Grace Helbig
Grace Anne Helbig is an American comedian, actress, and internet personality. She is the co-creator and co-host of the podcast This Might Get Weird alongside frequent collaborator Mamrie Hart and is the voice of Cindy Bear in the Max animated series Jellystone!.
Helbig created and hosted the My Damn Channel web series DailyGrace. She was a correspondent on the G4 network tech series Attack of the Show!, played Idol on the Fine Brothers' web series MyMusic, and co-produced and starred in the feature films Camp Takota, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl and Dirty 30. She created and hosted the comedy/talk show on the E! television network The Grace Helbig Show.
She has authored two comedic handbooks for Millennials: Grace's Guide: The Art of Pretending to Be a Grown-up and Grace & Style: The Art of Pretending You Have It.
Early life
Helbig has an older brother and a younger brother. She attended Gateway Regional High School in Woodbury Heights, New Jersey. She was a successful track star and medal-winning pole-vaulter.In 2003, Helbig began studying at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey, and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in digital filmmaking from Ramapo's School of Contemporary Arts. It was there that she formed a sketch comedy group called Baked Goods with her best friend, Michelle Akin. She took improv classes at the Peoples Improv Theater in New York City. In 2005, she entered the Miss New Jersey USA pageant competition, reaching the semi-finals.
YouTube and other web video
Content creator
In November 2007, Helbig house-sat for a family in South Orange, New Jersey. To alleviate boredom and keep herself entertained, she began a daily vlog of her house sitting experience on her personal YouTube channel GracieHInABox. Beginning March 2008, Helbig and her college roommate Michelle Akin created the Grace n' Michelle YouTube channel. The most recent video on this channel was uploaded on October 25, 2013, when Helbig visited Akin in Brooklyn.In early 2008, Helbig narrated the short-lived animated web series, Bedtime Stories on My Damn Channel, which consisted of R-rated parodies of classic fairy tales. My Damn Channel founder and CEO Rob Barnett discovered her personal vlogs through her profile and offered her the opportunity to host her own video blog web series on the My Damn Channel website. This became DailyGrace, which premiered on April 14, 2008, with new episodes published every weekday. On October 11, 2010, DailyGrace was launched as its own YouTube channel. By the end of December 2013, the channel had amassed over 2.4 million subscribers and over 211 million video views on YouTube. From the series' inception in April 2008 through December 2013, Helbig created over 830 DailyGrace episodes for the DailyGrace YouTube channel—in addition to the 690 DailyGrace episodes that had been published exclusively on the My Damn Channel website.
From March 2012 through January 2013, Helbig hosted My Damn Channel LIVE once a week from the company's New York City studio. In November 2013, the series was revived in a weekly format as My Damn Channel LIVE: Hangout, with Helbig making a few appearances via video chat from the Los Angeles studio.
On September 13, 2013, Helbig premiered her weekly web series Grace's Faces on beauty guru Bobbi Brown's newly created YouTube channel I love makeup. The series lasted twenty-four episodes and ended March 7, 2014.
On November 4, 2013, Helbig premiered a weekly supplemental DailyGrace series exclusive to the My Damn Channel website entitled One Thing You Didn't Know About Me From Last Week. The series lasted five episodes and ended December 2, 2013.
On December 27, 2013, Helbig uploaded her final DailyGrace episode to the DailyGrace YouTube channel. Four days later, My Damn Channel released a statement announcing that Helbig had chosen not to renew her multi-year contract with the network, and that going forward, no new content would be created by Helbig for the DailyGrace YouTube channel. My Damn Channel indicated that the DailyGrace YouTube channel would remain active solely as an archive, with plans for the network to upload the early DailyGrace episodes and other Helbig content that had formerly been exclusive to the My Damn Channel website.
On January 6, 2014, Helbig relaunched her personally owned, formerly secondary channel it'sGrace as her main YouTube channel. News of Helbig's departure from My Damn Channel and the shift back to her own independent channel contributed to a dramatic increase in it'sGrace subscribers, from just under 87,000 in the last week of 2013 to over a half million by the first week of 2014. On January 22, 2014, just two and a half weeks after the channel's relaunch, it'sGrace passed 1 million subscribers. On April 30, 2014, it was announced via press release that Helbig had partnered with multi-channel network Fullscreen. On December 30, 2014, just one week shy of the one-year anniversary of the channel's relaunch, it'sGrace passed 2 million subscribers. On August 22, 2016, it'sGrace passed 3 million subscribers, surpassing her DailyGrace channel peak. As of August 2021, Helbig's YouTube channel has 2.65 million subscribers and over 331 million video views.
