Antoine Daniel

Early Life and Creative Beginnings

Antoine Daniel was born in Enghien-les-Bains, a suburb north of Paris. He discovered the internet at age 11 and spent much of his teenage years active on the Final Fantasy forum FFWorld. There, with friends, he produced and shared a wide range of creative content including audio fiction, videos, and animation. In 2007 and 2008, he co-ran a website called Le paon qui gueule, which featured random videos.

Daniel's formal education included two years at the ESRA film school in Paris before he dropped out. He later completed a BTS in audiovisual professions with a sound engineering major at Cifacom. After graduating, he briefly worked as a data entry operator at a music publishing company, a job he did not enjoy. His creative inspirations include British director Edgar Wright, YouTuber TomSka, and the format of American YouTuber Ray William Johnson's Equals Three series.

The What the Cut!? Era

Antoine Daniel launched his signature YouTube series, What the Cut!?, on 1 March 2012. The show's concept involved Daniel examining three funny or unusual videos per episode, analyzing them and creating sketches and jokes around them. Known for its fast pace and the extravagant character played by Daniel, the show started as a weekly feature.

Over its run, the show evolved significantly. Episodes grew longer, and Daniel produced special episodes focused on videos from specific regions like India, Japan, Quebec, and Russia. The humor shifted from mockery and black humor toward highly absurdist comedy. From episode 30, the show incorporated cold opens, which later became scripted shorts lasting up to 15 minutes. The final classic episode, number 37, was released on 30 December 2015. Daniel gradually moved away from the show before ending it definitively in 2019, after a total of 42 episodes including specials.

The show's popularity had significant downsides. It sometimes led to floods of hate and insults directed at the creators of the videos featured, most notably singer D'jOw after episode 23. This incident changed Daniel's approach, leading him to avoid discussing people who might suffer from appearing on the show. The series was also heavily impacted by copyright claims, with most episodes being demonetized on YouTube.

Other YouTube Projects and the Shift to Twitch

Beyond his main channel, Daniel created a secondary YouTube channel called La Mezzanine in April 2015. This channel hosted content he felt was not polished enough for his main audience, such as behind-the-scenes videos and conferences, aiming to regain creative freedom. Between 2016 and 2018, it hosted the mini-series Chaos and Stock.

In 2016, Daniel announced an audio series project. This became Clyde Vanilla, a sci-fi comedy series co-written and directed with the writer and comedian Wendoh. The first season of ten episodes was released in late 2017 on platforms including YouTube and Bandcamp. Daniel was involved in writing, mixing, editing, and music. However, after what he described as a lukewarm to cold reception, no sequel was announced.

Since 2018, Daniel has focused his primary activity on livestreaming video games on Twitch, where he became one of the most followed and watched French streamers. After ZEvent 2020, he created a separate YouTube channel, Antoine Daniel, Les VOD, to host replays of his livestreams.

Twitch Activities and Community Events

Antoine Daniel's Twitch career is notable for his extensive participation in major charity and community events. He has been a regular participant in the ZEvent charity marathon since 2019. His involvement helped raise millions of euros for various causes, including the Pasteur Institute, Amnesty International, Action Against Hunger, environmental organizations, and social aid associations. Donations via his channel alone have exceeded 500,000 euros in single events.

He has also taken part in other collaborative streaming events, such as the GTA RPZ event in GTA Online in 2021 and a political tabletop role-playing game during the 2022 French presidential election. In October 2022, he produced and hosted an international GeoGuessr esports competition, the GeoGuessr Team World Cup. Starting in late 2022, he began a personal project ranking 150 French cities on a 4-point scale based on quality of life, culture, history, and vibe, which gained attention from regional newspapers.

From May 2023, Daniel was one of the Francophone members of the international Minecraft server QSMP. The server used real-time translation to bring together creators from around the world for entertainment and role-playing. The server shut down in May 2024 after Francophone participants, including Daniel, sent a private statement denouncing accusations of poor working conditions for volunteers.

Public Positions and Political Engagement

Antoine Daniel has been openly critical of certain aspects of online culture and politics. He has expressed opposition to what he calls the race for money and fame on YouTube, a theme he addressed in the final episode of What the Cut!?. He advocates for a free, open source internet that respects net neutrality and privacy.

His political engagement became more visible through his charity work and public statements. During ZEvent 2022, he and another streamer controversially accused President Emmanuel Macron of political recuperation and inaction. In June 2024, he participated in the #Streamers4Palestinians charity campaign, which raised over 1 million euros for Médecins du Monde. That same month, ahead of a snap legislative election, he joined an appeal by 200 YouTubers and streamers urging people to vote for the New Popular Front.

For several years, Daniel also ran a monthly format called Le 29 with Antoine Daniel, which he used to feature and help popularize smaller YouTubers whose work he admired, such as Le Fossoyeur de Films and E-penser.

Controversies and Allegations

In February 2026, Antoine Daniel faced serious allegations on social media. Multiple accounts accused him of inappropriate behavior and sexual assault against multiple women and minors during the 2010s.

The following day, Daniel responded to these allegations on Instagram. He denied the accusations of assault, stating he had never overstepped consent. He acknowledged he may have acted like a fool or made inappropriate jokes in the past, and apologized to anyone he may have hurt through such behavior.