TomSka

TomSka
TomSka during the Geek Faëries in France in 2016
Personal information
Born	Thomas James Ridgewell (1990-06-27) 27 June 1990 Essex, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Video blogger, filmmaker, director, producer, writer, actor
YouTube information
Channel	TomSka
Years active	2006–present
Genre	Comedy, action
Subscribers	5.27 million
Total views	1.2 billion
Associated acts	Eddsworld
Play buttons 100,000 subscribers 2010 1,000,000 subscribers 2012[1]
Subscriber and view counts updated as of 14 August 2018.

Thomas James Ridgewell (born 27 June 1990),^[2] known online as TomSka, is an English YouTube celebrity, writer, producer, director, actor, and filmmaker, as well as founder of the Turbopunch Ltd. media production company. He is known for his animated comedy web film series asdfmovie^{[lower-alpha 1]} and webtoons Eddsworld and Crash Zoom.^[3] As of July 2018, his YouTube channel has over 5.1 million subscribers and his videos have garnered over 1.1 billion views.

Early life and education

As a child, Ridgewell began making short films using his parents' video camera. Not long after YouTube was established, Ridgewell created CakeBomb, a website which he posted his video creations, including his viral animated video series asdfmovie and his friend Edd Gould's Eddsworld. Ridgewell graduated from University of Lincoln,^[4] where he created a series of unofficial "advertisements" for the university which received millions of views.^[5]

Career

As a professional YouTuber, Ridgewell earns money from revenue from his videos on the website.^[6] He also has made short films for BBC and Comedy Central. He has been discussed and interviewed in relation to this, especially when the medium of online video was in its infancy.^[2][7] He has also appeared as a guest on the BBC's The One Show, and has appeared as a radio and TV guest internationally.^[8]

In October 2007, Tomska created a secondary channel called DarkSquidge.^[9] As of March 2018, the channel has over 780,000 subscribers and more than 101 million views.^[9] The content that Ridgewell uploads on this channel differs greatly from that of his main channel. While his main channel consists of sketch comedy and animations,^[10] DarkSquidge shows behind the scenes footage of TomSka related projects and videos, as well as vlogging. Ridgewell also engages in social commentary on this platform, covering a range of topics such as mental health, sexual health, and body positivity. The YouTuber uploaded weekly vlogs to the channel dubbed as "Last Week". After ending "Last Week", Tom then made a monthly vlogging series called "Last Month".

In 2008, Ridgewell released the first installment of asdfmovie, an animated sketch comedy series featuring very short clips of minimally-detailed characters in surreal and occasionally darkly humorous situations. There have been ten episodes as of April 2017, as well as two "deleted scene" videos, a promotional video with Marmite, and four music videos; "I Like Trains", "Mine Turtle", "Everybody Do The Flop", and "The Muffin Song".^[11] The song "Beep Beep I'm a Sheep" by Canadian musician Todd "LilDeuceDeuce" Bryanton with vocals by Ridgewell and Gabriel "BlackGryph0n" Brown, released alongside asdfmovie10, was featured in the dance rhythm game Just Dance 2018.^[12] A book based on the asdfmovie series, titled Art is Dead: the asdf book, was written by Ridgewell, illustrated by Matt Ley, and published by Little Brown on October 29, 2015.^[13][14] A second book titled Sam Kills Christmas, written by Ridgewell and Eddie Bowley with illustrations by Dorina Herdewijn, is scheduled for release on November 18, 2018.^[15]

In 2012, Ridgewell founded a media production company, TurboPunch Ltd., located in London. Ridgewell currently works there alongside co-writer Eddie Bowley and video editor Elliot Gough.^[16]

Also in 2012, he took charge of the production of Eddsworld after the show's original creator, Edd Gould, died of leukemia. He left the series in 2016, handing the show over to Edd's family. In 2013, Ridgewell was featured in YouTube's first "Comedy Week".^[17] He was featured on the cover of Wired UK in February 2013 as part of a feature titled "How YouTube Reinvented the Entertainment Business"^[18] and was selected by YouTube as a guest host for its Geek Week series in August. The BBC announced that Ridgewell will be appearing as a guest presenter on the Dan and Phil show from September 2014 on BBC Radio 1.^[19][20][21]

In 2014, Ridgewell, in collaboration with video game developer Pixel Spill Studios, created the game KatataK, a side-scrolling shoot 'em up for iOS and Android devices.^[22]

In January 2015, Ridgewell launched a new webtoon, Crash Zoom, on his TomSka channel. It is animated by Ben "Wonchop" Smallman, who also animated some of the asdfmovie episodes.^[23] It features three young characters, Lucy, Ben, and Kate, in their various surreal exploits.^[24]

In 2016, TomSka filmed several sketches with the BBC in a trial for a potential sketch show on BBC Three. These sketches were not picked up by the BBC, however, and he later posted the clips on his own YouTube channel.^[25]

Personal life

He was raised a Jehovah's Witness, but no longer practices this faith.^[26] Despite this, he has expressed a belief in a god.^[27]

Books

• Art is Dead: the asdf book (2015, Little Brown Book Group, ISBN 9780751563047)^[28]
• Sam Kills Christmas (2018, Little Brown Book Group, ISBN 0751563056)

Notes

References

External links

• TomSka's channel on YouTube