Canada’s media landscape has transformed in the 20 years since YouTube launched, giving tech-savvy entrepreneurs a direct path to find their audience. Playback spoke with six Canuck YouTube creators on building their brands in the digital age.

Linus Tech Tips
@LinusTechTips
Subscribers: 16.4 million
HQ: Surrey, B.C.

Linus Sebastian (pictured right), 38, entered the world of video production through his previous gig at a computer store, when he was tasked with shooting product videos. Now, as chief vision officer for Linus Media Group (he stepped down as CEO in 2023), he is behind one of YouTube’s most-subscribed technology-focused channels as well as a “professionally curious” team that supplies product reviews, undercover investigations, tutorials for budding technophiles and tech news coverage.

In the 17 years since Linus Tech Tips (LTT) launched, it’s apparent that Sebastian’s savvy extends beyond the tech world. Linus Media Group has grown exponentially – rocketing from approximately 20 staffers in 2018 to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 100 by 2024. And the channel has successfully leveraged its large audience to expand its monetization strategy away from reliance on ad revenue.

Sebastian is transparent about that with his viewers too. This past March, he and members of his team broke down Linus Media Group’s main sources of revenue in 2024. Only 11.6% came from YouTube ad revenue while 55.4% came from its global online LTTStore, which sells such products as screwdrivers, clothing and tools for computer cable management.

“YouTube directly contributes just a sliver of our annual revenue these days, but what they have done is they have enabled that diversification into physical goods,” Sebastian tells Playback.

AsapSCIENCE
@AsapSCIENCE
Subscribers: 10.7 million
HQ: Toronto

One of the most popular educational channels on YouTube, AsapSCIENCE is the brainchild of Gregory Brown (pictured left) and Mitchell Moffit (pictured right), who bill themselves as “queer educators who mash together science, art and pop culture to impact people and the planet.”

Launched in 2012, the channel educates audiences on popular topics ranging from AI to the effects of various drugs on the human body. The channel performed well from the get-go, with its subscriber count rising to seven million by 2018, to its current count of 10 million and change. Its top video, “Do You Hear ‘Yanny’ or ‘Laurel’?” attracted more than 66 million views, proving there is a formidable audience for clips concerning auditory ambiguity. Collabs have included team-ups with “Science Guy” Bill Nye and CBC News, while Moffit upped his unscripted profile with an appearance as a cast member on Big Brother Canada in 2016.

“I think [YouTube’s] a great place for educational content because it’s where people go to learn,” says Brown. “We get to make very specific videos that ask questions people want to know the scientific answers to, which we wouldn’t be able to do on other platforms.”

Answer in Progress
@answerinprogress
Subscribers: 1.7 million
HQ: Toronto

Through their channel Answer in Progress, Sabrina Cruz (pictured right), Taha Khan and Melissa Fernandes aim to “strip away the stigma of not knowing things and bring back the joy in learning.” Launched by Cruz in 2012 as NerdyAndQuirky, Khan and Fernandes came on board in 2020, and the channel identity changed to its current moniker.

The team, repped by U.K. digital talent agency Ziggurat XYZ, tackles a wide range of questions via the channel, from why the recorder is a staple of music education in schools, to “why women’s pockets are useless.” In terms of collaborations, Answer in Progress has run the gamut with partnerships from Red Bull Motorsports to Google. The crew has also partnered with the YouTube channel for A+E’s History net to create the six-part 2021 series History Remade with Sabrina.

“Making the most of the flexibility in the relationships that digital platforms let you build is powerful and more people need to take advantage,” says Cruz.

Ryan George
@RyanGeorge
Subscribers: 1.8 million
HQ: Montreal

In addition to his own YouTube channels, comedian and creator Ryan George (pictured left) is also behind ScreenRant’s YouTube sketch series Pitch Meeting, which posits how projects such as The Emoji Movie get greenlit. Joining YouTube as a creator in 2008, his original intentions weren’t much different than scores of other aspiring comics: build a visual portfolio for networks, maybe get a gig in a writer’s room.

Instead, he’s built up his own audience through the direct-to-consumer approach, allowing him to develop multiple successful YouTube channels including the dedicated Pitch Meeting channel (1.37 million subscribers), his self-titled channel (1.8 million subscribers) and his more recent longer-form commentary channel, Ryan George Extra Plus! (240,000 subscribers).

Prior to the growth of Pitch Meeting and his personal channel, George and collaborators Samuel Brisson and Brandon Calder created and starred in the comedy series Campus Law for Kevin Hart’s LOL Network.

The more streamlined approach to content creation for social media platforms such as YouTube seems to agree with George, currently repped by L.A.-based creator talent agency 28th Ave Management.

“In the digital space, I can have an idea and start working on it right away,” he says. “I’ve wasted a couple of years of my life not doing anything creative because I was trying to ask people for permission to make something on legacy media.”

Julie Nolke
@julienolke
Subscribers: 1.1 million
HQ: Toronto

Toronto-based sketch comedian Julie Nolke (pictured right) jumped to YouTube in 2012 after struggling to break into film and TV. However, her digital endeavour leapt to the next level in 2020 following the virality of her video “Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self.”

That video, currently sitting at just under 22 million views, propelled the career of the actor-writer-comedian, amping up her visibility online and opening doors in television. Following her rise on YouTube, she was invited to join the development writer’s room for CBC’s Run the Burbs before being cast in a recurring role for the comedy series.

Repped by 28th Ave Management in L.A., Nolke still posts weekly, and has even taken a page out of the TV playbook by creating an “Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self ” franchise of sorts – the series currently has seven parts.

“With YouTube, there’s this direct audience-to-creator connection that you have to protect,” she says. “We do that by having this run-and-gun feel. It looks produced, but you’re also going to see the mess-ups. And I think the audience likes to be in on that.”

Mei Yu
@meiyu
Subscribers: 1.8 million
HQ: Vancouver

Vancouver-based artist Mei Yu (pictured left) joined YouTube 14 years ago as a way to increase the reach of her drawing tutorials outside of Vancouver.

She steadily built her formidable subscriber base over the years by zeroing in on the all-important “audience-to-creator connection,” soliciting audience requests for what to draw next and creating new series based on demand, such as her art challenge videos.

Yu has also used YouTube as an avenue for her original IP, such as the comic and animated series Puddi Panda, which saw its first episode receive more than 180,000 views via Yu’s channel, and comics released through YouTube Shorts getting up to 1.6 million views.

Her online popularity has also paved the way for forays into other media, as seen with Lost & Found, a book series based on her life and immigration story which had its first installment published by New York’s Union Square & Co. in 2024. It later won the audience-voted Forest of Reading’s 2025 Silver Birch Express Award, eligible to books targeting audiences between grades three and four.

With files from Barry Walsh

This story originally appeared in Playback‘s 2025 Spring issue

Julie Nolke image courtesy of 28th Ave Management, Sabrina Cruz image courtesy of Answer in Progress