On July 1, 2014, Helbig and co-host Mamrie Hart premiered preview footage of their summer travel-themed web series #HeyUSA on the Astronauts Wanted YouTube channel. Eight full-length episodes premiered on Conde Nast Entertainment's digital video platform The Scene on October 15, 2014. A second season of #HeyUSA premiered on The Scene on April 16, 2015, albeit without Helbig as Hart's travel partner. Instead, Helbig introduced each episode and announced the location she chose for Hart and guest travel companions Kingsley, Tyler Oakley, Jenna Marbles, Colleen Ballinger, and Flula Borg.
On March 31, 2016, in conjunction with AT&T Hello Lab, Helbig premiered a new series Writing With Grace on her YouTube channel, in which she instructed viewers to collaborate with her via Wattpad to co-write a novella called "Freak Week". Helbig, along with other fellow YouTube personalities, held a live reading of the completed novella at VidCon on June 24, 2016.
On November 15, 2017, it was announced via press release that Helbig had left Fullscreen and partnered with multi-channel network Studio71.
Starting on March 5, 2018, Helbig and Mamrie Hart began hosting a new YouTube show together called This Might Get... on a dedicated channel of the same name. Each episode had a different title, with the premiere being called "This Might Get Started", and focuses on a different topic, meme, or pop culture event. It is executive produced by Michael Goldfine, who worked with the on-screen duo on Camp Takota and Dirty 30. Hart and Helbig published their 100th episode of This Might Get... on July 20, 2018, entitled "Making Slime Fail!". The series announced its beginnings on October 12, 2018.
Beginning October 22, 2019, Helbig hosted Studio71's eight episode Facebook Watch web series Ladies First.
Actress
In 2009, Helbig appeared as the character of Barbie in the music video "Barbie Eat a Sandwich" by the band Care Bears on Fire.In 2012, during the inaugural IAWTV Awards, Helbig met with the Fine Brothers. The two still needed to cast someone to play the role of Idol for their new web series MyMusic and during their meeting, they offered her the role. Helbig flew out to Los Angeles the next week to shoot the first season. Helbig subsequently appeared in the first seven episodes of the series' second season.
In July 2013, in the last three episodes of Season 2 Part 2 of the hit web series The Most Popular Girls in School, Helbig voiced Jeannie Halverstad, the abrasive show host of Cheer Nationals. In March 2014, Helbig voiced a different character, Pamela Darabond, in three Season 3 episodes.
In May and June 2014, Helbig appeared as Anna in two episodes of the second season of the musical web series Side Effects on the AwesomenessTV YouTube channel.
On November 17, 2014, Helbig and Hannah Hart appeared as Juliet and Bonnie Parker respectively in the Epic Rap Battles of History Season 4 episode Romeo and Juliet vs. Bonnie and Clyde.
On February 26, 2015, it was announced via various media outlets that Helbig would be co-starring with Hannah Hart in a reboot of the 1970s Sid and Marty Krofft live action science fiction television series Electra Woman and Dyna Girl. The reboot, directed by Chris Marrs Piliero, was shot in Vancouver during February and March 2015. The official trailer was released on March 29, 2016. The reboot was released on April 26, 2016, as an 8-episode web series on Fullscreen's subscription platform. It was released as a full-length feature film via various digital media outlets on June 7, 2016.
On August 6, 2015, Helbig was featured in a series of online commercials for Marriott Hotels & Resorts for the company's "It Pays to Book Direct" ad campaign.
On October 6, 2015, Helbig appeared in the fourth episode of PJ Liguori's web series Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures where she portrays the anthropomorphic hermit crab called Hermit. The six-episode series launched exclusively on Vimeo's on-demand service.
Beginning September 21, 2019, Helbig appeared as animal expert Annalise in the eight episode Comedy Central Facebook Watch web series Beast to Beauty.
She voiced Cindy Bear, Yappee, Taffy and Granny Sweet in the HBO Max animated series ''Jellystone!''
Television
Helbig has appeared in numerous commercials, as well as appeared as herself on various television shows and talk shows. She was first featured as Green Girl in a series of public service announcements for The N's The Big Green Help environmental awareness campaign from 2008 to 2009.On January 5, 2015, it was announced via press release that Helbig would star in a hybrid comedy/talk show for E!, titled The Grace Helbig Show. In preparation for the show, Helbig was interviewed live via satellite on multiple local television news broadcasts across the United States on March 27, 2015. The Grace Helbig Show premiered on April 3, 2015. The series lasted eight episodes and ended June 7, 2015.