Streamy Awards 2021: A Review of the Creator of the Year & Other Nominees

Described by TIME magazine as “the award show for the next generation” and “The Oscars of the web” by Vanity Fair, the Streamy Awards celebrates creators’ success and online videos, covering over 45 different categories. Past winners include David Dobrik, Emma Chamberlain, Casey Neistat, Marques Brownlee, MrBeast and…well, you get the picture. It’s the biggest awards ceremony for the biggest creators.

Determined by an independent judging body composed of creators, executives and other online video experts, the Streamys take place annually. In December 2021, they’ll be celebrating their 11th event – set to be attended by the world’s biggest creators, collectively commanding audiences numbering in the hundreds of millions.

In the run-up to the much-anticipated event, we thought we’d take a look at this year’s nominations – who’s tipped for Streamy Awards success?

Check out all the 2021 Streamy Awards winners.

Creator of the Year

Creator of the Year is equivalent to the Academy Award for Best Actor or Best Actress. It’s a big one. This year, there’s some fierce competition, and what’s interesting this year is just how many of the nominees made their name on TikTok and not YouTube. You’ll see many familiar nominations compared with the 2020 Streamy Awards list.

Addison Rae

 @sherinicolee ♬ Vmesh Beats Tell Em x Yeah Yeah – Varoon Ramesh

Rising to fame on TikTok in 2019 when she started posting her dance routine videos, Addison Rae has gone from strength to strength. Not only does she dance and sing, but she’s also now an actress, signing a multi-picture deal with Netflix.

Alexa Rivera

Commonly known as Lexi, Alexa Rivera is an American TikToker and YouTuber. Commanding an audience of 7m on YouTube, 19m on TikTok and 8m on Instagram, she posts mostly beauty and fashion videos with the occasional prank and gymnastic video thrown in.

Avani Gregg

 and i oop-????i had way too much fun with this???? #clowncheck #foryou #featureme #makeup ♬ Hokus Pokus – Insane Clown Posse

Having already picked up the Shorty award for TikToker of the year, Avani Gregg posts content related to beauty, fashion and makeup. Her 1st viral hit on TikTok came when she posted a transformation into a Harley Quinn clown costume. She then went on to join the Hype House alongside Charlie D’Amelio and Addison Rae.

Bella Poarch

Filipino-American Bella Poarch is responsible for creating the most liked TikTok video of all time. Not a bad claim to fame! She’s a social media personality turned singer, commanding 84.9m TikTok followers and recently signing a deal with Warner Records.

Brent Rivera

Brother of Alexa Rivera (it really runs in the family), Brent Rivera originally rose to fame on Vine! So it only makes sense that he’s found similar success on TikTok (41.4m followers), YouTube (16.7m followers) and Instagram (22.1m followers). He creates comedic vlogs that generate millions of views.

Charli D’Amelio

 dc @chuckygonwild ♬ somebodys watching me – ????

Charli D’Amelio may just be the most famous TikToker out there. She’s certainly the most followed, with more than 129M people regularly following her unique and quirky dance routines. Charlie was part of the Hype House and has gone on to build a huge social media empire with her family.

Dixie D’Amelio

 

♬ abcdefu – GAYLE

Yep, the Streamy Awards really went ahead and pitted the 2 sisters against each other. Can you imagine if one of them wins and the other doesn’t? The older sister, Dixie D’Amelio, is a huge social media star, posting similar content to Charlie, and they often collaborate across their massive TikTok, Instagram and YouTube audiences.

Dream

Dream is certainly the odd one out here. But doing things differently and being unique is the key to success on YouTube, and Dream has really achieved that with Minecraft gameplay videos garnering tens of millions of views. Having already been awarded in the Gaming category at the Streamy Awards 2020, Dream has 7 YouTube channels that have collectively reached over 36 million subscribers and over 2.5 billion views. This one’s a dark horse.

Emma Chamberlain

Having won breakout creator at the Streamy Awards 2018, Emma Chamberlain has soared to great heights over the past years with her unique style of YouTube vlogs. Alongside her audience of 11 million, she’s the queen of fashion, striking deals with some of the biggest brands out there, including Louis Vuitton. She’s been on TIME Magazine’s “The 25 Most Influential People On The Internet” for a reason.

MrBeast

MrBeast‘s nominations and Streamys go hand in hand. Is there any stopping the man? He’s consistently tearing up YouTube with his record-breaking, can’t-stop-watching videos. A mix of gaming, entertainment and philanthropy, MrBeast commands a huge YouTube audience of over 74 million, and we have no doubt that number will continue to soar. Whether he’s giving $1,000,000 of food to people in need or giving away brand new Lamborghinis, he’s on a roll, winning in this category at Streamy Awards 2020 and leading in the number of nominations this year with 7! My money is on him being the Creator of the Year.

Show of the year

30 Days With Bretman rock

A YouTube Originals series, 30 Days With is an ongoing docuseries franchise consisting of 4 episodes per subject, spanning 30 days in the lives of some of the biggest names in pop culture, sports, entertainment and YouTube. This particular series focuses on Bretman Rock surviving 30 days in the jungle.

