From Zoella to Tanya Burr: Here's where the OG YouTubers are now
Ah, the early 2010s. It feels a bit like a fever dream now thinking back on it. Instagram was in its infancy, side fringes were in, people still took their digital cameras to nightclubs to take pictures, and YouTube was king.
Yet, there was one group of British vloggers who became synonymous with the platform: the “Brit Crew”.
Consisting of siblings Joe and Zoe Sugg, Caspar Lee, Tanya Burr, Jim Chapman and Louise Pentland among others, these twenty-somethings became beloved by teenage fans who would watch their endless hours of pranks and beauty tutorial content.
In our flip-phone era.
More than a decade on, and several scandals along the way, many of the creators no longer post to YouTube. So where are they now? We did some digging in the gallery below.
Zoe Sugg / InstagramZoe Sugg
Arguably the most famous of the lot, Zoe Sugg racked up an impressive 10.7million followers under her vlogging name “Zoella”. Here, she would post shopping hauls, beauty tutorials and day in the life-style content.
By 2015, the Zoella YouTube channel had amassed over 540 million visits, and she regularly made joint videos with other members of the Brit Crew. At the beginning of her career, she was besties with both Tanya Burr and Louise Pentland - the latter who she would affectionately call her “chummy” - but both women haven’t appeared on any of Zoe’s social media channels in recent years.
Zoe also faced several scandals in her decade-long influencer career, including being criticised for using a ghostwriter for her 2014 debut novel, and for a £50, 12-door advent calendar that she was selling in 2017.
Zoe started dating fellow member of the Brit Crew, YouTuber Alfie Deyes in 2012, and the pair welcomed their first child together, daughter Ottilie, in 2021.
While she hasn’t posted anything on her Zoella channel for four years, Zoe, now 32, regularly updates her monikered Zoe Sugg YouTube channel (which has 4.9 million followers on its own) with updates about life with her daughter and hanging out with her pals.
Her Instagram (with 9.3 million followers) is also regularly updated, and she lists herself as the founder of Zoella, which is now a lifestyle company, as well as the co-founder of photo apps Filmm and Template.
Gareth CattermoleJoe Sugg
Initially known for being Zoe Sugg’s younger brother, Joe Sugg made his own mark on YouTube in the early 2010s after moving in with fellow Brit Crew member, Caspar Lee.
Joe and Caspar would regularly make videos together, and a lot of Joe’s videos focussed on pranks and various challenges. Before becoming a vlogger, Joe was briefly a thatcher, hence his vlogging name “ThatcherJoe”.
At its peak he boasted over 7 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, and the now-31-year-old still has an impressive 6.4 million followers on Instagram.
He featured on the 2018 season of Strictly Come Dancing and started dating dancer Dianne Buswell after they were partnered together - and the pair are still together five years on.
Joe hasn’t posted anything to his YouTube channel in nearly a year, with his last video titled “Crazy infinite zoom art” which amassed 127,000 views.
Joe is now the co-founder of MVE management along with Caspar Lee, which describes it as “next generation management” and has offices in London and LA. He’s also the founder of production company Final Straw.
Pascal Le SegretainTanya Burr
The OG beauty influencer, teenagers were enamoured by Tanya Burr in the early 2010s and clung to her every word as she recommended beauty products in her regular makeup tutorials - and she even launched her own beauty line at the peak of her vlogging career.
Tanya fit easily into the Brit Crew. She was close friends with Zoe Sugg and her partner at the time, Jim Chapman, was also a vlogger.
Tanya and Jim, who had met in high school, married in 2015, but shocked the YouTube community when they filed for divorce just four years later.
The beauty influencer, now 33, decided to take up acting in 2017 and has had several small roles since. She also launched a new line of beauty products, under the brand Authored, in 2021. The brand currently has 271,000 followers on Instagram.
Despite posting her last YouTube video three years ago, Tanya’s YouTube channel still has 3.17 million subscribers. But it seems her favoured social media platform is Instagram, where she regularly updates her 4 million followers with snippets from her London life - including introducing her followers to her newborn son, Sage Gabriel, in November last year.
While Tanya hasn’t disclosed the name of her new partner and the father of her child, Zoe Sugg’s boyfriend Alfie Deyes commented on Tanya’s post announcing the birth, writing: “Couldn’t be happier for you both! I’m so excited for Ottie to meet her new little pal.” Could there be a mini Brit Crew reunion on the cards? Watch this space.
David M. BenettJim Chapman
Jim Chapman began uploading grooming videos to YouTube in 2010. By 2017, he had 2.6 million subscribers and over 144 million views on his videos.
