Toby Turner

Toby Turner
Turner at VidCon 2012.
Born	Toby Joe Turner (1985-03-03) March 3, 1985 Osborn, Mississippi, United States
Residence	Los Angeles, California, United States
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Florida
Occupation	Actor, comedian, musician, internet personality
Years active	2006 (2006)–present
Notable work(s)	"I Can Swing My Sword", Literal Trailers, "Safety Torch", "Nugget in a Biscuit", "Dramatic Song", Tobuscus Adventures
Television	The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange
Internet information
Web alias(es)	Tobuscus TobyGames
Signature phrase	"Intro/outro of darkness, then redness, then whiteness" "Hello once again, audience" "Bless your face"

Toby Joe Turner (born March 3, 1985), also known by his stage name Tobuscus, is an American actor, comedian, musician, and internet personality. Originally from Niceville, Florida, he is currently based in Los Angeles, California, and is best known for his YouTube videos as well as a number of television and film roles. As of January 12, 2014, Turner has a total of over 13.5 million subscribers and 2.7 billion video views over his three YouTube channels.^[1][2][3]

Early life

Turner was born in Mississippi and grew up in Niceville, Florida.^[4] He attended the University of Florida, graduating with a degree in telecommunication production.^[5]

Career

Internet videos

Toby Turner first joined YouTube on May 14, 2006, when he created a channel under the name of "Tobuscus".^[1] The first video that remains on the channel is a sketch based on the 2006 film Click entitled "What I'd do with the remote from Click".^[6] One of Turner's most popular early videos is "Don't Tase Me, Bro!", a remixed recording of the University of Florida Taser incident in which his classmate Andrew Meyer was stunned with a taser gun by a police officer.^[7] Interviewed about the video by MTV, Turner explained that, after watching the clip, "as soon as [he] heard [Andrew] yelling, [he] knew it would fit in a hip-hop song", and that he "wanted to give [Andrew] the profits" from sales of related merchandise.^[7]

Having begun his video-making career in Niceville, Turner moved to Los Angeles, California in 2008.^[8] In April 2009 he began using his "TobyTurner" channel for daily unedited vlogs dubbed "lazy vlogs",^[4] and in July 2010 he registered his fourth (third in use) YouTube channel under the name "TobyGames",^[3] designating it for a new series of Let's Play videos. The channel has featured playthrough videos of numerous games since its inception, including the long-running Minecraft and Happy Wheels series.^[9]

As of January 12, 2014, the Tobuscus channel has over 5.4 million subscribers,^[1] the TobyTurner channel has over 1.9 million,^[2] and the TobyGames channel has over 6.1 million.^[3] Turner's "Literal Trailers" series is one of his most popular, earning him mainstream recognition from CBS News, who described his rendition of the Dead Island trailer as "amazing" and "hilarious",^[10] and Wired, who praised the Iron Man 3 video.^[11]

In July, 2013, Turner signed with YouTube multi-channel network Maker Studios.^[12]

Collaborations

Turner performing with Jack Douglass at VidCon 2012.

In addition to producing his own original content over three channels, Turner has worked together with a wide range of other YouTube personalities on various projects. In 2009 he performed a guitar collaboration with Joe Penna (MysteryGuitarMan) using two separate videos played simultaneously;^[13][14] in 2010 he made an appearance on the fifth episode of The Annoying Orange, titled "A Cheesy Episode";^[15] in early 2011 he worked with iJustine on a number of Little Big Planet 2 Let's Play videos;^[16] since 2011 he has worked on many projects with Jack Douglass, including parody "Tobjackscus",^[17] sketch "Dubstep Tobuscus",^[18] and music videos "Take Off Your Clothes (Like Scarlett Johansson)",^[19] "Razors in Your Apple (On Halloween)",^[20] and "The Valentine's Day Song";^[21] and in 2012 he starred in a short with Olga Kay entitled Olga Kay Goes Haywire.^[22]

Aside from these works, Turner has also presented a web series called CuteWinFail, created by Turner and co-produced with Philip DeFranco and his production company FishBowl Worldwide Media, since its inception in October 2010,^[23] although in November 2012 he was fired by the producers after 100 episodes of the show.^[24] He also works as a host on Tagged, a gaming-themed YouTube series produced by NODE Studios,^[25][26] and plays the Satan character in the Fine Brothers web series MyMusic.^[27]

Film and television

Turner's first feature-length film role came in 2010 romantic comedy film New Low, in which he played stand-up comedian Dave, the best friend of main character Wendell played by writer, producer and director Adam Bowers.^{[citation needed]} The film was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010, before it received coverage at the Austin Film Festival in October and at the Glasgow Film Festival the following February, and was later released on DVD in 2012.^{[citation needed]} Later, in 2012, he starred in psychological horror film Smiley, written and directed by Michael Gallagher and starring fellow YouTube partner Shane Dawson.^[28]

Since mid-2012, Turner has also starred in the Cartoon Network animated series The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange. Turner plays Nerville, the only human character who can interact with the fruits,^[29] and since its premiere in May 2012 the show has featured such high-profile guest stars as parody musician "Weird Al" Yankovic and skateboarder Tony Hawk, among others.^[30][31]

Other work

Aside from video production and other entertainment, Toby Turner – who is described on his official website as a "viral marketer ... [and] consultant for viral video and social media platforms"^[32] – has worked with a number of major companies on advertising campaigns, including NBC, Disney, and others.^[8] Among his online commercial credits are adverts for Fox crime drama series Lie to Me, footwear manufacturer and retailer Timberland, snack food product Pop-Tarts, and social network aggregation website Ouibox.^{[citation needed]}

Toby has also secured hosting roles for a number of events and series, including reporting on the Toshiba "Set Me Free Tour" for MTV in August 2009^[33][34] and presenting holiday special web shows for Comedy Central, Spike and VH1.^[8] In December 2012, Turner was nominated for the award of Best Host at the 2013 Streamy Awards,^[35] although eventually lost out to KassemG.^[36]

In May 2013, Turner set up a fundraising campaign on crowdfunding website Indiegogo for a game based on his Tobuscus Adventures YouTube series, called Tobuscus Adventures: Wizards!.^[37][38] The fundraiser surpassed its goal of $240,000 within two days.^[39] The game will feature Turner as main character Tobuscus as he fights off hordes of zombies to get to the Wizard of Darkness.^[37][40] The game will also cameo Gabe Hohreiter as Gabuscus, and Turner's dog Gryphon.^[40]

Filmography

Besides his primary YouTube career, Toby Turner has also been featured in various other media roles:

Discography

Original songs

Remixes

Literal Trailers

References

External links

• Official website
• Tobuscus on YouTube
• TobyTurner on YouTube
• TobyGames on YouTube