Ray William Johnson

Ray William Johnson is an American vlogger, YouTube celebrity and comedian. He is the creator of the YouTube channel RayWilliamJohnson and the Equals Three series. In his show, Ray William Johnson provide comedic commentaries to viral videos. As of January 2014, RayWilliamJohnson has over 10.6 million subscribers and over 2.62 billion video views. It is the 6th most subscribed channel on YouTube.

Ray William Johnson retired from hosting his =3 show on March 12, 2014.

Biography
Ray William Johnson was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on August 14, 1981. He graduated from Norman North High School in Oklahoma in 1999. Ray William Johnson moved to New York City to attend Columbia University as a history major.

YouTube
In the fall of 2007, Ray William Johnson started watching YouTube videos and formulating his ideas for his show Equals Three. He created the now famous channel, RayWilliamJohnson, in May 25, 2008. Ray William Johnson wanted to combine two popular video styles: watching viral videos and video bloggers. In Equals Three, Johnson adds commentary, comedic remarks and criticism to some of the latest viral videos.

2011
In January 2011, Johnson launched a collaborative YouTube channel called YourFavoriteMartian (YFM), which features animated music videos. The songs are performed by a virtual band of four fictional cartoon characters: PuffPuff Humbert (vocals, voiced by Johnson), DeeJay (turntables), Axel Chains (drums), and Benatar (vocals, guitar/keytar/bass/piano, voiced by Jesse Cale). Johnson writes lyrics, raps, sings, composes beats and sometimes collaborates with other musicians to produce the songs. YFM has released 31 original songs, 2 remixes of original songs, 1 remix of another artist's song, 1 mashup, and 8 covers through the channel. As of March 2013, the channel has over 2.0 million subscribers and over 482 million video views. In November 2012, Johnson announced that the YFM project has been retired.

2012
In October 2012, Johnson moved Equals Three away from Maker Studios, a multi channnel Youtube network he had hired to help produce the show. He had announced his departure in an episode of Equals Three. Johnson has stated that he left Maker Studios due to the pressure the company put on him into signing a new contract. Johnson released images of the contract, which showed Maker Studios wanted a 40% share of his online channel's AdSense revenue, and 50% of the intellectual property rights of his show Equals Three. He stated that they were using "thuggish tactics" to pressure him into signing the contract, one of which was allegedly leveraging his AdSense account for the intellectual property rights to YourFavoriteMartian. Johnson also claimed that Maker Studios CEO, Danny Zappin, is a convicted felon, a charge which Zappin later publicly admitted to.

In late 2012, Johnson started his own studio, Runaway Planet, with his girlfriend Anna.

2014
Ray William Johnson retired from hosting his =3 show on March 12, 2014.

Ray William Johnson
Ray William Johnson's main channel features his show Equals Three. In each episode of Equals Three, Ray William Johnson shows three viral videos and provides his funny, sarcastic and often snarky commentaries.

Runaway Planet
Runaway Planet is the channel for Ray William Johnson's new studio, co-founded with his girlfriend Anna.

Career
In May 2013, Johnson announced that he signed a deal to produce a sitcom for the American television network FX.