Mark Edward Fischbach

YouTube personality Markiplier's enthusiastic reactions to various horror and action video games minted him as one of the network's popular and influential figures. Born Mark Edward Fischbach on June 28, 1989 in O'ahu, Hawaii, he and his older brother, Thomas, were raised on air force bases by his American father and Korean mother. When his father retired from military service, he moved the family to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked as an artist for a publishing company. He also introduced his sons to computers, through which Fischbach developed a fascination for home video game systems like Super Nintendo. While studying biomechanical engineering at the University of Cincinnati, he parlayed his love for video games into Markiplier, a YouTube channel which showcased him playing and commenting on various survival horror and action games. He soon garnered a following for his amusing and informative commentary, as well as his highly energized and emotional style of play: Fischbach could often be seen screaming or cursing at and even weeping over games like "Slender: The Eight Pages" (Unity, 2012), "Amnesia: The Dark Descent" (HPL Engine 2, 2010) and "Five Nights at Freddy's" (Desura, 2014), which helped to made him one of the most watched YouTube gamer personalities, with more than 15.1 million subscribers. In 2014, Fischbach relocated to Los Angeles, California to expand his resources, including a new seat on the board of the comic book publisher Red Giant Entertainment, and connect with other YouTube personalities like PewDiePie and CaptainSparklez, with whom he collaborated on several videos. The following year, he teamed with Daniel Kyre and Ryan Magee, who ran a YouTube sketch comedy channel called Cyndago, to create a series offbeat and sometimes darkly humorous videos. The exposure afforded by this new effort helped to play Fischbach at No. 6 on a survey conducted by Variety of the pop culture figures that wielded the most influence on American teenagers. By 2016, Fischbach's channel was ranked No. 21 among the YouTube channels with the highest number of subscribers.