Need a new channel to supply you with your daily dose of LOLs? Look no further than comedy duo Joel & Lia, YouTube’s funniest pair of actors.
Joel Wood and Lia Hatzakis met while training at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (or RADA, for short) and instantly hit it off. After leaving drama school, the pair decided to start making comedy shorts together and began uploading them online, long before knowing that YouTube was a “thing”. Soon after, the two began to discover other online duos, such as Jennifer Veal and Lucas Cruikshank, and Niki and Sammy Albon, and were inspired to upload their first ever (and sadly now deleted) vlog in 2013.
Since that fateful day, Joel and Lia have made loads of videos together on their shared channel, but agree that their sketches, such as their Amy and Harry and Bad Actors videos, are some of their favourites. “They don’t have the most views, but we really enjoyed making them [and] are really proud of them,” the pair tell us.
Even though Joel and Lia’s videos may not be amassing hundreds of millions of views (it’s only a matter of time, however, until they do), the two have a loyal following and love interacting with their audience, both on and offline, through frequenting Twitter, hanging out in the comments of their videos, and attending events like Summer in the City.
They fondly remember the first time they were recognised, commenting that, although it’s completely cringe-worthy, it was exciting nonetheless to be able to put a face to someone who likes their content: “We were recognised for the first time ever when we had 300 subscribers,” Lia recalls. “It was by a 12-year-old viewer and, even though we played it super cool, we were so happy that we literally skipped down King’s Road and bought a bottle of Prosecco.”
Being in the centre of the flourishing YouTube community in London means that Joel and Lia are surrounded by many other creators whose work pushes them to challenge themselves to make great content.
“Lots of our friends inspire us, like Philip Green, Laura Bubble, and James Hill. We share a similar sense of humour and that’s really important to us! Our favourite ever series on YouTube has to be Vlogvember by Adrian Bliss – so simple and so hilarious.”
Aside from the people in their immediate circles, the two also credit comedians such as Amy Schumer, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Tiny Fey, and Amy Poehler as inspiring figures in their lives. With that inspiration in mind, the pair have experimented with lots of video types over the years, from vlogs and sketches to tutorials and sit-down chats.
Recently, though, the two have decided to move into the educational realm, a genre they like to call “edu-tainment”.
“Yes, our channel has recently taken an educational turn, but still remains equally hilarious… we hope,” the pair explain. “Our goal for Joel & Lia is the same as every year: to reach 10,000 [subscribers] by Chrimbo! But we genuinely want to continue to make fun edu-tainment content and see where that takes us! We would also like to put on a play in London next year to actually put some of our RADA training to good use!”
With all these possibilities, there’s no telling where Joel & Lia will go next. What we do know is that the pair have a bright future ahead of them, and we’re excited to see where they go from here. Be sure to subscribe to their channel if you want to be there for all the great things that are sure to come!
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