Eddie Oliver Smith (born: Eddie Seitz), is an American Author (A GuideBook to Self(i.e.) Love), filmmaker (Living In The Moment Web Series), and YouTube content creator who grew up on the southwest side of Chicago, in the small town of Hometown, IL.
Background[]
Eddie Oliver Smith has been creating original content across the internet since May 23rd, 2009, garnering over 2.5 million lifetime views, where he uploaded his first YouTube video on his Lady Gaga-inspired fan and DIY prop tutorials channel titled "Club Gaga". Eddie's channel caught on in late 2009 as Gaga rose to fame, soon to be one of the biggest and original Lady Gaga tutorial channels. Smith attended the very first Vidcon at the Beverly Hills Hilton in the summer of 2010, where he furthered his passion for creating videos.
He later branched off into a personal channel under his professional name "Eddie Oliver Smith", which housed a variety of content such as sketches, video vlogs, music video parodies, and original music videos. On April 2013, Eddie decided to put an end to regular uploads on his "Club Gaga" channel to focus on his personal channel by announcing a Lady Gaga tribute concert entitled The Born This Way Ball Clone, funded by a fan-funded IndieGoGo campaign. The hour-long tribute concert, although receiving mixed reviews online, garnered over 30,0000 views in under a week.
In 2013, the video went viral thanks to a vice.com article to which Gaga RTed and praised Eddie, saying "I fucking love my little monsters". This positive press furthered Smith's career and allowed him to debut his first self-published single and music video "Hollywood" which released on iTunes July 26, 2013. Shortly after, Eddie was featured on NBC5 Chicago news for taking singer/songwriter DYLYN (formally know as Guinevere) to prom.
After a year-and-a-half haitus, Smith announced his biggest project to date, a self-published book titled A GuideBook to Self(i.e.) Love released August 20th, 2016. He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
YouTube Success[]
Eddie first gained notoriety from "Michael Buckley" (aka What The Buck, Buck Hollywood) at the very first Vidcon at the Beverly Hills Hilton when Buck agreed to make a video with Eddie at Vidcon 2010. Buckley later tweeted the video and Eddie's channel to his followers which drew thousands of new subscribes to Eddie's "Club Gaga" channel. At the same time, fellow YouTuber Justine Ezarik (aka "iJustine") featured Eddie in her 2010 Vidcon recap video, further driving his views. The next year, Smith decided to debute his personal channel Eddie Oliver Smith under his professional name at VidCon 2011, promoting his own video blogs, sketches, music video parodies, and original music separate from "Club Gaga".
At the end of 2011, Eddie was featured on "Right This Minute", a TV show all about "the latest, coolest, most interesting videos on the web" featured one of his original rap videos called "Grilled Cheese Sandwich" (released August 22, 2011). Grilled Cheese Sandwich video made Right This Minute's top videos of 2011, ranking number 12 out of 20. Later that year, the very talented YouTuber "Olga Kay" featured Eddie in a vlog on her olgakay2 channel in 2011, only furthering Eddie's personal channel. Eddie has since been mentioned briefly by YouTubers such as "Brittani Louise Taylor", "Jessica Lizama", "Joe Nation TV", Shane Dawson, "Jenna Ezarik", and more.
In July 2013, Eddie annouced a promotional reality show titled My Hollywood Dream which followed Eddie's three -ear endeavor self-publishing and recording his original song Hollywood. The reality show spanned from the song idea to the final recording of the sound, and gave a glimpse into Eddie's life as a YouTuber and singer/songwriter. Then in mid-August, Eddie released his first original music video for his debut song which featured some of his YouTube friends including Athena Stamakinley and Alexander Cox. Smith released more original music, another comedic single titled Hating On Me (On Twitter). He has over 2.2 million lifetime views and has created over 600+ videos across 5 YouTube channels.
In 2017, Eddie moved to Los Angeles to pursue his film and YouTube career full time, kicking off his move by being a guest on episode 50 of Shane Dawson's podcast Shane & Friends where Shane mentioned Eddie's YouTube channel, his promotional reality show "My Hollywood Dream", the viral Born This Way Ball Clone project, and his first book A Guidebook to Self(i.e.) Love while praising smith for his hard work and talent.
Personal Struggles[]
After being featured on NBC5 Chicago news for taking singer/songwriter DYLN (formally know as Guinevere) to prom, Smith decided to take a small hiatus to focus on his studies at Columbia College Chicago for film/video. While in colllege, he started struggling with his sexuality, past bullying, and suppessed thoughts from his time in high school. Eddie decided to take a small break from YouTube, focusing on coming to terms with himself and his struggles, only posting to YouTube periodically. On new years day of 2016, smith came out via instagram and annonuced to his followers that he had wrote a book about his journey to self love. He documented this journey on his blog, posting previews of passages written for the highly anticipated book.
A New era: A Guidebook to Self(i.e.) Love[]
Eddie Oliver Smith announced the title of his book, A GuideBook to Self(i.e.) Love a self-published non-fiction self-help book via Kickstarter July 27th, 2016. The campaign sucessfully funded and Eddie set off to Los Angeles for a book tour, meeting and connecting with a new set of LGBT YouTubers like Andy Lalwani and Arielle Scarcella. The book and the accompanying film, A Vlogumentary: The Story of Self(i.e.) Love., released August 20th, 2016.
Moving to Los Angeles[]
Shortly after announcing his first web series "Living In The Moment" that he directed and produced, Smith moved out to Los Angeles to pursue producing, directing, writing, and content creation full time.
External links[]
- A GuideBook to Self(i.e.) Love
- YouTube
- Blog
- Merch Store
- Spotify Page
- MTV Music Page
Filmography[]
| Title | Platform | Release Date | Director/Producer |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Vlogumentary: The Story of Self(i.e.) Love. | YouTube | August 20th, 2016 | Eddie Oliver Smith |
| Living In The Moment Web Series | Amazon Prime Video | May 15th, 2017 | Eddie Seitz |
Music Releases[]
| Track Name | Album | Release Date | Artist(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hating on me (On Twitter) | Hating on me (On Twitter) - Single | January 31st, 2014 | Eddie Oliver Smith |
| Hollywood | Hollywood - Single | July 26, 2013 | Eddie Oliver Smith |
| Grilled Cheese Sandwich | Grilled Cheese Sandwich -Single | Aug 06, 2011 |
Paul Smith (aka Paul The Blogger), Eddie Oliver Smith |
Past iTunes Podcast Show Releases[]
| Show Name | Season | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Eddie Oliver Smith | "Eddie Oliver Smith" | July 4, 2011 - October 12, 2013 |
| My Hollywood Dream | "My Hollywood Dream" | July 15 - July 26 |