Craig Dillon

Craig Dillon is a British/Australian YouTube Personality living in London, England. He has been making YouTube videos for around 2 years on the channel CraigD, which focuses on light entertainment and music. Dillon has been known to discuss various youth issues including depression, self-harm, low self-esteem and divorce. Dillon has been credited with helping thousands of young people to deal with teen issues, and often sends messages of support to his fans.

Personal Life
Dillon was born on February 4th in the UK but grew up in Australia, before his parents divorced and moved back to the UK. Dillon usually speaks with a British accent but often sounds Australian. Dillon attended French Woods Performing Arts Summer Camp in upstate New York and also went to school in the UK. Dillon has spoken about how he struggled to deal with his parents divorce after experiencing it at a young age. He has supported and given advice to fans who were experiencing divorce and is a vocal advocate for the damage divorce causes to children.

Dillon is currently living between London, England and Los Angeles. Dillon usually spends the winter in London and the Summer in Los Angeles. He can often be found in the bars and nightclubs around London's Soho District and Los Angeles' West Hollywood. He has been referred to as "The Prince Of Soho" and "The Prince of WeHo" in local media due to his fondness and support of the areas.

Dillon is an active philanthropist and often lends his voice to charities including Invisible Children, Elton John Aids Foundation, Child Line, NSPCC, Save The Children, RSPCA, Green Peace and PETA. He has admitted his main area of concern is for children dealing with divorce, as he believes there is not enough support given to children.

Career
Dillon began making YouTube videos after becoming a successful "relatable" Twitter account. His first video called "The Accent Challenge" was requested by followers who wanted to hear his accent. The video gained a huge amount of views and he continued to make more videos. The video has since been taken down after Dillon expressed embarrassment about his appearance. After uploading his first video Dillon's fame began to rise and his channel gained a large following across the U.S and U.K. Dillon has maintained a large audience in the Rock/Pop Music fanbase and has began to build a larger profile in the LGBT fanbase after he was outed as gay by an ex-partner. His channel currently reaches an audience of over 1 million with 50,000 subscribers.

Dillon often hosts live events and has spoken of his ambition to become a Television Presenter, citing Graham Norton as his biggest influence. Dillon hosted the 2014 Student Pride Awards, presented a segment at the 2014 DigiTour and attended the California dates of Warped Tour. Dillon has interviewed many Celebrities at various events.

Dillon is best friends with fellow YouTuber  Raphael Gomes from the channel   ItsRaphaBlueBerry.

YouTube
Dillon is a regular attendee of YouTube conventions across the world including VidCon in Los Angeles, Playlist Live in Orlando and Summer in the City in London. Dillon is often credited by fans as being one of the "nicest YouTubers to meet" with many sharing pictures of him being carried by fans, given piggybacks, or posing in other fun ways.

Dillon is a key member of the YouTube Community and after being outed he became the largest Gay YouTuber in the UK.

Dillon has become quite a controversial figure in recent months with some YouTubers disagreeing with his attitude towards YouTube amid claims that he was becoming "too commercialised and mainstream" and that his time spent in "Los Angeles had changed him". Dillon responded claiming "some YouTubers are stuck in the past and need to embrace new audiences." Dillon has been referred to as a "Ruthless Business Man", a "Social Climber" and called "Regina George" after the character from the film Mean Girls, which Dillon often mocks on his Twitter.

Sexuality
Dillon had never mentioned his sexuality online before November 2014, but whilst living in Los Angeles Dillon became friends with many LGBT YouTubers. He was often seen with stars including Tyler Oakley,  Davey Wavey  and in the daily vlogs of gay couples  Matthew Lush &  Nick Laws  and  RJ Aguiar  &  Will Shepherd. These friendships caused fans to question Dillon's sexuality but he never responded. Dillon had also been spotted by fans in London's gay Soho district, London's gay nightclub Heaven and at gay clubs in West Hollywood.

Dillon was often criticised for living a gay lifestyle off of YouTube whilst not mentioning his sexuality online. A video which was shared by many YouTubers claimed that "YouTubers who pretend to be straight whilst partying at gay nightclubs such as Heaven were encouraging young fans to be ashamed of their sexuality." It was widely rumoured that the video was aimed at Dillon who had recently posted a video called "10 things I like about girls."

Gay Sex Scandal
In November 2014 Dillon became embroiled in a Gay Sex Scandal which saw him outed as gay by an ex-partner and accused of sexual assault. Dillon denied all the claims and launched legal proceedings to sue his ex partner for defamation. The scandal split public opinion with some condemning Dillon's actions while many YouTubers, especially those in the LGBT community were seen defending Dillon.

Dillon responded by tweeting "I have never raped anyone, if you have truly been raped, please contact the Police rather than posting a YouTube video about it." which received a huge amount of support. Dillon also posted a 12 minute video to his channel in which he denied the claims and showed incriminating messages sent from his ex-partner to support his innocence. His ex-partners video has now been removed.

Police Involvement
In November 2014 a Police investigation into Historic Sex Abuse was launched with both Dillon and his ex-partner being interviewed by Police. Dillon's Lawyer Marilyn Mark claimed that Dillon not only had a civil case for Defamation but would also be pursuing a criminal case for Perverting the Course of Justice and Wasting Police

Reaction
YouTuber Benjamin Cook was the first to share the video and remained very vocal about his hatred towards Dillon, sending a large amount of tweets on the topic. Many people questioned Cook's obsession with publicly shaming Dillon which he hadn't done on previous occasions when other YouTubers were also accused of sexual assault. It was claimed that Cook and Dillon had shared a previous relationship which Dillon ended after discovering the large age gap between the two.

A small online magazine called Ten Eighty ran by Cook's friend Teoh-Lander Boyce claimed that Dillon's Lawyer was fake. They reported that there is no registered lawyer named Thomas Corbett in the UK, but Dillon claims he explained when contacted that Corbett was his manager and his lawyer was Marilyn Mark, however Ten Eighty did not report this in the article. In December 2014 a complaint to the Independent Press Standards Organisation was filed against Ten Eighty Magazine, but no further action was taken as Ten Eighty were not regarded as a recognised Press Organisation.