Zach King isTikTok 's fifth most-followed star with 62.9 million followers.- His content is comedic and is made through special effects and visual illusions.
- His career spans viral success on
YouTube ,Vine , Musical.ly, and now TikTok.
Watching a Zach King video is a bit like taking a dip into another dimension, one where paintings are portals to far-reaching locales, video game car chases loop into real-life ones, and mirrors make perfect hiding places.
As TikTok's fifth-most-followed account with nearly 63 million followers, his videos regularly reach millions of viewers - but in some explosively viral instances, he's even reached into the billions, and is the creator of what appears to be TikTok's most-viewed video.
As the fifth-most-followed TikTok creator, he is only behind Bella Poarch, Addison Rae, Khaby Lame, and Charli D'Amelio. Will Smith holds the sixth-place spot with 58.9 million followers.
King's TikTok stardom builds on a decade of online virality on platforms like YouTube and the now-defunct Vine, where he built significant followings through illusionary movie magic tricks.
Here's how the filmmaker went from selling film editing tips under the moniker FinalCutKing to being one of the biggest online creators.
@zachking Never walk on someone’s #chalk #art
♬ original sound - Zach King
King got his start online after being denied admission to film school
In a 2015 documentary about King made by YouTube documentarian Zachary Fu, King said when he was denied admittance into the film program at Biola University. He turned to YouTube as a creative outlet in 2009, making a channel under the name Final Cut King and posting tutorials for Final Cut Pro, a video editing software.
In 2011, he was one of the winners of YouTube's NextUp Creators contest, receiving $35,000 to fund video production as well as mentoring, Tubefilter reported in 2011.
He started to strike viral gold on YouTube that year, most famously with a "Star Wars"-inspired series featuring kittens acting as Jedi. The original "Jedi Kittens" video has over 24 million views to date, and follow-ups like "Jedi Kittens Strike Back" or "Jedi Kitten - The Force Awakens" each have approximately 31 million views.
King found major success on Vine
King's editing savvy and mind-bending effects videos found a home on Vine, the now-defunct short-form video platform that was popular in the mid-2010s. People reported that King had over 3.4 million followers on Vine by mid-2015, and today, YouTube compilations of his best Vine videos have amassed millions of views.
During his Vine era, King's fame grew substantially. As he told Larry King in 2015, he made money through sponsorships and product placements in his Vine videos. Over the years, he's partnered with Hewlett-Packard, movies like "Fantastic Four," and Universal Orlando to create advertisement content.
After joining Musical.ly in 2016, the year that Vine shut down, his success continued when the platform eventually became TikTok.
King is known for his movie magic
Years after he began his YouTube days, King still draws viewers in with magical feats and video illusions. On TikTok, his content is typically humorous and relies on visual gags and "digital sleight of hand," as King described his style to People in 2015. Many include deeply satisfying loops, making them easy to watch again and again.
@zachking Let me know if you want me to keep posting these #behindthescenes angles
♬ original sound - Zach King
He told Digital Trends in April that while he was shooting by himself for part of the pandemic, he has a 25-person team on staff who help write and produce his videos. Now, his videos usually take about two weeks to make and he and his staff work to make two per week, he told Digital Trends.
King's career has been defined by his ability to master platforms with his particular brand of video magic. It seems likely that he'll be a fixture on whatever video app emerges next.
King did not respond to an interview request for this article.