Charlieissocoollike

Charles McDonnell, also known as Charlieissocoollike, is a British entertainer, musician, vlogger and YouTuber. As of January 2014, McDonnell's main YouTube channel, Charlieissocoollike, has over 2.2 million subscribers and 300 million video views.

Biography
McDonnell was born and raised in Bath to parents Mark and Lindsey. He has two siblings: his younger brother, William, and his sister, Bridie. He was educated at Beechen Cliff School, a state comprehensive foundation school in Bath. He is an atheist.

He lived in London with his friend and Chameleon Circuit Bandmate, Alex Day, who is also a blogger, YouTuber and Musician. In August 2012, Charlie announced in a video that he was in a relationship with fellow YouTuber Bryarly Bishop. In June 2013, both Bishop and McDonnell publicly announced on their blogs that their relationship has concluded, due to the difficulty of a long-distance relationship.

In October 2013 Alex Day, Charlie's longtime housemate announced in a video titled "Housemate Divorce" on his YouTube Channel, Nerimon, that he and McDonnell would be selling their house in North London and going their separate ways, however Day and McDonnell insisted that they will remain friends.

McDonnell is also friends with the popular and well known youtube duo Dan Howell and Phil Lester.

YouTube
Charlie's videos consist of vlogs and other improvised series. McDonnell started off with a very limited audience. Charlie's first video, titled Charlie Changes, was posted on June 27, 2007.

He first came to prominence when his video titled "How To Get Featured on YouTube" became popular after it was featured on YouTube's UK homepage. His audience jumped from just under 150 subscribers to over 4,000 in two days.

In January 2008, in celebration of gaining 25,000 subscribers, McDonnell asked for challenge suggestions from subscribers, and he is completing them in a series of 25 videos titled Challenge Charlie. He has completed all of these challenges as of March 2013, one of which was suggested by TV presenter, Phillip Schofield, and his daughter Molly, challenging McDonnell to perform the dance that accompanies the song, Hoedown Throwdown, made popular in the film Hannah Montana: The Movie. McDonnell has since posted a wide range of videos on the site including his most viewed "My American Accent".

In 2008, McDonnell participated in a video-blog collaboration with four other YouTube personalities, titled FiveAwesomeGuys, a spin-off project of the FiveAwesomeGirls which featured hayleyghoover and italktosnakes and ran from January 28 to December 31 of that year. In May 2009, McDonnell created an alternate YouTube account, CharlieAtE3, which followed McDonnell when he traveled to E3 2009. In January 2010 McDonnell created another alternate YouTube channel, charlieissoboredlike, for the videos he makes when he has "nothing better to do".

In June 2011, McDonnell became the first YouTuber in the United Kingdom to ever reach 1 million subscribers. McDonnell's videos currently end with an outro by Stephen Fry, now also inclusive with a "quali-tea" stamp. In May 2013, McDonnell hit two million subscribers.

Charlie's most popular videos My American Accent and Duet With Myself have over 9 million views each.

In June 2013, McDonnell reached two million subscribers on his main YouTube channel.

Chameleon Circuit
McDonnell is one of the founding members of Chameleon Circuit, a band known for creating music inspired by the British television series Doctor Who. Along with fellow vloggers Alex Day (Nerimon on YouTube), Liam Dryden (Littleradge), and former member Chris Beattie (CowInParachute), Chameleon Circuit released their self-titled debut album on 1 June 2009. In July 2010, their song "Count the Shadows" also appeared on DFTBA Records, Volume Two, a compilation sampler that was given for free in the grab bags at VidCon 2010. At the beginning of 2011, Chameleon Circuit, in their new line-up following the departure of Beattie and the addition of Ed Blann ("Eddplant") and Michael Aranda, began work on their second album Still Got Legs. It was released on 12 July 2011.

Sons of Admirals
In 2010, McDonnell, along with three other YouTubers, Alex Day (nerimon), Ed Blann ("eddplant") and Tom Milsom ("Hexachordal") formed a new project titled "Sons of Admirals". Their first single was released via YouTube on 14 June 2010 on McDonnell's channel. The group covered Cat Stevens' song "Here Comes My Baby" featuring all four members on vocals. The track peaked at No. 61 in the UK.

In October 2010 the band released an EP including "Here Comes My Baby"; an acoustic version of the same song; a cover of "Believe in Yourself", the theme of children's television show Arthur; the music video of "Here Comes My Baby"; and a behind-the-scenes video. The band has been known to perform a cover of "You're Not There", written by Ed Blann, and a cover of Radiohead's "Creep".

Sons of Admirals was not a band in the traditional sense. They were all solo artists, but as well as having their solo careers, they came together to form one group. The idea of this came from the Admiral's Men, which was a Shakespearean group of actors that came together to perform, while still retaining their individual careers.

Sons of Admirals disbanded in May 2011, publishing a statement on their website that "the core goal of the group – to get into the charts, and to increase exposure for the group members' individual talents proved to run against too many of our beliefs and approaches to music and promotion".

Solo
A prominent feature of McDonnell's YouTube channel are the songs which he writes and performs himself, usually on a ukelele, but also featuring other instruments such as the guitar, melodica, and—in one song—a kazoo and a xylophone made of filled water glasses. The most popular of these is "Duet with Myself." On 1 December 2010, in response to many fan requests to do so, he released his debut album titled This is Me via DFTBA Records. The album features several songs from his channel that were remixed for the album, as well as several new, previously unreleased songs.

On 24 January 2012 McDonnell posted a video of him singing an original song Time To Reply on his YouTube channel, which received highly positive feedback.

Outside YouTube
McDonnell was interviewed on BBC News about his rise to internet stardom. He also participated in the Euro 2008 Zeitgeist Google conference, where he spoke about YouTube along with Mia Rose ("miaarose") and Peter Oakley ("geriatric1927"). This was a conference to honour online users of popular websites. He featured as a guest on Robert Llewellyn's web series Carpool in the episode released on 15 May 2009. McDonnell has also made guest appearances on Lily Allen and Friends and The Gadget Show.

McDonnell was also interviewed for Outlook on the BBC World Service and for an article in The Guardian where he talks about the five years of YouTube and his life on the video website.

On 6 June 2010, McDonnell presented the YouTube Audience Award to The Inbetweeners as part of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Television Awards. In mid-July 2010, McDonnell appeared on KTLA with Hank Green, known on YouTube as one of the Vlogbrothers, and iJustine to promote VidCon 2010, the first international conference for online video makers. That October he made a program with James Max of LBC 97.3 about how to make money on the internet. In December 2010, McDonnell filmed a series of behind the scenes videos for Doctor Who Confidential during the filming of the Doctor Who Christmas special "A Christmas Carol".

McDonnell was purportedly approached to be a contestant on the 2011 series of Celebrity Big Brother (UK) but declined the offer.

Astronomer Phil Plait wrote an article for Slate.com ("Charlie Talks Saturn," December 8, 2012) to rave about McDonnell's ongoing series of science videos, including "Fun Science: Saturn," on which Plait gave him some assistance. Plait found McDonnell to be a "science nerd" and a "really nice guy" who makes "engaging, silly and fun" videos that reach lots of young people who "need to find their own love of science."

A February 13, 2013, New York Times article, "Blogging with Video, Hoping to Go Viral," noted that McDonnell, described as "a musician and professed nerd with soulful eyes," is one of the most successful vloggers, who viewers find "genuine and responsive."