("textual") communication for the year and instead converse by video blogs, made available to the public via their YouTube channel Vlogbrothers and on their website. The initial idea for the project was created by John, because, during an instant messaging conversation between the two, he pointed out they had not gone past the realms of communication via phone conversations, e-mails, and instant messaging for nearly a year.[25]
Recurring themes included "Nerdfighters", adding the phrase "in your pants" to book titles, "Song Wednesdays", "Question Tuesdays" (This normally did not take place on a Tuesday, which lead to video titles such as "Question Tuesday on Friday"), punishments for breaking the rules, clips of Hank humping various items, and featuring giraffe sex as the thumbnail for videos. First intended as a joke, it soon became apparent that said thumbnail substantially increased the number of views. With over 27 million combined views, equalling about 15% of their total video views, their two most viewed videos use the giraffe sex thumbnail.
In their December 31, 2007 video, it was revealed that the brothers had decided not to stop vlogging even though the project had ended.
In 2008, John and Hank met up with their fans, known as "Nerdfighters". The first gathering was a last minute decision, but despite the short three day notice, nearly a hundred people attended. In August, John and Hank were invited to the Google office in Chicago to talk about the project.[26] That same day, they filled the Harold Washington Library with some four hundred enthusiastic young adults.[27] Following John's tour, promoting his third novel, Paper Towns, the brothers went on a national tour in November. With events in 17 different cities, they met thousands of Nerdfighters at local libraries and community centers. During this tour, Hank released his first album of Nerdfighter-themed songs, entitled So Jokes.[28]
The Green brothers have been interviewed on PotterCast and were keynote speakers at the Harry Potter fan convention LeakyCon 2009.[29]
In addition to spawning a large online fan community and creating a large amount of YouTube popularity, the Brotherhood 2.0 project has also succeeded in its original mission. The two brothers have come to communicate more thoroughly with each other, and have a larger influence in each others' lives than before the project was initiated. The brothers talked on the phone once or twice a year before Brotherhood 2.0, but, according to Hank Green's wife Katherine, they now "talk almost every day."[30]
John and Hank continue to post vlogs every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on their YouTube account, Vlogbrothers. With over 600,000 subscribers, they are the 38th most subscribed directors of all time on the website. Their videos have been watched over 187 million times.[9]
DFTBA Records (an initialism for "Don't Forget to Be Awesome")[31] is a record label co-founded by Green and Alan Lastufka in 2008. Its main focus is music generated by prominent YouTube stars, such as Green himself, Charlie McDonnell, Chameleon Circuit, Molly Lewis, Mike Lombardo, Rhett and Link, VenetianPrincess,Jason Munday and several others. Distribution of records by DFTBA Records is largely independent; Lastufka himself generally oversees most of the distribution.
The goal of the record label, as Lastufka stated in a video on the subject, is to provide a distribution network for talented artists of YouTube and to make sure their music reaches out to the "largest audience possible."[32] The record label claims to aid a bigger audience in connecting with the artists, and make the "YouTube experience" more lucrative, more exciting, and more fun. The offices of DFTBA Records are in Manhattan, Illinois.[33]
In December 2009, Green and his brother John launched VidCon, a YouTube conference which was held at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles in July 2010. The event sold out,[34] as did the second year of the conference. The event has already been scheduled for 2012.
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