Zach King

Zachary Michael King (born February 4, 1990) is an American internet personality, filmmaker, and illusionist based in Los Angeles.[2][3] He is most known for his "magic vines", which are six-second videos digitally edited to look as if he is doing magic.[4] He calls his videos "digital sleight of hand".[5] He began posting videos on YouTube in 2008 and in 2013 he started posting videos to Vine. King posted his first video to TikTok in 2016, and has since accumulated over 45 million followers, making him the third most-followed individual on the platform.[6]

Zach King
King at VidCon in 2012
Born
Zachary Michael King

(1990-02-04) February 4, 1990[1]
NationalityAmerican
Other namesFinal Cut King
Alma materBiola University
Occupation
Years active2008–present
Spouse(s)Rachel Holm (m. 2014)
Children2
Websitewww.zachkingmagic.com//

King won the Hewlett-Packard commercial contest in 2010, and got a trip to the red carpet at the London Film Festival.[7] In 2013, he won YouTube's NextUp Creators contest.[8] In 2015, King and his wife Rachel Holm competed in the 28th season of American reality game show The Amazing Race. They were eliminated during the ninth leg of the race being placed sixth in the overall standings.[9]

Early life and education

King was born and raised in Portland, Oregon.[10] He is of half Chinese descent from his paternal side, one quarter Austrian and one quarter Nicaraguan descent from his maternal side.[11][12] King made his first film when he was seven using a home video camera.[13] When he was fourteen, he purchased video equipment including a Mac computer, cameras as well as a tripod and started making and editing videos.[7] He graduated from Biola University with a Cinema and Media Arts Major in December 2012.[14]

Career

King started his website, FinalCutKing.com in 2008, to offer training and tips about using the editing software Final Cut Pro[15] as he was unable to find tutorials for the software on the Internet.[16] At the same time, he started using his YouTube channel to give tutorials for visual effects using the Software.[17] After gaining an audience for his website, he began selling training seminars and used the money to pay for his college.[7] He participated as a contestant on an episode of Viral Video Showdown that aired on Syfy in 2012.[18] In December 2019, King baffled the internet with a video of himself apparently flying on a broomstick. The video was viewed over 2.1 billion times on TikTok in 4 days.[19]

YouTube

King receiving his Golden Poop Award

In 2011, he posted a video titled Jedi Kittens on YouTube that he produced with a college friend. The video showed two cats fighting with lightsabers.[20] The video gained over a million views in three days[14] and went on to have over 18 million views.[3] A sequel of the video titled Jedi Kittens Strike Back gained over 27 million views.[21] A third part of the video, Jedi Kittens - The Force Awakens was posted in 2013, which has gained over 28 million views. King's official YouTube channel is FinalCutKing.

He was named by YouTube as one of the 25 most promising young film-makers in America in May 2013. As part of its Next Up Creators contest, YouTube awarded King $35,000 as well as a trip to New York City for a four-day YouTube Creator Camp. His submission to the contest was titled Contest Entry Gone Wrong. In the video, he appeared to dodge an assault by airstrikes and ground fire as he pleaded his case to be selected for the YouTube award.[8] As of August 2, 2020, he has 7.92 million subscribers and 721 million views within 331 videos.[22]

Vines

King made his account on Vine on September 9, 2013, when he saw that many of his friends had an account on the social media website. After creating an account on Vine, he decided to create one Vine each day for the next thirty days. After the success of his first few Vines, he decided to continue with creating and posting new Vines.[23]

He appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on January 29, 2014, and made several Vines with the crew of the show.[23] As of 2014, King creates Vine videos for a living and works out of his garage.[24] In an interview with The Independent, he said that he would want to direct feature films, preferably action-adventure movies, in the future.[3]

King has been featured in multiple media outlets for his Vines.[25][26] Chez Pazienza wrote about King that "this guy's stuff is pure magic (or at least the work of some very clever editing.)"[27] Mashable's Laura Vitto wrote of his work, "Vine star and filmmaker Zach King may not perform magic in the traditional sense, but his expertly-edited six-second videos could put David Blaine to shame."[28]

Writing for Complex magazine, J. Duaine Hahn wrote that "While people have hit Vine stardom for skits, or splicing together commentary with popular YouTube videos, King has gone the extra mile to use his six seconds to create magic, or the closest thing you can get to it with on a smartphone."[29]

In an interview, Zach said that producing a Vine usually takes upwards of 24 hours, with three to four hours of filming.

