Thomas Sanders (entertainer)

Thomas Sanders made his debut on Vine as "Foster_Dawg", named after his first dog, Foster,[39] on April 14, 2013. An impression of Stewie Griffin, from Family Guy, in a drive-thru, was his first Vine to go viral, leading to continued success on the app.[28] He later rebranded his channel to "Thomas Sanders". His channel reached 1 million followers on Vine in October 2013.[28] His biggest success on Vine was the Narrating People's Lives series, also known as Storytime, where he approached random strangers, comically narrating normal everyday activities they were doing and showed their reaction.[40][41] Other Vine series he's known for are Disney Pranks with Friends, Pokémon Pranks, Misleading Compliments, Musicals in Real Life, Stewie vs. Herbert (co-starring Taylor Shrum as Herbert) and Shoutout Sunday, among others.[9] By April 2015, Sanders' Vine account had over 5 million followers, which made Thomas Sanders the 17th most followed Viner at the time.[42]

When Twitter announced that it was closing Vine down at the end of 2016, Sanders announced that he would continue making Vines until the app's last day.[43] When Vine was shut down on January 17, 2017, Sanders had reached 8.3 million followers.[44] Since that date, his short videos, now known as the Sanders Shorts, are first released on his Instagram, where as of November 2018 he has 2.5 million followers.[45] He also encourages his followers, who call themselves "Fanders", to draw fan art inspired on him and his work and send it to him, choosing some of the best examples and releasing weekly Instagram compilations each Friday under the hashtag "FanArtFriday".[28]

On February 24, 2015, Sanders appeared as a guest on The View, on a segment featuring Vine stars, where he was interviewed about his popularity on Vine,[28] and one of his Vines was featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in their section Vine after Vine.[46] Sanders has collaborated with Viners such as Vincent Marcus,[47] Brandon Calvillo[48] and Amymarie Gaertner,[49] and featured cameos and appearances from people such as Sean Bean,[50] Nicolle Wallace,[51] Stacy London,[52] Nick Pitera (with whom he did a series of Vines, Unexpected Duets),[53] Brizzy Voices,[53] Gabbie Hanna,[54] Tara Strong,[55] E. G. Daily,[56]Jim Cummings,[57] Dan and Phil,[58] Adam Pascal[59] and the main actors from Hamilton, Teen Titans Go! and Steven Universe,[60] among others.

Sanders opened his official YouTube account on March 15, 2009.[61] After amassing a following through Vine, he started publishing more frequently through YouTube. He had his first YouTube collaborations throughout 2015, consisting on pranks, games and challenges. Up until 2014, his subscriber count grew at a lower rate, with around 80,000 subscribers at the end of that year.[62] From that date, his user count growth started progressively accelerating, having 200,000 subscribers by April 2015[63] and more than 700,000 subscribers at the end of 2015.[64]

From the second half of 2016, at the same time his Vine activity got slightly diminished following Twitter's announcement of Vine's forthcoming closedown, Sanders announced he would be focusing on his YouTube content from then on. This way, he started publishing more frequent YouTube videos in more diverse formats. He retained games and challenges and also the monthly Vine, later Sanders Shorts compilations, but also included song performances, both solo and in duets, culture and social justice debates with a special support for LGBTQ+ issues or racial and gender equality topics among others; short films, comedy sketches, web series like Sanders Sides and Cartoon Therapy, shows with participation from the audience like Real or Fake Anime or Voices of Unreason and occasional live broadcasts, among other formats. As of February 2020, his channel has 3.33 million subscribers.[65]

On October 29, 2018, he debuted a second YouTube channel called "Thomas Sanders & Friends" which would be dedicated entirely to the unscripted shows he had done in the past in his main channel with the help of his guest friends, and also it would be there where he would release the monthly Sanders Shorts compilations from then on, while the main channel would be dedicated exclusively to scripted series and shows as well as his music videoclips.[66] His second channel reached 100,000 subscribers on November 7, 2018, nine days after its official debut.[67]

Sanders Sides Series logo since September 1, 2017.

Since October 19, 2016, Thomas Sanders has run a YouTube web series called Sanders Sides, co-written with Joan S.,[68] in which he discusses personal or existential issues with four main characters, collectively known as the titular "Sanders Sides". Sanders Sides consists of two seasons with a total as of May 2020 of 30 episodes released on a variable periodicity. Season 1 has 17 episodes released from October 19, 2016, to July 19, 2017. Season 2 began on September 1, 2017, and as of May 2020, it has 13 episodes.[69] It is a spin-off from the Vine/Sanders Shorts series, as Patton, Roman and Logan are inspired on characters that had previously debuted on Vine in 2014, the Dad Guy, the Prince Guy, and the Teacher Guy respectively. The Sanders Sides are usually all played by Sanders himself, though on occasion they have also been played by Joan S., Valerie Torres-Rosario, Terrence Williams Jr. and Talyn.[70] Joan and Talyn also collaborate extensively with Sanders on the production of the series, researching for the main topics of each episode, making props, decorating sets, designing and hand sewing some pieces of costume, doing some of the makeup, and helping with editing and visual effects.[71] Sanders Sides has featured sometimes appearances of guest stars like Lilly Singh[72] or Butch Hartman who, apart from appearing as himself, created an animated sequence exclusively for Sanders Sides where Thomas and his Sides became cartoon characters. Tara Strong, who had already appeared in several Vines and Sanders Shorts, also made a voice cameo in Hartman's episode.[73] On November 22, 2019, a companion series titled Sanders Asides was premiered, featuring the Sides in lighter stories in shorter episodes designed, in Sanders' words, to feature stories not directly linked to the main narrative as well as "hopefully" releasing Sanders Sides content more frequently.[74]