Binging with Babish

Binging with Babish is Andrew Rea’s dream creation of combining his love of film and cooking. Every week on his YouTube channel, you’ll find him recreating the foods seen in some of our most-loved movies and TV shows.

Captain Disillusion

In a world of fake videos and misleading visuals, Captain Disillusion (Alan Melikdjanian) looks to break down and debunk those viral videos that just seemed a little too unbelievable. He focuses on critical analysis of visual effects and video editing, promoting critical thinking and skepticism for kids.

Could You Survive the Movies?

Season 2 of this incredibly popular series sees host Jake Roper taking some of our most beloved, iconic films and testing whether it’s possible to survive them. Jurassic Park, Top Gun, Harry Potter and Titanic are just a few of the scenarios that play out. It’s great fun to watch, tapping into a conversation that many people have no doubt had while watching these classics. I might be biased, but I think this is the deserved winner.

Dark History

It’s fantastic to see a podcast in the Streamy nominations, and this one really deserves it too. Professional makeup artist Bailey Sarian takes you into the world of chilling stories from around the world, uncovering the dark pasts of world history. It’s fascinating stuff.

Good Mythical Morning

Rhett and Link have been creating online for a long time now. Their long-running show Good Mythical Morning see’s them eating all kinds of things (some nice, some not so), exploring new products and trends, competing in crazy games and partaking in serious experiments. It’s a wild ride that’s proven very popular with their 17 million subscribers.

Nikita Unfiltered

A rare Streamy awards nomination for Snapchat here. Nikita Dragun is the star of her own reality show, showcasing her navigating life as a transgender woman. It streams exclusively on Snapchat and has proven a big scoop for the social media platform that’s still the favorite among teenagers.

Ryan’s World

It really is Ryan’s world! Imagine being this kid when you were growing up? Ryan basically gets to review kids’ toys on his YouTube channel, and I think it’s probably the best job you could ever have. He commands an audience of over 30 million subscribers and, no doubt plays a huge role in what’s under Christmas trees worldwide.

UNHhhh

UNHhhh is a spinoff series of RuPaul’s hugely successful Drag Race. It follows Season 7’s queens Katya Zamolodchikova and Trixie Mattel doing whatever they like, seemingly! There’s a laugh a minute, and at over 150 episodes, they’re clearly on to something good.

Verzuz

Airing on Instagram, Verzuz is an American webcast series created by record producers Timbaland and Swizz Beatz. Originally airing in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic, the first live broadcast saw Timbaland and Swizz Beatz face off in a DJ battle. To date, there have been 33 episodes, each featuring different artists facing off against each other.

Breakout Creator

Out of all the Streamy nominations out there, Breakout Creator is always a category you’ll want to watch. These nominees are the stars of tomorrow. In some cases, they’re already the next big thing. It’s an exciting list of talent for Streamy Awards 2021.

Bella Poarch

Having already been nominated for Creator of Year, you’d easily forget that Bella Poarch is relatively new on the scene. Her career trajectory has really rocketed in a very short space of time. It’s impressive. Is it possible she’ll win both?

Karl Jacobs

Twitch gamer Karl Jacobs has risen to fame on the popular streaming platform and has already collaborated with MrBeast in some of his notorious challenge videos (he was originally a cameraman for the channel) and with Minecraft player Dream. One to watch.

Quenlin Blackwell

I LOVE THIS AUDIO

♬ Basbousa song – المايسترو محمد الشيخ

First shooting to fame on Vine, Quenlin is back with a bang, regularly posting comedy, beauty and fashion content across her TikTok, Instagram and YouTube channels.

Stokes Twins

 She thought she was alone ???? ???? @kathleenhixson ♬ original sound – Stokes Twins

With more than 10 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 31 million followers on TikTok, the Stokes Twins have hit the big time with their comedic vlogs and prank videos.

Tinx

Works everytime ????

♬ original sound – Wonders of Magic

At 30 years old, Tinx has been described as “TikTok’s big sister.” She certainly lies outside of the normal parameters of TikTok fame, but remember, the key to success is being different and unique! With an ever-growing audience, she covers pithy pop-culture commentary, daily vlogs and beauty routines.

Other Streamy nominations categories and awards

What you’ve read above is just a small snippet of Streamy nominations. Streamy Awards 2021 is home to 45 different awards categories! If you’d like to view them all, you can do so on the Streamy Awards website.

Some popular mentions include Van Neistat for his editing (one of our favorite YouTubers and master of the 3-act structure), Becki and Chris for their impeccable cinematography and Marques Brownlee for technology because who else!

To be recognized at the Streamys is the pinnacle for any YouTube video creator. So if you’re finding your style and looking to become a content creator, you’ll want to be paying attention to the winners of the Streamy Awards 2021 come December. We’re still waiting on an exact date, but we can’t wait!