Ryan Higa

Ryan Higa (born June 6, 1990), also known as nigahiga, is an American internet personality.

Ryan Higa was born in Hilo, Hawaii, on June 6, 1990.

He is of Okinawan descent, and has an older brother named Kyle.

In his youth, Higa competed in judo and holds a black belt rank.

Best known for his comedy videos on YouTube, Higa began making YouTube videos in 2006 and was one of the most popular creators on the platform in its early years.

Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi began posting YouTube videos of themselves lip syncing to songs in mid-2006 while attending Waiakea High School.

They quickly expanded beyond songs, with a variety of other comedic pieces.

Occasional guest appearances were made by Tim Enos, Ryan Villaruel, Kyle Chun, and Tarynn Nago.

The nigahiga YouTube channel was created on July 20, 2006, by Higa, Fujiyoshi, Enos, and Nago (known collectively as "The Yabo Crew").

He wrestled at Waiakea High School, from which he graduated in 2008.

Higa studied nuclear medicine at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, but later dropped out to create online videos.

On Christmas Eve of 2008, Higa and Fujiyoshi's two most popular videos, How To Be Gangster and How To Be Emo, were removed due to copyright violations.

His main YouTube channel, nigahiga, was the most subscribed channel on YouTube for 677 consecutive days from 2009 to 2011, an achievement that has only been surpassed by PewDiePie and T-Series.

Higa was the first person to reach the milestones of 2 million and 3 million subscribers on YouTube.

On January 21, 2009, the nigahiga account was temporarily suspended and was required to remove more copyrighted videos.

Because of this, nigahiga's lip syncing videos were all removed (with the exception of You're Beautiful, which was audio swapped), along with most of his other videos that included copyrighted music.

Since then, Higa started composing the music himself.

How to be Gangster and How to be Emo were put back on nigahiga's channel in late August 2009, only to be removed a few days later, along with How to be Ninja and How to be Nerd.

Ninja Melk, a 26-minute short film about ninjas, was released in August 2009.

The plot revolves around a ninja master named Master Ching Ching sending his student Lapchung (played by Bryson Murata) to find a replacement, finding Higa and Fujiyoshi to catch the evil Bokchoy (Tim Enos) and his henchwoman, Gina (Tarynn Nago).

In Spring 2010, How to be Ninja, How to be Gangster and How to be Emo were made public once more.

An independent 35-minute film he created with Wong Fu Productions called Agents of Secret Stuff was uploaded on the nigahiga channel on November 24, 2010.

It features some other popular YouTube users as well as actors such as Aki Aleong.

The film follows a teenage A.S.S. (Agent of Secret Stuff) (Higa) who goes undercover as a high school student to protect Taylor (Arden Cho) from the S.I.N.S. (Society Involving Not-So-Good Stuff).

It included guest appearances from Ian and Anthony of Smosh, D-Trix, KassemG and Hiimrawn.

When Higa moved to Las Vegas to attend college, most of the nigahiga videos were solo efforts, usually featuring collaborations with other YouTube users.

By December 21, 2010, it had reached 3 million subscribers, the first channel to do so.

Higa had claimed in the past that his channel name was derived from a combination of "Niga" (にが), which he had claimed means "rant" in Japanese, and his Okinawan last name, "Higa".

However, he later revealed that his channel name was actually derived from a desire to encourage people to pronounce his surname correctly.

He expressed regret that this may have backfired somewhat, but has refused to change the channel name over the years to avoid the implication that it was ever meant to encourage usage of the term nigga.

In 2011, he created a second channel, under the name HigaTV, where he posts video blogs and behind the scenes videos.

Since 2012, Higa has put together a production company, Ryan Higa Production Company (RHPC), which included Sean Fujiyoshi, that works together to make content for the nigahiga channel.

In 2012, Higa helped form the YOMYOMF Network, which hosts the online video-making talent competition, Internet Icon, of which he served alongside Christine Lakin and Timothy DeLaGhetto as main judges.

In 2015, Higa's production company was based in a studio in Henderson, Nevada.

Outside of his content on YouTube and Twitch, he has also published a memoir Ryan Higa's How to Write Good and appeared in feature films Tell Me How I Die (2016) and Finding 'Ohana (2021).

In 2016, Higa and other YouTubers and friends created the parody K-pop group Boys Generally Asian.

Higa launched a podcast in 2018 called Off the Pill, which has featured YouTubers and celebrities such as KevJumba, Andrew Yang, and Jeremy Lin.

In mid-2018, Fujiyoshi left the group as he was moving out of the area, specifically to Sacramento, California to live with his current girlfriend and to pursue his degree in engineering.

In 2020, Higa started streaming on Twitch, where he reacts to his past videos and broadcasts video game content, most notably in Valorant.

Higa has won a Shorty Award, has been named Forbes Top 30 Under 30, and has been nominated for three more Shorty Awards, six Streamy Awards, and five Teen Choice Awards.