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Darren Watkins Jr. (born: January 21, 2005 [age 17]), better known online as IShowSpeed (or simply known as Speed, or Speedy), is an American gaming YouTuber, soccer athlete, hip-hop musician, comedian, reactor, occasional vlogger and variety live-streamer, currently residing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Darren is known for his extravagant, peculiar, hot-headed, and ostentatious personality on his variety of gaming and entertainment livestreams, and for gaining over 1 million subscribers in a matter of days in 2021, making him one of the youngest creators with the fastest-growing channels of that year. Darren became more famous when his fanbase started publishing clips about him on TikTok, with the majority of them becoming internet memes, like his interactions with Outfit7's Talking Ben, being considered as Darren's most popular ones, as well as making the game the most downloaded apps at that time he streamed his first gameplay on Talking Ben. YouTube HistoryDarren first created his account on March 21, 2016, and published his first video on December 21, 2017. He did his first livestream (which was about Fortnite) on December 28, 2018, but barely averaged with 2 viewers. Since the beginning of 2020, he started uploading and doing livestreams about video games including NBA 2K and Fortnite Battle Royale. He was growing slowly at a daily basis to a point where, in June 2020, he averaged about 10 viewers in his livestreams and 150 new subscribers weekly. Talking BenDarren is particularly known for his overwhelming rivalry with Talking Ben from Outfit7's Talking Tom & Friends franchise, mostly arguing through the telephone feature from Ben's "Talking Ben the Dog" app. Usually, he will ask Ben if he supports Black Lives Matter movement[1], the LGBTQ+ community[2], or other unusual questions.[3] Darren's rivalry with Ben has since become a famous meme on the Internet, and he would also make videos with Angela and Tom, characters from games similar to Ben's. Darren also has a number of videos about him playing virtual reality (VR) games while wearing a headset. At one point, Darren and his friends did a real-life skit, where one of his friends was posing in a Ben costume.[4] However, on February 24, 2022, Darren received a legal strike warning email from Outfit7 telling him to stop live-broadcasting any games that were associated with the company due to countless emails sent to their support team complaining about Darren's streams related to the company's games. The email also said that the company does not tolerate any bad behavior with their mobile games, and that Darren is giving the wrong image on their games when the company was made aware of his livestreams about Talking Ben.[5] However, it's possible that the email was fake, and was sent to Darren by someone pretending to be the company to troll him. Rise of PopularityIn the beginning of 2021, Darren started to gain around 1,000 subscribers weekly and 350 viewers in his livestreams, growing consistently until surpassing 100,000 subscribers in April 2021. Between May and June of the same year, Darren's fanbase started uploading clips from his livestreams and memes on TikTok, which helped Darren surpass 1 million subscribers in that same period of time within June 2021 (and eventually also surpassed 1.1 million subscribers). Darren's main channel hit 10 million subscribers on July 22, 2022. A few weeks later, in August 2022, Darren was arrested by the Cincinnati Police Department for prank-calling them and allegedly setting his PS5 on fire during a stream, but was later released the following day. MusicAfter his rise to success, Darren started collaborating with various music producers to release songs, such as Shake (2021), Bounce That A$$ (2021), Dooty Booty (2021), God Is Good (2022), and Ronaldo (2022). Darren's songs are hip hop-based that are remixes and samples of other well-known songs. Channel StrikesOn July 22, 2022, the same day Darren hit 10 million subscribers, he announced on his highlights channel that he received a Community Guidelines strike by YouTube for showcasing a sexual Minecraft modifier on his screen, causing him to be unable to upload for 7 days.[6] On September 21, 2022, Darren announced on his highlights channel that he had received his second Community Guidelines strike by YouTube for harassment and cyberbullying, meaning that he could not upload for the next 14 days. Darren revealed he was arguing with another person on Omegle, and had then joked about the person's weight. He went on to say that he was angry that YouTube had given him a strike for something he usually does.[7] He returned on October 5, 2022, and said he will stream less frequently in his main channel to avoid receiving a third channel strike. ContentDarren's content is mostly based off of his past livestream's recordings, and the very few actual videos he makes are simply short clips of him doing announcements to his subscribers. In his livestreams, he mostly plays PS4 video games such as Fortnite, NBA 2K21, and Five Night At Freddy's 4, while speaking and interacting with his viewers. Since early February of 2022, Darren has been known to play a bunch of Outfit7's games, particularly the ones associated with the company's Talking Tom & Friends franchise, on BlueStacks. Darren also features his school in his livestreams, and will occasionally log onto Omegle to troll people. Darren's "way to do things" is very unusual, considering he sometimes barks, roars, shouts, or twerks at the webcam for no reason at all. Ever since his "peak of glory" began, his livestreams consist of him reacting to the subscriber counter reaching certain numbers. Darren also produces music, particularly fast-paced rap songs, most of the songs he produced are mostly instrumented with vocal samples from other well known songs. His most popular song is currently Shake, which has gained 40 million views in the first 3 months since its release on November 2021. On September 7, 2022, Darren began participating in dreadful and dangerous internet challenges, such as:
