This year marks the 4th Annual Streamy Awards. For YouTube fanatics like myself this is the equivalent of the Emmys for me! For those not familiar The Streamys recognize excellence in videos and social media platforms in just under 50 categories. Ranging from the daily vlogs, cooking shows, music videos and web series, these are some of the most influential figures in online media today.
Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart really shone as the first women to host the Streamys. They highlighted that 2014 was a big year for the female YouTubers and Social Media celebrities such as Jenna Marbles, and Michelle Phan and even Hart herself, taking an award for “My Drunk Kitchen” for the second year in a row. One of the most amazing speeches was from teen fashion icon Mota, “I always felt like I never had a voice my entire life, and YouTube gave me that voice.”
Overall the awards were well spread out with a big variety of winners, there were some nominees taking more than one award though with Tyler Oakley, who has over 5 million subscribers, being the big winner. Tyler took both an ICON award for his work with The Trevor Project and an audience choice – entertainer of the year. Ashley Clements took away two awards as well with her show “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” getting Drama and a breakout role award.
There was also a moment of tribute to Joan Rivers who passed away recently. Last year Joan Rivers started her own YouTube channel after a storied career called “In Bed with Joan” where she would spent tume with bet with YouTubers such as iJustine, Jenna Marbles, Grace Helbig and Tyler Oakley. This was the evenings most somber moment, particularly so considering the Streamys are only in their fourth year so it was not expected to have an in memorium section.
The entertainment really brought down the house this year. While YouTube artists like Pentatonix and Postmodern Jukebox wowed the crowd the evening closed with a dance along to Starship, the 1970’s group, which are now a duo performed amazing numbers which featured cameos from various YouTube singers.
This year saw the Streamy’s reach a level of maturity that wasn’t seen in previous years with there being more focus on digital only talent as opposed to the gap between the digital and the mainstream. YouTube and Vine stars have a standing now as celebrities. It is refreshing to see this level of recognition for people who really work hard to create and produce unique and outstanding material.
Below are a list of some of the winners. The full list can be found on the Streamy website, while more clips can be found on their YouTube Channel here
Audience Choice
Entertainer of the Year – Tyler Oakley
Show of the Year – EnchufeTV
Viner of the Year – Brittany Furlan
Best Action or Sci-Fi (Channel, Show or Series) – Video Game High School
Best Beauty (Channel, Show or Series) – Missglamorazzi
Best Fashion (Channel, Show or Series) – Bethany Mota
Best Ensemble Cast –Josh Blaylock, Johanna Braddy, Brian Firenzi, Ellary Porterfield, Cynthia Watros, Jimmy Wong, Freddie Wong, Harley Morenstein, Brennan Murray, and Joey Scoma, Video Game High School
Best Gaming (Channel, Show or Series) – Smosh Games
Best Kids and Family (Channel, Show or Series) – Kids React
Best Comedy (Channel, Show or Series) – My Drunk Kitchen
Best Drama (Channel, Show or Series) – The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Best First Person (Channel, Show or Series) – Jenna Marbles
Best Original Song – Whistle While I Work It, Chester See
Best News and Current Events (Channel, Show or Series) – SourceFed
