GloZell Green

GloZell Lynette Simon[3] (née Green, born July 30th 1962) is an American comedian[4] and YouTube personality[5] based in Hollywood, California. Green established her YouTube channel in 2008, with video interviews, comedy about her life and song parodies. As of August 2014, the channel had accumulated more than three million subscribers and more than 500 million total views.[6] By the same month, six of her individual videos had each been viewed more than 10 million times, such as her "My Push up Bra will help me get my man" video (23 million views)[7] and her cinnamon challenge video (40 million views).[5] She gained wide notice when her vlog about meeting Elijah Wood was mentioned by the actor during a 2011 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. In 2012, she appeared in the web series Dr. Fubalous.

Early Life
GloZell was born to Gloria and Ozell Green, her name being a portmanteau of the names of her parents.[8] She has one sister, DeOnzell, who is an opera singer.[9] In 1997, Green graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in musical theatre.[5][7]

Career
In 2003, GloZell moved to Hollywood, California, to pursue a career in acting and comedy. She joined The Groundlings[2] and studied her favorite comedian, Jay Leno, by attending 600 consecutive tapings of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.[7][10] She began a blog that included a series of interviews with other audience members at Leno's show,[8] but she soon began using YouTube as a video host for the interviews.[7] She began to create and post original comedy videos when people she met at Lenotapings told her that she was funny on her own.[8] Her first viral YouTube video, in 2008, was "My Push up Bra will help me get my man"; by 2013, it had gained over 20 million views.[5][7] She began to make more frequent YouTube comedy videos focusing on her daily life, celebrity impersonations, song parodies, and Internet fads.[5]

Some of her most popular early videos are her "translations" of pop songs, such as Kesha's "Tik Tok" and Rihanna's "Rude Boy", earning her the tile of "Internet Meme of the Week" by The Dartmouth.[8][11] She also parodies popular music videos, working improvisationally.[7] Her 2012 cinnamon challenge video became quickly popular[5]and was ranked fourth on  The Guardian' s "Viral Video Chart" in February 2012.[12] As of August 2014, it had amassed more than 39 million views, becoming her most popular video.

In 2011, GloZell gained wider notice when her vlog about meeting Elijah Wood was mentioned by the actor during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.[13] In June 2012, she was featured in the video Beauty and the Beat, with former American Idol contestants and other YouTube stars, that reimagined the opening song of the film Disney's Beauty and the Beast, in which the character Belle lives in an urban African-American neighborhood, instead of in a provincial French town.[14] During the summer of 2012, GloZell was featured alongside Danny Trejo and Flavor Flav and fellow YouTube personalities Antoine Dodson and Colleen Ballinger in the 2012 musical web series Dr. Fubalous, where GloZell played the titular doctor's "ranch dressing-loving secretary", Maude "Ma" Cakes.[5][15]

In addition to her YouTube fame, GloZell has performed her stand-up act in various comedy venues. These include The Comedy Store, The Improv, the Laugh Factory, Showtime at the Apollo, Steve Harvey Talent Show, and the J. Anthony Brown's J Spot Comedy Club.[16] She has also been featured often on Perez Hilton's blog.[2] In October 2013 and October 2014, GloZell hosted a free live variety show at an Orlando, Florida mall, called GloZell Fest, with celebrity and YouTube guests including Sisaundra Lewis, Meghan Tonjes, Frankie Grande, Miranda Sings and Far Young.[17] She has also published a book of inspirational poems called ''Wait! Let Me Tell You''.[18]

GloZell (left) with her talent manager and husband Kevin "SK" Simon, in 2009.

In May 2013, GloZell released her first single, titled "Pick Up After Your Dog", on the iTunes Store,[19] and the music video was soon released on YouTube.[20] She released her second single, "Glozell's Cinnamon Challenge", later in May.[21] By November 2013, GloZell's YouTube channel had received more than 400 million total views, with 2.7 million subscribers, and was ranked the 25th most viewed comedy channel on YouTube.[22] By August 2014, the channel had surpassed 500 million views and 3 million subscribers.[6]

Personal Life
GloZell lives in Los Angeles with her manager and husband Kevin "S.K." Simon.[23] The two announced their engagement on her channel on August 13, 2012.[24] They were married on August 9, 2013.[25]