Alejandro Hernández (director)
| Alejandro Hernández | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Alejandro Manrique Hernández Reinoso 28 November 1990 Maracaibo, Venezuela |
| Alma mater | University of Zulia |
| Occupation | Film director, writer, humorist, singer-songwriter, film score composer. |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Religion | None |
| Website | |
|
alejandro-hernandez | |
Alejandro Manrique Hernández Reinoso (born 28 November 1990 in Maracaibo, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan filmmaker. He achieved viral success on YouTube thanks to The Alejandro Hernández Show, an online comedy show that describes the everyday life of Venezuela's citizens. Most of the content is in Spanish, although some sketches are recorded in English. Since 2009, his videos have reached a total of over 7 million views, only those of his YouTube account.[1] On 2011 Hernández signed a contract with PlanetaUrbe.Tv. Since then all of his episodes were uploaded to PlanetaUrbe's website instead of YouTube.[2] After the contract ended, he returned to YouTube through elmostacho.com website.[3] Hernández is currently at number 148 on the most followed Twitter users in Venezuela, and is the most followed user in the state of Zulia.[4] He won the Celebrity award at the 2011 Twitter Awards held by El Nacional.[5]
Career
Filmmaking and comedy
Before creating the YouTube channel, Hernández made several short films in both English and Spanish, such as "Conditioned", a comedy-drama about a nerd who criticizes society and stereotypes.[6] After experimenting, he created his YouTube channel.
Hernández is the first Venezuelan YouTuber to succeed, given that the majority of successful YouTube comedians come from the United States.[7] His first episode, "Cita de salir + el @", which talks about "favorite quotations" on Facebook profiles and the use of the At sign, came to him while he was on Facebook and noticed how they were used the wrong way. Hernández said that the episodic content started with "a few short videos about Facebook and grammatical mistakes", but it later became a more elaborated program. The show's appeal is in the way he mixes local customs with pop culture and technology, in which Hernández said "I believe it's because people identify with the things I say" and that "they are indeed attracted by the program because I've always enjoyed giving my show a touch of Hollywood", which is unusual in Venezuelan productions.[8] His 18th episode, "Voz orgasmicangelical, profesores necios y la chama que no se calla la jeta", has been his most successful to date, reaching more than 1,000,000 views without being part of the YouTube Partner program, which isn't available in Venezuela.[9]
Music and composing
"Tamos Ready", a parody song mocking the Reggaeton genre was released on 28 December 2010 along with episode 20. It showed Hernández's music producing and singing abilities. The 1-minute song became a local hit, reaching more than 20,000 mp3 downloads and positioning both "Alejandro Hernández" and "Tamos Ready" at Twitter's worldwide trending topics.[10]
Hernández generally composes music with mainstream appeal, such as "Automatic", a dance-pop song that talks about routine and living life on autopilot, and "Take It to the Floor", which was featured on episode 29 as part of a sketch.[11] After many viewers wondered who sang the song, Hernández stated on his Twitter account that it was his own, and had to finish it to be available for download.[12] He also composes orchestral film scores which are usually made for specific sketches of his show.[13]
Criticism
Despite the show's success, it has been criticized by the Venezuelan government.[14] Mario Silva, host of La Hojilla, an opinion program that airs on the government channel Venezolana de Televisión, harshly criticized Hernández, saying that he looked "apparently innocent" and labeled him "dangerous" and a bad influence to the Venezuelan youth. However, he pointed out his "perfect English" and "good editing". He even drew comparisons with another Venezuelan comedian, Luis Chataing, which Silva qualified as "stupid".[8]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Credit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| director | Producer | screenWriter | Actor | Role | ||
| 2009 | Conditioned |  |
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| 2009 | The Alejandro Hernández Show | |
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Himself |
| 2013 | Alt | |
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References
- ↑ "Humor maracucho 2.0". Retrieved 15 July 2011.
- ↑ "Televisión+Internet = PlanetaUrbe.Tv". Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ↑ ""The Alejandro Hernández Show" llega a El Mostacho". Retrieved 25 March 2012.
- ↑ "Alejandro Hernández es el Twittero con más seguidores del Zulia". Retrieved 19 July 2011.
- ↑ "Ganadores de los Twitter Awards 2011". Retrieved 4 August 2011.
- ↑ "Conditioned: short film by Alejandro Hernández". Retrieved 17 July 2011.
- ↑ "Alejandro Hernández: De Maracaibo a YouTube y el Mundo". Archived from the original on 18 December 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Is Alejandro Hernández the voice of Venezuelan youth?". Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ↑ "The Alejandro Hernández Show 18". Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ↑ "Tamos Ready – What The Trend". Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ↑ "Take It to the Floor – Alejandro Hernández". Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ↑ "Alejandro Hernández Twitter". Retrieved 3 July 2011.
- ↑ "Alejandro Hernández Music". Retrieved 17 July 2011.
- ↑ "Mario Silva vs The Alejandro Hernández Show". Retrieved 16 July 2011.