Robert "Rob" Franzese (born: October 20, 1988), better known online as the Real Life Peter Griffin, is an American YouTuber, comedian, and entertainer known for his work cosplaying the character Peter Griffin from Family Guy.
Content[]
The content on Rob's channel mainly consists of comedic skits he does while playing the Real Life Peter Griffin character. He has a running series of these videos titled Grinds My Gears, in which Real Life Peter Griffin typically complains about something that annoys him.
History[]
Rob first began cosplaying Peter Griffin at New York Comic Con in 2012. He originally dressed up as Ghost Rider but got heatstroke wearing the costume. He later found a white shirt, green pants from a St. Patrick’s Day celebration and glasses from a Santa Claus costume and dressed up as Peter Griffin. A video of his cosplay from the New York Comic Con in 2014 was uploaded to YouTube on January 6, 2015.[1] The video went viral, and Rob would find himself a major audience for his work.
Rob would start making paid request videos on Cameo, resulting in more exposure to his brand. He created his YouTube channel in January 2019, and would upload his first video on February 8.[2] This video is now also the most viewed video on the channel, having garnered nearly 2 million views.
Rob's channel has experience large growth since then, and he now continues to make videos as well as public appearances as Real Life Peter Griffin.
He also has accounts on Twitch, TikTok
Trivia[]
- Rob was referenced twice on Family Guy: once on the episode You Can’t Handle the Booth parodying DVD commentaries when Peter asks Seth MacFarlane about the “fat nerd” dressing up as him and another when Peter describes him as “his stunt double” and “the fat guy who dresses up as me during Comic Con wanting to interview me as me”.
- He once contacted Fuzzy Door Productions on IMDB and they responded that they would consider having him portray Peter if a live action episode were to commence.
Channel milestones[]
Subscriber milestones[]
- 1,000 subscribers: April 2019
- 10,000 subscribers: May 2019
- 50,000 subscribers: January 10, 2020
- 100,000 subscribers: June 24, 2020
Video view milestones[]
- 1 million video views: July 2019
- 5 million video views: August 18, 2020