Natalie Tran (born 24 July 1986), known online as communitychannel, is an Australian YouTuber, actress, and comedian.
She is best known for her comedy videos in which she discusses everyday issues.
Natalie Tran was born on 24 July 1986 in the suburb of Auburn in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to refugee parents who travelled to Australia from Vietnam in 1981.
Her mother previously practiced law, while her father practiced literary lecturing.
Her sister, Isabel, travelled with Tran's parents from Vietnam.
After the family resettled in Sydney, Tran's mother found employment in the postal service, while her father became a public school teacher.
Tran credits her parents for making her success possible, expressing that they "endured so much to give my sister and I great lives."
Tran was raised in Auburn, and attended primary school in Lidcombe.
2000
Tran was the most subscribed-to YouTuber in Australia and one of the highest-earning YouTubers globally in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
2004
After graduating, she attended Rosebank College in Five Dock, before transferring to Meriden School, an Anglican all-girls school in Strathfield, in year nine, where she graduated in 2004.
Speaking about her secondary school experience, she shared that she "wasn't really a fan", sharing, "I'm not a very ambitious or very applied student."
After high school, she attended the University of New South Wales, where she originally majored in education after being inspired by her father, but, following the success of her YouTube channel, began studying and later completing a degree in Digital Media.
While attending the University of New South Wales, she worked in retail.
2006
She began posting on YouTube in 2006 while attending University of New South Wales.
From 2006 to 2016, her channel consisted primarily of observational comedy videos with monologues.
Tran began posting to her YouTube channel in 2006, initially posting responses to other videos she had seen on the site.
Her content then consisted of observational comedy skits and vlogs, which lampooned everyday situations, in which she played all of the characters and gave monologues throughout.
2007
In 2007, Tran was invited to participate in the launch of YouTube Australia.
A video of her defending Vegemite was featured on the Australian television programme A Current Affair in February 2007.
2009
Tran was nominated for two awards for Best YouTube Channel or Personality and for Funniest YouTube Channel at Mashable's 2009 Open Web Awards.
By 2009, Tran was the most subscribed-to YouTuber in Australia and the 37th most subscribed-to globally.
2010
Tran partnered with Lonely Planet in 2010 to make a series of travel videos, chronicling her journey around the world to places such as Paris, New York City, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires.
In 2010, she became the 18th most subscribed-to YouTuber globally.
Also in 2010, Tran was the 10th highest-earning YouTuber on the platform, having made over $101,000 in advertising revenue between July 2009 to July 2010, according to TubeMogul.
From 2010 to 2011, Tran worked as a Sydney correspondent for The Project's The Whip segment.
2011
By 2011, she had earned over one million subscribers.
2013
Outside of YouTube, Tran's acting career has consisted of a supporting role in the romantic comedy film Goddess (2013), as well as recurring roles on the Foxtel sketch comedy show The Slot (2017–2018), the FX/Foxtel comedy-crime drama series Mr Inbetween (2018–2021) as Jacinta, and the Network 10 sketch comedy show Kinne Tonight (2018–2020).
She joined The Great Australian Bake Off as a host in June 2023.
In 2013, she started a relationship advice series called Love Conundrums on her YouTube channel, which she later discontinued.
She made her debut film appearance in the 2013 romantic comedy film Goddess as Helen.
2015
She was included in the lineup at YouTube FanFest Australia 2015.
In an April 2015 presentation at Brown University posted to her YouTube channel, she talked about Asian representation and stereotypes in the media.
In December 2015, she appeared in Lilly Singh's promotional video for her #GirlLove campaign, which aimed to end socialised competition among women, alongside Shay Mitchell, Hannah Hart, and others.
2016
She ceased uploading routinely to YouTube in late 2016 due to anxiety.
Her April 2016 parody of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's video apology for breaking Australian biosecurity laws, in which she depicts them as being held at gunpoint while filming the video, received praise from critics.
She became an ambassador for YouTube's Creators for Change initiative in September 2016.
2017
In February 2017, her Valentine's Day video, in which she serenaded her partner while he played video games using a virtual reality headset, also gained traction online.
In December 2017, as part of the program, she released White Male Asian Female, a 40-minute documentary about negative perceptions of relationships between Asian women and Caucasian men such as her own, on her YouTube channel.
From 2017 to 2018, she appeared as a series regular on the sketch comedy show The Slot.
2019
She hosted a video guide segment for the 2019 Sydney Film Festival called the Launch Show, released in May 2019.
