The internet rose to become a prominent part of our lives in the 2000s, smartphones came into existence and these tiny things that we never knew could exist are now inseparable parts of our lives. They opened up a world of career and job options that was different from what was obtainable in the past. For a long time, it was simple: find a discipline, study the course at the university and graduate to work in your field. For a long time, that was the laid path and the idea of something else existing was lost to many until the internet came and a revolution began. Led by platforms like YouTube, modern career options are extremely diverse, unstructured, and extremely lucrative. Two of the beneficiaries of this revolution are the production team behind Wassabi Productions – Alex Burriss and Roi Fabito
Learn more about them and their popular YouTube channel, Wassabi Productions by reading below.
Who/What is Wassabi Productions?
Wassabi Productions is the brainchild of Roi Fabito, it is a YouTube channel that came into existence on January 25, 2006. It is a comedy channel designed to bring joy and laughter to viewers through music video parodies and other forms of entertainment. Roi Fabito began making the funny videos in 2005 with his friends, Robby, and Matt, using his parents’ camera. Alexander Burriss later joined the team after he was asked to by Roi Fabito.
The channel came into being because the group wanted a means of sharing their videos with their friends and family. But with YouTube being an open platform, their videos were watched by other people around the world who loved them and soon they were getting hundreds of views in the process.
When Roi Fabito’s friends, who started making the videos with him decided to walk away from the group, he was left with just Alexander Burriss to work with. The two of them left were able to sink themselves into the making of videos which had become a hobby for both parties. Their content ranged from lip-syncs, dance videos to funny videos. Wassabi Productions is currently one of the most successful channels on the YouTube platform. It currently has 11 million subscribers and total video views of over 3 billion.
Roi Fabito, and Alexander Burriss are childhood friends who grew up together; Roi was born in the Philippines on 21st August 1991 and was raised there until the age of two when his parents moved to America. He has three siblings, brothers Reymound Fabito and Russell Fabito with sister, Ariel Fabito. He currently lives in California.
Alexander Burriss, on the other hand, was born in Great Falls, Montana but grew up in Kentucky before later moving to North Carolina where he would meet and become friends with Roi Fabito. He was born on the 28th of March, 1990 into a family of six with two brothers and one sister. He was diagnosed with ADHD when he was a child. He currently lives in California with his girlfriend, Lauren Riihimaki, a YouTuber known as LaurDIY .
Five Facts to Know About Wassabi Productions
It Started as Hoiitsroi
When it was first created, the original name of their channel was hoiitsroi. It was however changed to Wassabi after the group was inspired by a scene in the film, Jackass The Movie , where Steve-O snorted wasabi through his nostrils. Roi Fabito loved the word wasabi and decided to use the word as the channel name. He did, however, make a mistake while spelling it by adding an extra ‘s’ which has stuck till date.
The Group Used to be Six in Number
Today, Wassabi productions is run by just one person, Alexander Burriss, but before he became a lone wolf, he worked with five other members of the group. Drew, Rob, Marvin, and Matt were original members of the channel who left the group to pursue other interests, leaving Alex and Roi as the face of the group. They developed the group into what it is today until 2016 when Roi Fabito decided to leave the group in pursuit of other passions too.
Their Most Popular Video is Call Me Maybe
The group has been in existence since 2006 but hasn’t been able to stop the popularity of its Call Me Maybe parody in 2012. Using new characters who debuted in the video – Rolanda and Richard, the video went on to have over 57 million views at the time of release. It currently has over 130 million views. It also helped the channel gain over 8 million subscribers.
Roi and Alex Attended the same High School
One of the selling points of the channel was the relationship between Roi and Alex. It started back in middle school in Durham, North Carolina and continued when they attended the same high school where they became best friends.
Wassabi Productions has Worked on Feature Films
As YouTubers working in California, Alex Burriss has been able to expand the Wassabi brand on to feature-length films in Hollywood. He has worked on films like The Duff and Laid in America .