Molly Lu

Rosanna Pansino (born June 8, 1985) is an American YouTuber, author, businesswoman, actress, and singer.

Pansino was born on June 8, 1985 in Seattle, King County, Washington, where she was raised alongside her younger sister Molly Lu.

She is of Italian, Croatian, German, and Irish ancestry.

Throughout her childhood, she was known by friends and family as a "nerdy" and "awkward" kid, and in school, she struggled with dyslexia.

She originally wanted to become an actress and, after attending Pacific Lutheran University, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

At one stage, Pansino was a teacher.

Pansino began her YouTube channel in 2010 after she was encouraged by a few of her friends who also worked on YouTube and had started making videos to get more comfortable in front of a camera.

After her early baking videos gained a steady following, viewers eventually started to request more.

Because she had never seen a baking show on television or the Internet, Pansino decided to create the Nerdy Nummies series.

She later revealed that in her early years of YouTube while she had still worked as an actress that she had to choose between acting or YouTube, the ultimatum given by her agent.

She remained adamant that she would not quit YouTube, despite the risks being taken at the time.

Pansino has hosted the internet series Nerdy Nummies since 2011, which won her a Shorty Award and earned her five Streamy Award nominations.

She has written and published two cookbooks based on the series, as well as releasing a baking line.

She starred in the web series Broken Quest in 2013, the YouTube Premium series Escape the Night in 2018 and 2019—the latter of which earned her two Streamy Award nominations—, and hosted the HBO Max series Baketopia in 2021.

She has since received several accolades; in 2013, she won the Shorty Award for Best Foodie, Chef, or Food Lover in Social Media.

She has also received five Streamy Award nominations for her work on Nerdy Nummies.

She voiced the role of Violet in the animated web series Broken Quest in 2013.

Pansino's interest in cooking was inspired by her father and grandmother, and she stated in 2014 that "...baking has always been a hobby of mine. I have always loved being creative with my food and making themed sweets for my friends."

Commenting on her success in an interview with Business Insider in 2014, she stated: "I've never thought about how to make a video go viral. From the very beginning I have always wanted to use YouTube to better myself and share things I enjoy with the world. If others want to join me on that journey I am happy to have them as viewers."

Pansino is well-known for her collaborations with other YouTubers, notably IJustine, whom she has made multiple videos with, including "Combining Every Gingerbread House Into A MANSION" and "Is This The Worst Kitchen Gadget Yet?!?!"

Other creators she has collaborated with in past videos include the Merrell Twins, Rebecca Zamolo, and MatPat.

Pansino has been noted for her consistent upload schedule, not having missed a single date since creating her channel.

She stated in an interview with Forbes that "I don't want to miss an upload; I'm just not going to do that to my community, they've shown up for me and been so supportive of me, and in exchange I've been there for them—there's always going to be a video waiting for them on Saturday. It's this relationship and bond that I never wanted to break and I'm really proud that I haven't because it has been difficult at times."

For the upcoming future, she said that she hoped to "be making baking videos until I'm 90 years old."

In 2021, Pansino acknowledged in a Forbes interview "that around 60 hours of work go into a typical cooking video," due to the amount of time needed to experiment, assemble, bake, and film these videos.

Pansino made her first appearance on television as a contestant on Season 2 of VH1's Scream Queens, a reality series in which the prize was a role in one of the Saw films; she ended in 9th place.

Following this, Pansino appeared in small roles on shows such as Parks and Recreation and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

She released her debut single "Perfect Together" in 2015; she is a classically trained singer.

Pansino told Cosmopolitan in 2015: " At this point, I wasn't making any money on YouTube. I knew that it was possible to do that but I wasn't making a dime. I decided, I'm going to do this. I'm not going to let YouTube go."

Nerdy Nummies quickly became a hit, and it brought Pansino much recognition and acclaim.

As of November 2022, her channel has attained over 4.2 billion views and 14 million subscribers, making it the most popular cooking channel on YouTube.

In 2015, she made a cameo in the music video for "Dessert" by Dawin ft Silentó.

She also released her first single, entitled "Perfect Together" in 2015, which was produced by Kurt Hugo Schneider.

It was initially released on iTunes, and the music video was released later the same year which, has over 20 million views.

Also in 2015, Pansino wrote and published The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook, which was officially released that same year.

The book includes selected recipes previously featured on Nerdy Nummies, along with previously featured recipes have been remastered.

Pansino is one of the highest-paid content-creators on YouTube, and was listed first on Forbes' Top Influencers: Food list in 2017.

In 2018, Pansino officially reached 10 million subscribers on YouTube, so she was given a Diamond Play Button by the company.

According to Forbes, Pansino has remained one of the highest-paid YouTubers, reporting her to have made seven figures each year through sponsorships and advertisements.

On December 17, 2019, Pansino announced throughout her social media outlets that her father, who appeared in several of her videos, had died due to leukemia, which he had been fighting for six years.