Fine Brothers Entertainment (FBE) is an award-winning American media company, studio, and new breed of a TV network that creates innovative programming for a global audience across both owned and partner channels.
Established by two brothers, Benny Fine and Rafi Fine in 2004, the company is best known for its video series, React, as well as many of its timed-spoiler series and narrative web series. FBE is also popular for creating MyMusic, a web transmedia mockumentary sitcom which debuted on MyMusicShow YouTube channel.
It has been more than a decade since Fine Brothers came into being and till now, it has not stopped creating quality content. It is comprised of over 70 full-time employees.
FBE (Fine Brothers) Bio
Benny Fine was born on March 19th, 1981, while his brother Rafi Fine was born on the 9th of June 1983. Both of them spent a major part of their teen years in Sullivan County, New York. The brothers are college graduates. Benny started college when he was just 15 years old while Rafi, who has a degree in film studies, initially attended Dickson College for two years before he later transferred to Hunter College from where he bagged his degree.
According to the Fine Brothers, they have been creating videos all their lives. As a child, Benny started recording interviews of people in his Jewish community on a tape recorder and later switched to using the family camcorder to shoot all kinds of weird videos. His younger brother, Rafi, soon joined him in making such videos and by the time they became adolescents, they got their first video camera and started recording comedy sketches.
Before they graduated from college, they had already made a number of short sketches and full-length comedies starring action figures of ‘Thundercats’ and ‘Star Wars’. They entertained their friends and family with these videos and recorded their reactions, which later became their first version of the ‘ React ‘ videos.
The Fine Brothers Careers
In the year 2000, the Fine Brothers made a live-action feature that found its way into comedy film festivals where it was screened. Their plan was to keep on creating a feature every year with the hope that one of them would eventually help them break into Hollywood. They later won the Young Film-Maker Award but soon realized that the internet held a brighter future for them.
Resident in Orlando, Florida, Benny and Rafi created their first website in 2003 and uploaded their first video the following year. They also uploaded live-action sketches and comedy content on websites like MySpace.
On the 4th of June 2007, the duo created their main YouTube channel, TheFineBros (later renamed Fine Brothers Entertainment, and now known as FBE). They began the channel with videos of mature social satire and as of 21st December 2018, it has garnered 18,271,808 subscribers and has more than 7.3 billion views which have earned the brothers an estimated net worth of $13 million.
The duo later relocated to Los Angeles and continued growing their channel. On 14th May 2009, they launched a second channel named TheFineBros2. Here, they release behind the scenes videos and also clips from their news podcast, “All We Know”.
A third channel (React) was created on 22nd July 2014, in an attempt to expand their React content. The channel features a diverse lineup of gaming, food, music, and game shows; showcasing adults, kids, elders, and teens.
The first episode of Kids React was uploaded on the React channel on 6th October 2010. Subsequently, React videos of other YouTubers and celebs were uploaded on the channel. They would later expand to include videos of cast members reacting to the video games.
On 15th December 2014, the Fine Brothers aired the reality television series titled ‘React to That’ on Nickelodeon. They did this in collaboration with Nick Cannon , an actor, television, and radio personality. On the show, people of different age groups aired their opinion on viral YouTube videos.
Benny and Rafi alongside Marc Summers Productions created and hosted a TV comedy reality show, “Six Degrees of Everything”, which was telecast on TruTV on 18th August 2015. The “Superfan Suite: PLL” episode of the hit show “Pretty Little Liars” which was aired on 11th August 2015, was produced by the brothers for ABC. They also created the web series “SING IT” with Mandeville Films. The series, a satirical lookout on singing competitions premiered on YouTube Red on 25th May 2016.
The duo has collaborated in writing, directing, and producing web videos with other YouTube stars such as Shane Dawson , ShayCarl, KassemG, and top channels like Smosh and PewDiePie . Because their channels are under the YouTube partner program, they are able to make money from ad revenues.
Apart from YouTube, FBE has a digital channel on Facebook. They released their first feature film “F The Prom” in December 2017 and it is now available on Netflix.
Family Facts
The brothers were both born in Brooklyn to Orthodox Jewish parents, Yehuda Fine (father) and Ellie J. Fine (mother). Their mother is a Democrat while their father is a writer, speaker, and educator. Yehuda has acted in many of the Fine Brothers React videos like “ Elders React to Ghost Elevator Prank ”.
Benny and Rafi have an elder sister named Dorah Fine. She teaches Hebrew and Judaic Studies and is also a voice actor.
Other Ventures
The Fine Brothers have a popular YouTube series where they spoil different topics ranging from books to video games and films. They uploaded the first episode of the series titled “100 Movie Spoilers in 5 Minutes – (Movie Endings Ruined)” on November 11, 2008, and as of December 2018, it has garnered more than 2.8 million views, making it the most popular of the series. Some other videos on the series include “Spoiler series”, “Doctor Who in 6 minutes”, and “Spoilers of first 7 Harry Potter films”.
The brothers also posted a video each month spoiling 50 videos that went viral on YouTube and other sources during the previous month.
The talented young men also created a show titled “Lost: What Will Happen Next?”. The show which is a parody based on the TV series, “Lost”, debuted on January 24, 2008, and ended on 1st November 2010. It had over 19 episodes and featured several characters from the movies “Avatar”, “Star Wars”, and other fictional universes. In collaboration with Rhett and Link, the Fine Brothers also created a parody song of Lost.
Controversies
The Fine Brothers announced on January 26, 2016, that they would license and trademark their YouTube series React, in order to allow creators to create their own react series. The brothers specifically applied to trademark the term “react”, which many other YouTube content creators who have no relationship with the Fine Brothers YouTube channel also use in their titles.
The announcement was greatly frowned at by some of their viewers and other YouTube content providers who believed that the brothers were trying to stop other people who were not affiliated to their channel from creating reaction videos. However, the duo responded by promising not to take revenue from other types of reaction videos, and not to copyright-strike.
The promise notwithstanding, there were reports from other YouTubers that videos containing Fine Bros footage were taken down. There were also reports that the Fine Brothers’ “Elders React” series was introduced after another channel had produced “Seniors React” videos.
This led to more than 675,000 accounts, as of February 22, 2016, collectively unsubscribing from the React and Fine Bros Entertainment channels in protest. The brother eventually announced that all React trademarks and trademark applications have been revoked; that they have discontinued the React World program, releasing all previous Content ID claims.