In the event of an incident in his livestreams which ends up involving him into some form of controversy, Darren will take a break from streaming until he is able to address the situation to his audience in his first stream after said controversy has boiled down to where it seems to have ended. Darren also has a second channel named Live Speedy that he created on June 1, 2021, where he posts highlights of his past livestreams, and a third named Speedy Boykins that he created on April 26 of the same year, where he usually posts short unusual clips of his videos and livestreams. Personal LifeDarren has a younger sister who sometimes enters his room during his livestreams to tell him "goodnight", or to interact with him. He also has a younger brother, and lives with his mother, who can occasionally be heard embarrassing Darren in the background of his livestreams by telling him to either stop screaming so loud or to end his streams because of it. Darren is currently attending high school, though he clearly shows his hatred for it.[citation needed] Although mostly unconfirmed, he formerly dated Ermony Renee, also known as Dream (not to be confused with the Minecraft YouTuber), despite there being a bit of a rivalry between them. It's unknown if they are still dating, but it's also possible that Darren has had a relationship with TikTok star and singer Ava Barbie[15], who is transgender. Darren is a former player of Purcell Marian High School's football and basketball team. Darren's birthday is on January 21, but his real age is currently unknown. This caused an argument among his fanbase whether if he is 19 (born in 2003) or 17 (born in 2005) to ensue, partially due to the jokes he made regarding minors. Darren has stated that he is 19, most likely so he could get a better chance at entering dating competitions on Discord, but besides that, he hasn't mentioned his age again several times. However, in a video he published on December 22, 2020, of him doing a Q&A, he said he was 15 (at the time), turning 16 "in a minute".[16] Despite most of Darren's fans, as well as online sources, mentioning that he is 17 years old and not 19, this argument still continues. NOTE: It is also worth noting that Darren could be purposely lying about his age, as he is either trolling his audience to confuse them, or he may not want to reveal his actual age. ControversiesThe following section contains NSFW content and/or references; read at your own risk. The following section contains vulgar/racist language; read at your own risk.Twitch Sexist RantOn December 13, 2021, Darren was on a live dating show on Adin Ross's Twitch channel. On the show, there were several women and men who were asked several questions related to dating. While on the show, Darren asked an Instagram model named Ash Kaash if she would reproduce with him in order to keep the human population going if they were the last two humans on Earth. Ash said she wouldn't and stated that their kids would have to perform incest in order for them to continue afterwards. Darren then asked "Who's gon' stop me?", to which Ash responded by saying "I will". Darren began repeating his question in a more aggressive tone, denying that Ash would stop him and started dancing in a questionable manner.[17] Darren kept arguing with Ash until he temporarily left the stream after Adin told him to calm down. However, not long after, Darren was able to re-enter the livestream. He then went on a sexist rant, calling Ash a "bitch" and an "ugly fucking cunt". Darren then yelled at Ash, saying that he masturbates with her every single day and that "nobody wants her" before continuing to berate her. Adin forcibly removed Darren after his rant, although Ash did not seem too phased by Darren's rant, and was even smiling.[18] After this incident, clips of his rant became viral on Twitter and on YouTube, causing Darren to receive major amounts of backlash, with many accusing him of being creepy and sexist.[19] Many fans of Darren defended him, stating that he was only 16 (possibly 18) at the time and he jokes like this often. However, some people like Tipster have actually questioned why Darren was on an E-dating show at 16 (possibly 18) years old to begin with.[20] Although nobody responded to this question, many agreed Darren took it too far. The day after the rant, on December 14, Darren's Twitch account was permanently banned due to his outburst, to which he tweeted out an image of the ban message he received from Twitch, with the caption "Bye".[21] Despite the backlash that he received, Darren's channel growth and popularity were not hindered by this, and he has continued streaming on YouTube after his Twitch account was banned. Valorant Sexist RantWhile Darren was playing with a girl and others in a game of Valorant, he went on another sexist rant, making discriminatory remarks, such as "go do your husband's dishes". He was banned from Valorant for 30 days, but on April 6, 2022, a YouTuber and E-sports news reporter by the name of Jake Lucky News tweeted the clip where he was sexist to the girl.[22] A Riot Games employee named Sara Dadafshar replied to Jake's tweet, saying that Darren is now permanently banned from all of Riot Games and thanking Jake for his tweet.