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Sam Denby

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Sam Denby
Denby in 2023
Personal information
Born (1998-03-17) March 17, 1998 (age 26)[‡ 1][‡ 2]
Washington, D.C., United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationYouTuber
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2015–present
GenreEducational entertainment
Subscribers
    • 4.55 million (Wendover Productions)
    • 2.66 million (Half as Interesting)
    • 693 thousand (Jet Lag: The Game)
    • 162 thousand (Extremities)
    • 56.6 thousand (Sam from Wendover)
Total views
    • 696 million (Wendover Productions)
    • 625 million (Half as Interesting)
    • 47 million (Jet Lag: The Game)
    • 1.71 million (Extremities)
    • 744 thousand (Sam from Wendover)
Website
100,000 subscribers2016
1,000,000 subscribers2018
Last updated: July 16, 2023

Sam Denby (born March 17, 1998) is an American YouTuber who created the edutainment YouTube channels Wendover Productions, Half as Interesting, Extremities, and the travel competition show Jet Lag: The Game. Across all of Denby's channels, he has accumulated more than 1 billion views and more than 7.8 million subscribers. He is the chief content officer of streaming service Nebula.

Career

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Wendover Productions

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Created in 2010, Denby's primary channel is Wendover Productions. As of July 27, 2024, that channel has over 4.6 million subscribers and more than 703 million total video views.[1] His videos most commonly feature the topics of logistics, most notably those of aviation, as well as geography, economics,[2] and military. The Wendover Productions video about tourism in Iceland received significant attention from Iceland's national newspapers.[3] Wendover Productions is based in Aspen, Colorado.[4]

Half as Interesting

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Launched on August 26, 2017, Denby's second YouTube channel, “Half as Interesting”, publishes weekly releases on an unrestricted range of curious topics delivered in a witty style. The videos are 2‒3 times shorter than a typical release on the main channel and are dedicated to a single little-known fact each. According to the launch announcement, the channel continues the well-liked coverage of topics from the Wikipedia:Unusual articles list, referred to as “That Wikipedia List” or TWL, which was previously published on the main channel, but doesn't restrict its scope to it.[5] As of July 27, 2024, the channel had more than 2.69 million subscribers, over 450 published videos and more than 658 million views.[6]

Extremities

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In June 2019, Denby created a scripted podcast called Extremities about the logistics of living in the world's most isolated and populated locations.[7] The show's format has since been modified into short documentaries exclusive to the streaming service Nebula with the same concept.

Jet Lag: The Game

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Main article: Jet Lag: The Game

"It is a brutally exhausting show to film. Imagine a bad travel day where you end up waiting between flights on connections and going in and out of airports all day."[8]

Sam Denby, on Jet Lag: The Game

Denby's YouTube channel Jet Lag: The Game hosts a travel competition show created by Denby and Half as Interesting's writers, Ben Doyle (the son of writer Larry Doyle) and Adam Chase.[8] Inspired by The Amazing Race, the season usually consists of four players (with the fourth player being another YouTuber). The show was nominated for Best Editing at the 13th Streamy Awards.

All air travel on the show is carbon-offset by a multiple of 10 via Gold Standard carbon credits.[9] As of July 2024, the channel has over 692 thousand subscribers and more than 63 million total video views.[‡ 3] The episodes were released on Nebula one week earlier than YouTube, causing large spikes to Nebula's usage traffic.[10]

Nebula

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On August 25, 2023, Nebula announced that they had appointed Denby as their chief content officer.[11] Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus stated, "the process for developing Nebula Originals should be creator-led, so we turned to a creator with a solid track record for format development across production styles and genres to lead the charge on content as we continue to expand our Originals slate for Nebula." Denby also holds a minority stake in the content distribution platform.[12]

The Getaway

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On April 8, 2024, Denby's production company, Wendover Productions, announced production on The Getaway, a reality game show which premiered exclusively on Nebula on July 10, 2024.[13][‡ 4] The game involves six content creators competing on a road trip through the American West. The contestants are led to believe that there is one secret saboteur among them, with the rest of them working collaboratively. In actuality, all six contestants are told that they are the saboteur. Denby, Wiskus, and Trenton Waterson executive produced the project. Denby also directed, with Doyle and Chase involved in production.[13]

