Iman Crosson (born March 27, 1982), known on YouTube as Alphacat, is an American actor, impressionist and YouTube personality. He is known for his impersonations of 44th U.S. President Barack Obama, actor/singer Drake and his starring role in Award-winning independent film Along the Roadside
Career
YouTube
On December 14, 2005, a 23-year-old Crosson opened a YouTube account with screen name Alphacat. In July 2008, at the urging of his fellow waiters Crosson created spoof videos of then presidential candidate Barack Obama.
During the summer of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election campaign, Crosson's 30-second video won Denny's Restaurant's nationwide contest for the best impressionist of the then-candidate Barack Obama. He said that he "went from unemployed to self-employed in literally a matter of a month." Crosson moved from New York to California, obtained an agent specializing in helping talent cross over from online to mainstream, and was invited to be on America's Got Talent.
After Obama's January 2009 inauguration, Crosson was featured on several entertainment and news television shows, blogs and newspapers. Crosson was called a "YouTube sensation" by Fox News' Neil Cavuto.
Crosson's post-inaugural work included voice-overs in Newsweek's The District, a video series in which Crosson narrated Obama's first months in Washington from the President's point of view. Crosson impersonated Obama at the 66th Annual Radio and Television Correspondents' Association Dinner on March 17, 2010.
Crosson was among YouTube content creators who met at the White House in February 2014 with U.S. President Obama to start a dialogue about health insurance awareness and enrollment, as well as anti-bullying, education, and economic opportunity. In October 2012, Crosson performed as Obama in the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History in the "Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney" episode, the music single of which was certified gold by the RIAA. Additionally, Crosson appeared as President Broccoli Obama in an episode of The Annoying Orange.
In December 2013, Crosson contributed to an Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") health care exchange's "Tell a friend — Get covered" social media campaign for raising awareness among young Americans to enroll in Obamacare-compliant health insurance, by releasing a video spoof of Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot." In February 2014, YouTube content creators including Crosson met with U.S. President Obama at the White House to discuss ways in which government could connect with the content creators' viewers, concerning awareness of and enrollment in health insurance policies and other issues.
On May 28, 2014 Crosson as well as other YouTubers and Viners, Andrew Bachelor (King Bach) and DeStorm Power appeared in will.i.am's Vine music video for It's My Birthday ft. Cody Wise.
Iman
AlphaCat also has a second channel simply called Iman (after his first name). On the channel you will find behind the scence and bloopers on his videos, as well as a few vlogs
Trivia
Iman rapped as Barack Obama, going against Mitt Romney (EpicLLOYD) and Abe Lincoln (NicePeter) in an Epic Rap Battles of History
