Casey Neistat

Early Life and Formative Years

Casey Owen Neistat was born in Gales Ferry, Connecticut. His parents operated the Muddy Waters Cafe in New London. He was brought up in Reform Judaism and dropped out of high school during his sophomore year at age 17. That same year, in 1998, he had a son named Owen with his then-girlfriend Robin Harris. For the next three years, from ages 17 to 20, Neistat lived with Harris and his son in a trailer park. During this period he worked as a dishwasher at a seafood restaurant and as a short-order cook in Mystic, Connecticut, before deciding to move to New York City to pursue a different life.

Artistic Beginnings and Breakthrough Films

In New York, Neistat's filmmaking career began in 2001 when he and his brother Van started working with artist Tom Sachs, creating films about Sachs's sculptures and installations. Neistat's first major public impact came in 2003 with the three-minute film iPod's Dirty Secret. The film criticized Apple for lacking a battery replacement program for its iPod media players. Posted online on September 20, 2003, it quickly attracted national media attention and was praised as wonderfully renegade. Apple announced a battery replacement policy weeks later, though the company denied the film was the cause.

In 2004, the Neistat brothers produced a film series titled Science Experiments, a 15-minute collection of short films documenting various tests. This work was included in the 26th São Paulo Biennial in Brazil and later featured in Creative Time's 59th Minute program on the Panasonic Times Square Astrovision, where a one-minute excerpt played every 59 minutes.

Television and Defining YouTube Advocacy

In July 2008, HBO purchased an eight-episode television series, The Neistat Brothers, for just under two million dollars. The autobiographical series, written and directed by Casey and Van Neistat, premiered on June 4, 2010. Critics likened the brothers' charm and wit to that of Dr. Seuss and praised their joie de vivre.

Concurrently, Neistat was building a reputation on YouTube with advocacy-focused short films. In February 2010, he uploaded a video criticizing the New York City MTA for not making clear when to use the subway emergency brake cord. That same month, he released a film on Vimeo exploring the Chatroulette website through experiments, finding that users were far more likely to engage with a woman than with him.

His most influential early YouTube video was 2011's Bike Lanes. After receiving a $50 ticket for riding outside a bike lane, Neistat made a film comically demonstrating how obstructions often make the lanes unsafe or unusable. The video was covered by mainstream media, and Time magazine named it number eight on their Top 10 Creative Videos of 2011 list. In 2022, he revisited the topic with a video discussing a bounty proposal for reporting cars parked in bike lanes.

The Daily Vlog and YouTube Stardom

Neistat began posting daily vlogs on YouTube on March 26, 2015. He stated he saw the vlogs more as a forum than a personal journal. His cinematic, fast-paced style resonated widely. He reached one million subscribers by August 2015 and four million by August 2016. A vlog of him snowboarding on New York City streets during the January 2016 blizzard gained 6.5 million views within 24 hours.

In September 2016, he won GQ's New Media Star Man of the Year Award. By July 2018, he had released 936 vlogs and films since his channel's start in 2010. His subscriber count grew to 12.5 million by February 2023. His work also expanded into longer-form documentary filmmaking, with Under the Influence, a film about David Dobrik, premiering at SXSW in March 2022. In 2014, he was ranked #82 on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels.

Branded Content and the Make It Count Phenomenon

Neistat has directed and starred in commercials for major brands like Nike, Samsung, Google, J.Crew, and Mercedes-Benz. His most notable branded project is the 2012 video Make It Count for Nike. The film's opening text explains that Nike asked for a movie about the phrase 'make it count,' but Neistat instead spent the entire budget traveling the world with his friend Max Joseph until the money ran out, a journey that took 10 days.

Neistat posted the video on his YouTube channel after Nike's official launch. His version went viral, amassing over 1.5 million views in its first three days and over 32 million views by October 2022. Mashable called it the best branding story ever told, and outlets like CNNGo and Fast Company described Neistat's approach as going rogue.

Entrepreneurial Ventures: Beme and 368

In July 2015, Neistat announced he was working with Matt Hackett on a video-sharing app called Beme. Designed as an alternative to highly edited social media content, the app allowed users to share unedited four-second videos instantly without review, with subscribers able to respond with photo reactions. The app launched on July 17, 2015. BuzzFeed described its design as deceptively simple and decidedly weird. Within eight days, users had shared 1.1 million videos and logged 2.4 million reactions.

In November 2016, CNN announced it would acquire Beme for a reported 25 million dollars. Simultaneously, it was announced the Beme app would shut down, with Hackett stating the product failed but its vision was just getting started. Neistat and Hackett severed ties with CNN in January 2018. In April 2018, Neistat announced a new project, 368, a creative collaboration space for creators named after his studio address. The project announced its closure via Instagram in February 2024.

Personal Life, Family, and Public Identity

Neistat married Candice Pool in a Jewish wedding service in Cape Town, South Africa, on December 29, 2013. They have two daughters, Francine and Georgie. They had previously eloped in 2005 in Houston, Texas, in a marriage that lasted about a month and ended in annulment before reconciling. Neistat also has an older son, Owen, from a relationship when he was 17.

His grandmother, Louise Neistat, was a professional tap dancer and a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall. He created a popular film about her in 2011, highlighting her charity tap dance shows for cancer research. She died 22 days after the video was posted. Neistat is an accomplished endurance athlete, having finished a marathon in 2 hours and 57 minutes and completed three Ironman Triathlons, with at least one under 12 hours. He is part of the ownership group of Angel City FC in the National Women's Soccer League. He moved from New York to Los Angeles in 2019 but announced a move back to New York in 2022.

Political and Social Commentary

Neistat has been publicly involved in U.S. politics, supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and Joe Biden in 2020. In October 2016, he released a video titled 'who im voting for president,' arguing the election was about character rather than policy. The video drew criticism for stating that creators who did not endorse Clinton were complicit with what he called Trump's lying, racist, misogynistic attributes. In September 2019, he acknowledged the video lacked diplomacy and was made while he was too upset and emotional, though his views on Trump remained unchanged.

As a secular Jew, Neistat is very vocal in his support for Israel, having attended a Birthright Israel trip in his youth. He has also engaged with international figures, meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in October 2017. Beyond YouTube, he hosted the podcast Couples Therapy with his wife for 20 episodes from 2018 to 2019, discussing their marriage and life in the public eye. He has also contributed a chapter to Tim Ferriss's book Tools of Titans and given public lectures on filmmaking and his experiences.