Personal life

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Denby was born and raised in Washington, D.C.[‡ 5] In 2018, Denby stated he had been living in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the past two years for university studies at the University of Edinburgh.[‡ 6]: 1:32  As of April 2018, he was studying international business.[‡ 7] He has said that he has also lived in Rennes, France and Sydney, Australia.[14] As of 2020, Denby stated he has lived in Colorado, somewhere around Aspen.[‡ 8][‡ 9] Through Standard, he became a minority owner in the streaming service Nebula in 2020.[‡ 10]

Awards and nominations

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Year Award Category Work(s) Result Ref.
2023 13th Streamy Awards Editing Jet Lag: The Game Nominated [15]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Youtube.com. "Wendover Productions - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
  2. ^ Dudley, David (August 19, 2020). "Bad Trains, Explained". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  3. ^ Hafstað, Vala (June 7, 2019). "Iceland's Tourism Explosion Explained". Iceland Monitor. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  4. ^ Reynolds, Jacqueline. "Film takes a deep dive into river issues". Aspen Daily News. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
  5. ^ "TWL is back! (But not here...)". YouTube.com. Wendover Productions. August 31, 2017.
  6. ^ "Half as Interesting". YouTube.com. Retrieved March 29, 2024.
  7. ^ Scott, Richard (July 5, 2019). "'Extremities': taking you to the world's most isolated places" (Audio). Radio New Zealand. The Podcast Hour. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  8. ^ a b Anderson, Pearse (June 29, 2022). "This Travel Game Takes Connect Four to the Extreme". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  9. ^ Griffiths, James (September 16, 2022). "Are travel-centric reality shows like The Amazing Race worth their carbon footprint?". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  10. ^ Rose, JSam (January 13, 2023). "Jet Lag: The Traffic". Retrieved October 8, 2023.
  11. ^ "Nebula taps Wendover Productions creator Sam Denby as its chief content officer". Tubefilter. August 25, 2023. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  12. ^ Nebula. "NEBULA ELEVATES TOP CREATOR SAM DENBY TO CCO". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  13. ^ a b Maas, Jennifer (April 8, 2024). "'Jet Lag: The Game' Creators to Launch New Travel Competition 'The Getaway' on Nebula This Summer (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved April 9, 2024.
  14. ^ WendoverProductions (May 5, 2020). "I've lived in Washin…". r/watchnebula. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
  15. ^ Brant, Brian (August 27, 2023). "Streamy Awards 2023: Complete Winners List". People. Retrieved August 28, 2023.

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ^ Half as Interesting's Crime Spree (February 16, 2022). "We have no idea why he's using the ruler - 1. The chase begins". Nebula TV. Timestamp 1:00.
  2. ^ "Crime Spree: The World's Most Illegal Game Show". Nebula TV. Half as Interesting.
  3. ^ "Jet Lag: The Game - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  4. ^ Denby, Sam (June 19, 2024). "Basically @WatchNebula paid me to gaslight creators into thinking they were on a different show than they actually were. The Getaway: coming July 10th". X. Retrieved June 21, 2024.
  5. ^ "We Raced To Visit The Most US States In 100 Hours". YouTube. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  6. ^ Denby, Sam (March 27, 2018). A Moderately Successful Face Reveal (Video). Sam from Wendover. Event occurs at 1:25. Retrieved April 6, 2018 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ Denby, Sam (March 27, 2018). "Economics has too much math. I studied International Business". Reddit. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  8. ^ "Life update: I've moved to Colorado Pictured: Skiing, a week ago". Instagram. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  9. ^ "In case you didn't know, I'm a #influencer". TikTok. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
  10. ^ How a Small Group of Creators Built a $150 Million Business (Video). Wendover Productions. June 15, 2023. Event occurs at 15:10. Retrieved June 15, 2023 – via YouTube.

Further reading

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