Dominykas Zeglaitis , known online as Durte Dom, has appeared in dozens ofDavid Dobrik 's vlogs.- The Durte Dom character, a blend of fiction and reality, appears misogynistic and sex-obsessed.
- It's unclear when Zeglaitis plays it up for the camera or is playing a bit for the vlog.
"I'm uncancelable," Dominykas Zeglaitis said in an October 2020 interview.
Five months later, an Insider investigation by reporter Kat Tenbarge unearthed an allegation of rape against the content creator known as "Durte Dom" online. Zeglaitis has all but disappeared from the internet in the wake of Insider's reporting.
Given a platform by his childhood friend and
The Durte Dom character evolved over the four years he appeared as a regular in Dobrik's so-called
Dobrik's vlogs are a combination of sketch and reality, blurring the line between what's real and what's manufactured for clickbait. In the dozens of videos Zeglaitis appears in on Dobrik's channel, it's unclear when he is playing it up for the camera and when he is actually being himself.
Reviewing YouTube videos featuring Zeglaitis in the wake of sexual-assault allegations paints a picture of a group that was so focused on creating content that they ignored possible red flags along the way.
Durte Dom was there from the start but evolved with the Vlog Squad
Zeglaitis is one of Dobrik's oldest childhood friends from Vernon Hills, Illinois, and can be seen in the first videos on his channel in 2015.
There's "Cool Intro" and "Drove Cross Country for In-N-Out" that were created before the vlogs officially started, featuring Zeglaitis as himself, without the pink bandana or sexual innuendos he would soon become known for on Dobrik's channel.
By the third video, "Epic Roommate Prank," the pair had moved to LA and the persona started to take shape. In the video, Dobrik dons a long-haired wig and pretends to give fellatio to Zeglaitis in their roommate's bed in an effort to prank her.
Zeglaitis soon became a key player in the Vlog Squad, frequently appearing in the 4-minute-and-20-second vlogs posted multiple times weekly on Dobrik's channel.
After appearing a half-dozen times as Zeglaitis, his persona, "Durte Dom," becomes defined as a drug dealer. In multiple vlogs throughout 2015, he made jokes about his phony career, with claims that he "just got back from prison" and that "drugs are the key to life."
The character was extremely important to Dobrik's vlogs, with several of his own Vlog Squad inside jokes. In the video "PAPPARAZZI!!?," a running joke that would last for years is born, as Dobrik gives Zeglaitis the chance to shout out his social-media handles, only to cut him off before the clip finishes.
2015 vlogs feature bits where Zeglaitis yells for "sluts" off his balcony, asks if the latest iPhone can test for "AIDS and Chlamydia," and shows stacks of money, while Dobrik asks if he earned it from "selling drugs."
Dobrik said in another vlog, "HE CALLED THE POLICE!!," that Zeglaitis never drank or did drugs in high school, but "the second he moved out here he completely changed."
As the drug-using persona evolved, the idea that Zeglaitis was sex-obsessed became essential to his character.
In a 2016 vlog, Dobrik asks Zeglaitis where he "sees himself in 20 years." Roommate Alex Ernst replies, "Probably knocking on his neighbor's door saying, 'Hey, I'm a sexual predator.'"
Later that year, the vlogs became extremely successful, averaging four to seven million views a video. Zeglaitis capitalized on his new brand, dying his hair and talking about marijuana in every scene. 2016's "BEDROOM CAMERA FOOTAGE!!" shows Dobrik and Ernst knocking on Zeglaitis' door. Zeglaitis appears shirtless with a "girl in his room" and says he is showing her his "birthday cards."
Like many other "Vlog Squad" moments, it's not clear whether this bit is staged or if Dobrik really walked in on his roommate for content.
As Dobrik's vlogs grew, so did Durte Dom and his brand
By late 2016, the Durte Dom persona had fully formed and Zeglaitis had created his own YouTube channel. Now equipped with bright-blonde (then pink) hair, he posted pranks and his own vlogs sometimes featuring Dobrik and other members of the Vlog Squad.