The Sanders Sides are "physical-mental projections" of Thomas' mind,[75] and represent different aspects of Thomas'[Note 1] personality. Thomas usually starts each episode as an ordinary vlog about a certain topic or dilemma. Sometimes he is interrupted by the Sanders Sides who pop up before him, and sometimes Thomas summons them for help. This initiates a debate where each of the Sides offers his point of view according to the personality trait he represents until they all reach a conclusion, both for Thomas and the viewers. All of this is combined with gags and comical, dramatic or thrilling moments between Thomas and the Sides.

The Sanders Sides' names are Logan,[76] Patton,[77] Roman[78] and Virgil,[79] although at the beginning they were known respectively as Logic, Morality or Dad, Creativity or Princey, and Anxiety until they revealed their names one by one. Logan is Thomas's logical thinking, his intelligence, and his acquired knowledge. He has the appearance of a high school teacher, wearing a black polo shirt, a blue necktie and black Warby Parker glasses. He is based on the concept of Logos by Aristotle, one of the three modes of persuasion which appeals to logic and reasoning.[80] Patton is Thomas' morality, his sense of right and wrong, his emotions, his feelings and his inner child. He has the appearance of the typical American family dad, wearing a blue polo shirt, a cardigan tied over his shoulders and black glasses, the same Warby Parker glasses Logan sports. He is based on the concept of Pathos, also by Aristotle, another of the three modes of persuasion, this one appealing to emotions.[81] Roman is Thomas' creativity, his fancifulness, his hopes and dreams, his romanticism and his love for singing. He has the appearance of a fairytale Disney prince, wearing a white 19th-century royal suit with a golden ornament on a shoulder and a red stripe crossing the chest, and sometimes he sports a katana as his weapon of choice. He is based on the concept of both romanticism for romance and Romanticism, the artistic movement involving tales of knights and princesses as one of its themes.[82] Finally, Virgil is Thomas' anxiety, his fears, his fight or flight reflexes and his survival instinct. He sports the appearance of an emo teenager, wearing a dyed purple shirt, a dark gray hoodie with purple patches, his hair all over his face and eyeshadow under his eyes. His name is based on the Latin name Vergilius which, although it is of unknown meaning, experts theorize it derives from "vigil" or "vigilant", and also on the Roman poet Virgil, who appears as a character in Dante's Inferno, a video game based on Dante's Divine Comedy, where he escorts Dante through the Underworld.[83]

Apart from his Internet-based career, Sanders has worked in musical theater at the Gainesville Community Playhouse[28] for productions including Hot Mikado (2007),[84] Singin' in the Rain (2009),[85][86] The Producers (2010),[87] Anything Goes (2011),[88] Into the Woods (2014),[36] and Les Misérables (2014).[89] In 2015, Sanders did his first professional theater work starring in Heathers: The Musical as J.D. in a production performed in Orlando.[90] From August 8 to September 2, 2016, Sanders went on a stage musical tour, Ultimate Storytime, written by Sanders with songs composed by Jacob Fjeldheim, and based on his Vine series Narrating People's Lives, performing in 17 cities in the USA and Canada, including Toronto and New York City.[21][22][23][24] In 2019, Sanders was cast as the understudy for The Beast in Beauty and the Beast

Though often critics classified Sanders as a baritone,[91] Thomas considers himself a bass singer.[92] He has sung multiple times in his Vines and YouTube videos, as well as in his Tumblr, Snapchat and the rest of his social media accounts. He has performed songs in a wide variety of genres, but he has personally showed a preference towards jazz music, mentioning Nat King Cole as one of his favorite singers.[93] He has also sung duets with dodie, Jon Cozart, Ben J. Pierce, Deedee Magno Hall, Adam Pascal, AJ Rafael and others. He released his first EP on Bandcamp on December 21, 2013, comprising Christmas songs and titled Merry Christmas.[15][16] In 2016, he released the soundtrack of his Ultimate Storytime stage musical, recorded alongside his co-stars, Terrence Williams Jr., Nicole Visco, Jay Harper (also known as JayIsJo) and Leo Anderson (also known as Leo the Giant).[17] On July 22, 2017, Sanders released on YouTube a new original song titled "The Things We Used to Share",[94] with words and music by Joan S. and piano accompaniment by AJ Rafael, inspired on real events in Sanders' life, which became available to stream and download on iTunes and Spotify on July 27.[18] It was followed by more singles along 2018, solo or in duet, and the announcement of a new EP.[95]

• Merry Christmas (EP) (2013)[15][16]
• Ultimate Storytime (2016)[17]

On January 27, 2017, Thomas Sanders guest starred in the Disney Channel show Bizaardvark, in the last episode of the first season, titled "In Your Space!", where he portrayed the titular reality web show's host Ian Finkelman.[25][26] He also co-hosted a special episode of Walk the Prank, titled "Talk the Prank with Thomas Sanders and David Lopez", which was aired on Disney XD on March 20, 2017.[27]