Daniel Howell

Daniel James Howell (born 11 June 1991) is an English YouTuber, presenter, comedian and author.

He gained prominence through his YouTube channels Daniel Howell (formerly known as danisnotonfire), which reached over six million subscribers, and DanAndPhilGAMES.

After graduating from The Forest School in 2009, Howell took a gap year, during which he started posting videos to his channel as a hobby.

Howell uploaded his first YouTube video titled "HELLO INTERNET" on 16 October 2009.

He was encouraged by "some friends" including Phil Lester to continually upload videos to the site.

He then went to the University of Manchester in 2010 to study law, but dropped out in 2011 because of a lack of interest in the subject, instead going on to pursue radio presenting and video blogging as a full-time profession.

In 2012, he won the YouTube competition "SuperNote" run by Rhett and Link.

He also featured in the weekly video series, Becoming YouTube by Benjamin Cook, which looked at the different aspects to becoming an internet celebrity.

He also wrote a blog for The Huffington Post about the creative process behind making his videos.

Together with frequent collaborator Phil Lester, Howell presented the Sunday night entertainment show Dan and Phil on BBC Radio 1 from January 2013 until August 2014, and the station's Internet Takeover slot from September 2014 until April 2016.

In November 2023, Howell was signed by United Talent Agency and the comedy division of InterTalent.

Howell grew up in Winnersh, Berkshire.

In January 2013, Howell and Lester became the presenters of BBC Radio 1's Sunday evening entertainment and request show.

They had occasionally worked with the station before, producing videos for the station's YouTube channel for Edinburgh Festival Fringe and presenting two Christmas broadcasts.

In October 2014, it was announced that as of that month, the duo would not carry on working on the project, in order to concentrate on their Radio 1 show.

On 12 September 2014, Howell and Lester posted the first video on their new gaming YouTube channel, DanAndPhilGAMES.

On 8 March 2015 the channel hit 1 million subscribers.

It was officially the fastest growing channel on YouTube.

DanAndPhilGAMES reached over 3.1 million subscribers.

Popular recurring and annual series on this channel include their Sims 4 series, Spooky Week, and Gamingmas.

On 1 April 2015, Howell and Lester launched a spin-off channel DanAndPhilCRAFTS as an April Fools joke.

It featured a single video of them creating square snowflakes out of paper, with an amateur editing style and humour throughout.

It reached over 154,000 subscribers and 500,000 total video views in one week.

"Don't cry, craft" became a popular Internet meme from that video, described by the Standard-Examiner as "one of the best known YouTube phrases of all time".

The channel was awarded the YouTube Silver Play Button at Summer in the City 2015.

On April 1, 2016, Howell and Lester made a second video for that channel in which they did another joke tutorial, this time on making glitter faces.

On 1 May 2017, Howell posted a video on his channel stating that he had changed the name of his YouTube channel from danisnotonfire to Daniel Howell, after stating issues arising from the danisnotonfire name.

On April 1, 2017, a third and final video to end the trilogy, titled "Potato Prints" was uploaded.

He has a younger brother, Adrian, who started a YouTube channel of his own in 2018 and works as a photographer and lifestyle coach.

He worked for the retail chain Focus DIY at the age of 16 and later at the supermarket Asda.

He was a member of Wokingham Youth Theatre growing up.

The channel went on hiatus from December 2018 to October 2023.

The 2023 revival of DanAndPhilGAMES was introduced with a comedy sketch written by Howell, "Saying Goodbye Forever," which depicted an interrupted funeral for the channel.

They were among several early YouTubers to return that year.

From 2019 to 2022, Howell took a hiatus from his YouTube channel, making only a handful of public appearances, such as announcing he had bought a home with Lester in January 2021, while he attempted to get some projects off the ground behind the scenes.

He explained the experience in a May 2022 YouTube video titled "Why I Left YouTube".

Alongside his subsequent solo tour We're All Doomed!, Howell began uploading a YouTube series called Dystopia Daily.

He also has a second channel, danisnotinteresting, which has over 1.7 million subscribers and 72 million views, as of September 2020.

He has broadcast weekly hour-long live shows on this channel, as well as on YouNow.

Howell and Lester collaborated on a YouTube channel for My Damn Channel, entitled The Super Amazing Project, in which they investigated paranormal events.