Views on the channel were consistently in the six-figure range. Zeglaitis used videos of himself kissing women - including celebrity cameo Kylie Jenner and Vlog Squad member Corinna Kopf - as clickbait, which caused view surges. He would also attempt publicity stunts, like asking his fans to pay $2,000 to take him to prom.
-DURTE DOM (@durtedom) April 1, 2017
May 2017's "WHO IS HIS NEW GIRL!!?" featured a bit where Dobrik walks into a room of two-dozen people, which Dobrik says is "all of the girls Dom has hooked up with" at UCLA. This vlog then features interviews with two women who claimed to have actually "hooked up" with Zeglaitis.
"It wasn't my choice, honestly," one says, prompting Dobrik to respond, "That's what every girl says when they hook up with Dom." Dobrik then asks the other girl "What about Dom turns you on?" and she says, "He was straight forward" and then after an editing cut says, "He just came up and did what he wanted."
While posting on his own channel, Zeglaitis still appeared in many of Dobrik's vlogs. One March 2017 video featured a room full of children in their shared apartment, as the kids chanted for Ernst to take his shirt off. Zeglaitis asked if any of their moms could come upstairs, and said that he could "out smoke" all the kids.
The channel uploaded videos frequently throughout 2017, pausing briefly in June of that year after Zeglaitis was accused of sexual misconduct by YouTuber Elijah Daniel. But by the next month, he was back to posting vlogs with Dobrik in their hometown.
Durte Dom adopted grander gestures to get into Dobrik's vlogs
In 2018 and 2019, Zeglaitis continued to make appearances.
In 2018's "CRINGEY BLINDFOLDED MAKEOUT!! (SURPRISE)" Zeglaitis is blindfolded by Dobrik and is expecting to kiss two women but at the last second, one is switched out for a man. In another vlog that has since been deleted from November, Zeglaitis has a threesome with two women. (In March 2021, one of those women came forward and told Insider that she was raped by Zeglaitis that night.)
By the time 2019 arrived, Zeglaitis was getting more inventive with his cameos. He started wearing a pink bandana, showing off his pet (named "Dirty Dog"), and continuing to push his eccentric character. In March, he put a little person in a suitcase to steal from a store, and in April, Dobrik gifted him a new iMac in a video.
In other videos, he shows off a hickey, tells Dobrik's assistant Nathalie to "shake her f---ing ass on camera and get your t--s out" and visits a weed growery.
Zeglaitis' attempts to get featured were becoming larger. He'd wear speedos for clickbait, set up a "private club" in his kitchen, and throw a massive party in his own apartment to get featured in the vlog. Honoring Dobrik became an easy way to get in the vlog - he rode a tour bus by Dobrik's house, set up staged apartment tours where they lived together, and paid a chorus line to dance outside his window.
During this time, Dobrik became more popular than ever. He made a guest cameo in the 2019 movie "Angry Birds 2," gave away cars, and partnered with major brands like EA Sports. (Many brands have since distanced themselves from Dobrik following allegations against Zeglaitis, including EA Sports.)
Zeglaitis' last cameo in the vlog - which is still up on Dobrik's channel - is from September 2019. He is asked why he always flirts with Vlog Squad member Carly Incontro. "Y'know what they say about girls when they are single, they give off more pheromones," he says in the clip.
Though Zeglaitis continues to post on his own channel, sharing an interview with Vlog Squad's Scotty Sire, the group has appeared to distance themselves from him.
"It's really cool to be a part of the Vlog Squad, such a large entity, but at the same time we have to differentiate and move past that," Zeglaitis said in a November 2019 podcast about his leave of absence from the vlogs.
Throughout 2020, Zeglaitis posted sporadically on his own YouTube channel, instead putting most of his content on TikTok where he has 2.7 million followers.
On March 22, 2021, Dobrik released a new apology video saying that he "could not wrap my head around a childhood friend doing this to people and actually hurting people" and that he "made the decision to no longer film with Dom in 2019."
Insider reached out to Zeglaitis about his past behavior on YouTube, but did not hear back at the time of publication.