If you’ve spent even a little time on YouTube, then chances are you’ve seen at least a couple of videos from one of its most popular creators. Casey Neistat’s name is basically synonymous with YouTube, especially with so many aspiring vloggers out there seeking to emulate his style. The filmmaker and vlogger has been creating content on the platform since 2010 and has since amassed over 12 million followers in addition to his 3 million on Instagram. His easygoing personality and innovative filmmaking have made him one of the most successful and widely-known content creators in the world.
As glamorous as his life is now, it didn’t start off that way. Neistat dropped out of high school when he was 17 and never went back, opting instead to work in restaurants to support his new family. He and his girlfriend at the time, Robin Harris, had just had a baby named Owen and together the three of them lived in a trailer park in Connecticut until Neistat was 20.
In 2001 he moved to New York City, where he worked as a bike messenger and began dabbling in filmmaking with his brother, Van. Together they collaborated with artist Tom Sachs and made films about Sachs’ sculptures and art installations. In 2003, Neistat made a short film called iPod’s Dirty Secret that went viral before “going viral” was even a phrase in our vocabulary. The film criticized Apple for not offering replacement batteries for their iPods and attracted the attention of major media outlets like Rolling Stone and The Washington Post. Weeks later, Apple changed their policy and began offering replacement batteries, which they claimed had nothing to do with Neistat’s film.
Neistat would go on to film more successful projects with his brother including a film series called Science Experiments in 2004. In light of his online success and growing reputation as a captivating filmmaker, HBO ordered an eight-episode television series called The Neistat Brothers for $2 million. This put both of the Neistats directly in the spotlight.
Things only went up from there when Casey began sharing video content on YouTube in 2010. From criticisms of New York City’s bike lanes to motivational videos that would later lead to speaking engagements and TED Talks, Neistat’s creativity went wild on the video sharing platform. He got even more personal in 2015 when he began filming daily vlogs, some of which featured him skateboarding through city traffic and even snowboarding his way through epic blizzards.
So How Much Is Casey Neistat Worth?
The combination of his YouTube content, television credits, directing projects, speaking engagements, and other creative endeavors have given Neistat a net worth of over $16 million. A large chunk of these earnings came after he and Matt Hackett created a video app called Beme, which they sold to CNN in 2016 for $25 million.
Neistat, who used to live in Tribeca, now resides in Los Angeles with his wife Candice and their two children, Francine and Georgie. Neistat still films vlogs on YouTube and regularly partners with brands like Nike to produce socially relevant content that highlights other change-makers in the world. He recently made his feature film debut in Project Power on Netflix (which he discussed in a YouTube video entitled “JAMIE FOXX GAVE ME A BLACK EYE”) and was featured in Tim Ferriss’s self-help book Tools of Titans.
What Neistat, now 40, will do next is anyone’s guess, but there’s no doubt it will be just as creative and out-of-the-box as he is.