Lilly Singh
Lilly Singh is a Canadian YouTuber, comedian, talk show host, writer, and actress, who initially gained fame on social media under the former pseudonym IISuperwomanII. Born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, Singh began making YouTube videos in 2010. By 2017, she was ranked tenth on the Forbes list of the world's highest paid YouTube stars, earning a reported $10.5 million; as of September 2019 she has fourteen million subscribers and over three billion video views. Singh has featured in the annual YouTube Rewind every year since 2014. Forbes named her one of the 40 most powerful people in comedy in 2019. Singh has received an MTV Fandom Award, four Streamy Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, and a People's Choice Award.
In 2016, Singh released her first film, a documentary chronicling her world tour, entitled A Trip to Unicorn Island. In March 2017, she released her first book, , which reached number one on the New York Times best-seller list. Since September 2019, Singh acts as executive producer and host of the NBC late-night talk show, A Little Late with Lilly Singh. Singh is the only openly LGBTQ+ person—being bisexual—as well as the first person of Indian descent, hosting an American major broadcast network late-night talk show. She is also a co-owner of the upcoming Los Angeles National Women's Soccer League team.
Early life
Singh was born and raised in the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario. Her parents, Malwinder Kaur and Sukhwinder Singh, emigrated from Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India, and raised her as a Sikh. She has an older sister named Tina Singh, who is also a YouTuber who makes videos about her family life with her husband and three boys. As a child, Singh has said she was a tomboy. She attended Mary Shadd Public School during her elementary years, and in 2006, she graduated from Lester B. Pearson Collegiate Institute in Toronto, where she returned as an alumna to visit her old teachers. She was a member of Girl Guides of Canada and participated in their youth programs. In 2010, she graduated from York University in Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.Career
Creating YouTube channel and rise to popularity (2010–2014)
In October 2010, Singh started a YouTube channel under the pseudonym "IISuperwomanII". She has explained that the name Superwoman was prompted by a childhood idea, making her believe she could do anything. Starting out, Singh had intended to go to graduate school as her parents had requested, but chose to make YouTube videos and decided that she would return to graduate school if her YouTube career did not progress.In December 2011, Singh created a second channel called "SuperwomanVlogs", now titled "Lilly Singh Vlogs", where she chronicles her daily activities and includes behind the scenes footage from her videos. She used it as a second channel to upload videos until August 2014, when she began uploading daily vlogs. Originally uploading daily, she now uploads several times a week. Singh appeared as a background dancer in the movies Speedy Singhs and Thank You in 2011.
In August 2013, Singh was featured alongside Jassi Sidhu in his Punjabi song Hipshaker. Singh rapped in the song Mauj Ki Malharein, which played in the Bollywood drama Gulaab Gang in August 2014. In July of the same year, she released a song titled #LEH in a collaboration with her friend, author and rapper Kanwer Singh, who is known by the pseudonym "Humble the Poet". In 2014, Singh appeared in a small role in the Canadian production Dr. Cabbie.
In 2014, her channel ranked at #39 on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels. The same year, she was nominated for a Shorty Award and a Streamy Award.
World tour, move to Los Angeles, and documentary (2015–2016)
She recorded and released another music video in February 2015 titled The Clean Up Anthem in collaboration with Canadian artist Sickick.In March 2015, Singh began a world tour called "A Trip to Unicorn Island", adapting her YouTube content and including singing, dancing, music performances, comedy, and her parent characters. Her tour covered India, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She documented the tour in her first feature movie, A Trip to Unicorn Island, which also describes how YouTube fame is affecting her life. The movie was released on February 10, 2016 on YouTube Red. She describes the film as being very "raw and genuine".
In April 2015, Singh released a song about her hometown Toronto in collaboration with Humble the Poet titled #IVIVI.
In September 2015, People magazine included Singh on their annual "Ones to Watch" list. Lilly received her first MTV Fandom Award, was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards, and won her first Streamy Award later that year.
In December 2015, she moved to Los Angeles to further her career.
In October 2016, she ranked 8th on Forbes list of World's Top-Earning YouTube Stars of 2015. She was also featured in Fast Company Magazine as the 100 Most Creative People in Business. Variety magazine recognized her as one of their 10 Comics to Watch for 2016, and she was honored at the Just For Laughs Film Festival in Montreal. In July 2016, she won two Teen Choice Awards from her three nominations.
In 2016, she voiced miniature unicorns named Bubbles and Misty in the animated film and played a cameo role in the movie Bad Moms.
On August 8, 2016, Singh released a visual music piece on YouTube, titled "Voices". The piece includes five songs portraying the "voices in her head".
Continued popularity and debut book (2017–2018)
In January 2017, she won a People's Choice Award for "Favorite YouTube Star". In September 2017, Singh won her fourth Streamy Award.Her first book, , was released on March 28, 2017. The book reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. She won the award for Best Non- Fiction at the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards. It was also shortlisted in the 2017 Non-Obvious Book Awards. Her 2017 world tour was centred around the book release and key concepts she discussed.
Singh was cast in HBO's film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 after recording an audition outside an Internet café in Melbourne, Australia. She was in the region to promote her book and rushed the audition at her agent's urging around 2 a.m. in May 2017. She plays the character of Raven, "a tabloid blogger who works with the fire department to spread the ministry's propaganda by broadcasting their book-burning raids to fans".
In November 2017, Lilly Singh was also chosen as an ambassador for Pantene shampoo and partnered with Calvin Klein. In 2018, Singh appeared in the music video for Maroon 5's "Girls Like You" featuring Cardi B.
In April 2018, Singh was to star in NBC pilot Bright Futures. The show was later cancelled by NBC and the pilot episode was left unaired.
''A Little Late with Lilly Singh'', other ventures (2019–present)
In March 2019, NBC announced that Singh would host a new late night talk show, A Little Late with Lilly Singh, which succeeded Last Call with Carson Daly following its series finale later in the year. The show premiered on September 16, 2019 to positive reviews by critics.In August 2019, Singh dropped the name "Superwoman" in a Instagram post.
Singh garnered controversy for her remarks on turbans. During a visit to Jessica Alba's home, Singh met Alba's two young daughters who were both wearing twisted towels on their heads, to which Singh responded "They look like my Punjabi friends " On September 27, 2019, BBC reported that Singh had apologised for an on-air joke that compared turbans to bath towels, in which members of the Sikh religion, who wear turbans for spiritual reasons, were angered by her remarks on NBC, with the BBC remarking that " has used her platform to often call out public figures who she says deserve to be "cancelled" for their offences."
Singh was nominated for "Audience Choice Creator of the Year" at the 9th Streamy Awards. She also was placed on Time's 100 Next, a list highlighting rising stars in different industries.
On May 13, NBC renewed A Little Late With Lilly Singh for a second season.
On May 28, Singh partnered with the video-sharing app TikTok to start creating videos on the app. She currently has over 300k followers and over 1 million likes on the app.
In July 2020, Singh announced that she and other celebrities are bringing a National Women's Soccer League team to Los Angeles. The team is expected to play in 2022.