TikTok

King posted his first video to TikTok, formerly known as Musical.ly, on February 28, 2016 which was him escaping a jail cell. His video caption was "Need help posting bail, oh wait nevermind." He has amassed a following of 44.7 million followers on the popular app, making him the third most followed user on TikTok. [6]

Zach King also posted the most viewed TikTok on December 9, 2019. The video was of him riding a broomstick, where he later shows he was actually using a mirror. The caption of the video was "They rejected my application to Hogwarts but I still found a way to be a wizard." [6]

Personal life

King and his wife, Rachel Holm, married in 2014. On 2016, they competed together on the Amazing Race 28 and placed 6th. As of 2017, they lived in the community of Rossmoor, an unincorporated community in Orange County, California.[30] King and his wife have two sons, one of whom is adopted.[31][32][33][34]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2016 Zootopia[35] Muzzled Wolf Voice only

Awards and honors

  • 2009 - First Place London Film Festival for HP advertisement[36]
  • 2009 - Critic's Choice Award at Bridgestone Tires's Safety Scholars Teen Driver Video Contest.[7]
  • 2010 - First place London Film Festival: Heartbrand Ad[37]
  • 2010 - Bridgestone Safety Scholar Winner[38]
  • 2012 - Vidcon Golden Poop Award [39]
  • 2013 - YouTube's NextUp Creators Contest[8]

References

  1. King, Zach (February 16, 2011) "Turned 21 today! Now what?" Twitter post. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  2. "Zach King Proves Again That He Is The Best". Gentside. November 12, 2019. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  3. James Vincent (January 15, 2014). "Zach King of Vine: 6-second tricks and illusions show the magic of 'digital sleight of hand'". The Independent. London, UK. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  4. "Zach King, El Mago de Vine, Explica Sus Trucos kVirales". CNN Español. January 23, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  5. "Zach King's Magic Vine Compilation: Surfer Stephen's Viral Video Of The Day". CBS Local. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
  6. https://www.tiktok.com/@zachking
  7. Brett McCracken (Fall 2011). "Student Filmmaker Wins YouTube Contest". Biola Magazine. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  8. Chmielewski, Dawn C. (May 1, 2011). "YouTube awards cash, schooling to budding videographers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  9. "Water challenge sinks McHenry woman, husband on 'The Amazing Race'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  10. Harbarger, Molly (December 24, 2013). "West Linn man shows gingerbread men's appetite for destruction in slow motion Christmas video". The Oregonian. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  11. Zach King [@finalcutking] (November 15, 2013). "@MsShoot i'm 1/2 chinese, 1/4 austrian and 1/4 Nicaraguan" (Tweet). Archived from the original on March 23, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2017 via Twitter.
  12. "Draw My Life-Zach King". April 23, 2013. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  13. "La impresionante magia de los vídeos de Zach King". Teinteresa. Retrieved January 8, 2014.
  14. Cassandra Gonzales (October 12, 2011). "Zach King becomes YouTube sensation with "Jedi Kittens" video". The Biola University Chimes. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  15. "Zach King e creatorul de virale: îţi arată cum să tai un măr cu o carte de joc sau să scoţi o pisică dintr-un ecran". adevarul. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
  16. "Vine Wizard: Watch This Amazing Mashup of Zach King's Craziest Vine Magic Tricks". Complex. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
  17. "Zach King Brings Visual Effects To Vine". Social Daily News. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
  18. "Final Cut King/Zach King". Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  19. Gill, Katy (December 13, 2019). "Bizarre optical illusion showing man flying on broomstick 'seen 2billion times'". Daily Star. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  20. "YouTube Filmmakers stop in Oceanside". The Coast News. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  21. Trevor Mogg (January 20, 2014). "Vine Star Dazzles Users With Awesome Six-Second Video Tricks". Digital Trends. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  22. "Zach King - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  23. "Top Viner Zach King". Ellen TV. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
  24. Lance Ulanoff (January 24, 2014). "Vine at One: A Creative Tool That's Changing Lives". Mashable. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  25. "Zach King's Magic Vines Will Blow Your Mind". CBC. January 15, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  26. Gray, Richard (January 20, 2014). "Is It Possible to Jump Through Walls?". The Telegraph. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  27. "WATCH: Zach King's Vines are Seven-and-a-Half Minutes of Magic". Daily Banter. January 14, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  28. Laura Vitto (January 14, 2014). "Vine Magician Needs Only 6 Seconds to Melt Your Brain". Mashable. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  29. Jason Duaine Hahn (January 15, 2014). "Vine Wizard: Watch This Amazing Mashup of Zach King's Craziest Vine Magic Tricks". Complex. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
  30. Larsen, Peter (April 27, 2017). "Most Influential 2016: Zach King's videos made him a star, and now he wants to take on Hollywood". Orange County Register. Retrieved April 17, 2018.
  31. https://twitter.com/FinalCutKing/status/953077291248218112
  32. Magic Tricks to Impress your Dad on Fathers Day (Video). United States: YouTube. June 17, 2018. Event occurs at 1:40. Retrieved June 17, 2018. My wife and I are having a baby in three weeks.
  33. https://www.instagram.com/p/BkJG6D5F4f6/
  34. https://www.instagram.com/p/BmyKUSyD7dz/
  35. Villarreal, Yvonne; Miller, Daniel (October 4, 2016). "Social media stars are helping Hollywood reach younger audiences, for a price". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  36. "Film Students Win Ad Contest Featuring HP Products". Biola News. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  37. "London Film Festival 2010 : Video Contest". Mofilm. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  38. "Bridgestone Americas Launches Fifth Annual Safety Scholars Video Contest". Bridgestone. April 4, 2011. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  39. Zachary Pincus-Roth (July 3, 2012). "10 Bizarre Things We Saw at Vidcon, YouTube's Annual Convention". LA Weekly. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
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