[23][24] Darren later apologized for his rant, but many users on Twitter began to accuse Jake of being racially motivated to get Darren banned from Riot Games, and Keemstar said Jake was hypocritical for also endorsing "trash talk" in video games.[25] xQcOW replied to Keem, saying he was "pretty rich to try to use the racism card while overlooking blatant sexism", insinuating that Keem should not defend Darren if he thinks his rant was considered "trash talk".[26] As the drama worsened, criticism towards Jake escalated to the point where he received hate comments and even death threats.[27] It is currently unconfirmed if the drama has already been resolved, but it seems to have died down, with all parties having moved on. 4th of July Fireworks IncidentOn July 4, 2022, Darren decided to light some Fourth of July fireworks in his room.[28] Darren had a bunch of fireworks that he believed to be noisemakers that wouldn't burst into flames, and lit a Pikachu-modeled firework fountain in his bed. However, the firework quickly started to spark, shooting fireballs around his room.[29] Darren freaked out and left his room as the firework launched into a wall, and his mother can also be heard in the livestream, being shocked and angry. As his desktop's face-cam can be seen falling slowly, Darren's house alarm sounds off before firefighters would later show up in his bedroom as he ends the stream.[30] Fortunately, his room and the house did not catch on fire, but the ceiling and walls in his bedroom were damaged. This incident became viral and even made headlines on the news. Although KSI[31] and Darren's audience was worried about him and his family while also finding the incident to be hilarious, he was heavily criticized on the news and on social media for thinking that lighting any form of fireworks inside his own bedroom could be safe, as he could have possibly burned his entire house down, or even killed himself and his family. Meanwhile, others like xQcOW[32] and Tipster[33] had mixed reactions, finding the incident to be hilarious while also criticizing his recklessness and being concerned for his safety. The next day, Darren addressed the incident on his livestream, confirming that he and his family are safe, and that he only suffered a few harmless burns. He also added that he didn't know the firework fountain would spark as bad as they did, giving a disclaimer to his chat to never light fireworks indoors.[34] Minecraft modifier and YouTube Strike incidentOn July 21, 2022, Darren played an infamous Minecraft modifier labeled "Jenny Mod" while he was voice chatting with an anonymous user. Darren would censor the screen in order to not get a Community Guidelines strike by YouTube, but at one point during the stream, he had accidentally revealed part of the footage on stream, which depicted Jenny about to perform a blowjob to the player. Darren immediately ended the stream afterwards, but a reupload of this incident can be found here. End of NSFW references/content.Interviewer Jake Lucky called him out for it on Twitter[35], which resulted in YouTube giving Darren a 1 week strike.[6] Soon afterwards, Darren uploaded a short video telling his fanbase that he wouldn't stream for the following week. Although his fans thought he was quitting YouTube indefinitely, Darren later returned to streaming a week after he received the strike. Arrest & SwattingDarren being detained by police officers from the Cincinnati Police Department. On August 8, 2022, Darren was arrested after getting swatted following a staged prank call with the Cincinnati Police Department. People suspect that it was either because some of his fans had sent a SWAT team to his house, or that said fans requested him to prank call the police station[36], thought it is indecipherable who orchestrated the prank. While he was getting arrested, he switched the stream to his phone and had a friend film him being detained before one of the cops told his friend to stop.[37] This incident left many of Darren's viewers and non-viewers alike confused. They, along with YouTubers such as Jadyn, said that Darren deserves a better fandom and should stop doing whatever his community tells him to do.[38] Darren claimed Adin Ross had bailed him out of jail and went back to streaming the next day. QuotesThe following section contains vulgar/racist language; read at your own risk.
Packing Quotes
Channel milestonesIShowSpeedSubscriber milestonesNote: The following dates are according to
Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
Video view milestones
Live SpeedySubscriber milestones
Video view milestones
Speedy BoykinsSubscriber milestones
Video view milestones
Trivia
GalleryBuff Herbert and Speed in a bathroom stall. Talking Ben, who is Speed's "frenemy" and was the subject of many of his videos. Speed gets angry at Ben. Speed gets revenge on Ben. Speed screams the N-word after seeing "Black-Hood Ben". Speed finds a camera in a Ben Plush. Speed in his God is Good music video. Speed in his “How I Feel” music video. An image of Speed kissing Ben. References
Is IShowSpeed a dad?Does IShowSpeed have a daughter? YouTube star IShowSpeed denied rumours that he is gay, revealing to the public that he has a daughter. One source told Celebshaunt that the streamer had the child when he was only 16, which is around the time he started uploading his videos online.
What is Ishowspeeds net worth?Darren Watkins Jr., popularly known as IShowSpeed or Speed, is an American YouTuber and social media personality with an estimated net worth of $8-12 million as reported by multiple sources like Social Blade and Net Worth Spot.
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