Jim, who still regularly posts to YouTube, later told The Rolling Stone that he quickly grew out of the prank content he would often film with other vloggers like Joe Sugg. “I remember there was a video I did with Joe Sugg where he waxed my armpits and I got in a bath of ice and I covered myself in some condiment. I was 25, maybe, something like that. And I remember thinking, ‘This is the last time I’m doing this’.”
Yet, perhaps the thing his followers were most invested in was his relationship with fellow YouTuber, Tanya Burr. By the time the pair married in 2015, they had been together for eight years, having been high school sweethearts. But they shocked the vlogging community in 2019 when they announced their divorce.
Now, 35-year-old Jim is married to Sarah Tarleton, 29, after tying the knot in Seville in 2022. The pair also share a daughter, one-year-old Margot. As well as posting YouTube videos, Jim also regularly shares reels to his 2.3 million Instagram followers.
Gareth CattermoleLouise Pentland
Louise Pentland began her vlogging career under the name “Sprinkle of Glitter” in 2010 after running a blog for several months under the same name. The vlog covered beauty, fashion and lifestyle, along with personal videos like her relationship at the time and the birth of her daughter Darcy in 2011.
Louise was close friends with Zoe Sugg in the early 2010s, and the pair would often post videos together called “Chummy Chatter”. After her divorce in 2016, Louise renamed her channel to simply “Louise Pentland” and began to post more parenting videos as well as day-in-the-life content.
The 37-year-old went on to author three books and even design her own plus-size clothing range for SimplyBe.
The creator and author still regularly posts to YouTube, and is now mum to a second daughter, Pearl, who she had with her partner Liam in 2018. She has over 2.2 million followers on YouTube, but is more active on Instagram where she has 3.5 million followers.
Gareth CattermoleCaspar Lee
South African influencer Caspar Lee began his YouTube channel in 2011 and quickly became popular after moving in with fellow YouTuber Joe Sugg and creating videos together.
His YouTube channel, simply named “Caspar” grew to 6.67 million followers and he would regularly post joke and prank-style videos. In 2014 he was named as part of the “YouTube boyband” which saw Casper and Joe appear in a parody video alongside Alfie Deyes, Marcus Butler and Jim Chapman.
Caspar stopped posting videos to his YouTube channel in 2019, but recently posted a new video announcing his engagement to Bamby Collective founder, Ambar Driscoll. The video of the pair’s South African engagement has been viewed over 127,000 times.
Now 28, Caspar’s Instagram page boasts 2.3 million followers and he makes a nod to his past life in his description, with the word “YouTuber” crossed out. He’s now a co-founder and investor, and co-founded MVE management with fellow former YouTuber Joe.
David M. BenettJack and Finn Harries
Twin brothers Jack and Finn Harries launched YouTube channel “JacksGap” in 2011 which was initially created to document Jack’s gap year. The channel soon saw Finn come on as a contributor and exploded in popularity, reaching upwards of 3.6 million followers.
While not part of the inner “Brit Crew”, Jack and Finn regularly attended events with other British YouTubers, and could be considered as “nepo babies” as their father is film and television director Andy Harries and their mother is filmmaker Rebecca Frayn.
It was evident the pair were keen environmentalists early on, and they decided to dissolve the JacksGap brand in 2017 in favour of their new venture, Earthrise, which they launched in 2021.
“In 2011 we launched JacksGap, a creative storytelling project featuring short travel films by Jack and Finn Harries. Since then we've been on the most incredible journey covering stories all around the world and increasingly learning about the significant environmental issues we face,” the pair wrote on their new channel’s page.
“Today 10 years later we are re launching this channel as Earthrise, a digital media platform and creative studio dedicated to communicating the climate crisis. Earthrise tells stories for a new world. Radical stories of hope, of new possibility. Stories from the future that help us navigate the now.”
Dan Howell / InstagramDan Howell
Dan Howell’s YouTube channel, “danisnotonfire” took off largely due to his dry humour and funny content. He uploaded his first video “Hello internet” in 2009 and posted videos consistently until 2017 when he changed his channel name to Dan Howell and took a hiatus.
During this time he lived with fellow YouTuber Phil Lester, and the pair ran a successful gaming channel called “DanAndPhilGAMES”. The pair ended up presenting a Sunday night show called Dan and Phil on BBC Radio 1 from January 2013 to August 2014, and subsequently hosted a new show called Internet Takeover from September 2014 to April 2016.
During his decade as a vlogger he also wrote two books and spoke candidly of his battle with mental health. In 2019, Dan revealed that he was in a relationship with Phil but wanted to keep details of his private life private.
Dan, now 31, returned to YouTube in 2022 to post an 85-minute video explaining why he quit the platform, and announced that he would be going on tour in late 2022 and 2023, with some UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand tour dates scheduled. He is currently keeping his 3.3 million Instagram followers updated on his tour antics.
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