Who is Roman Atwood?
Roman Atwood is an American prankster and influencer who is active on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other social platforms. His whole name is Roman Bernard Atwood, and he was born on 28th May 1983 in Millersport, Ohio, United States. He is known for posting various pranks and challenges on his social media.
Early life of Roman Atwood
Roman grew up in Ohio alongside his parents: Curt Dale Atwood and Susan Atwood. Filming videos became Roman’s greatest passion since he talked his parents into buying him a new camera. His earliest output included mostly funny jokes and records of people in amusing daily situations. Roman first showed his talent to the world in 2006 on Warped Tour. He came prepared with his own DVDs, which included a series called The Nerd Herd, produced and filmed by Roman alone. His other creative output included working on Tv commercials and short sketches in Columbus City, where he hoped to make a career.
Education of Roman Atwood
Before even thinking about turning his passion into a career, Roman had his future lined up in front of him. Since his parents ran a successful company, Roman was supposed to follow in their footsteps and take his place at Atwood Rope, his family’s rope factory. Since he counted on this future, Roman began studying engineering at Ohio University, which was supposed to prepare him for working in his parent’s field. In 2008, Roman began working at Atwood Rope to get used to it in advance. Even though his studies went well and his job even better, Roman didn’t feel satisfied. Between his own production and occasional gigs in Columbus, Roman felt like a position at Atwood Rope wasn’t his future dream.
Personal life of Roman Atwood
Roman and his first wife, Shanna Riley, met long before he even thought about building a social media career. After years of dating, the two tied the knot in 2001 and immediately began building their lives together. Just three years later, in 2004, Roman welcomed his first son, Noah Vaughn Atwood, to this world. While Roman felt like his life was on the right track, his wife didn’t feel the same. In 2008 when she was on vacation, she cheated on Roman with a friend. Even though she regretted her decision, Roman filed divorce papers as soon as he found out.
Luckily, Roman found happiness once again in 2008 when he met his future second wife. He met Brittney Smith at his friend’s wedding and immediately fell in love with her. Since they were both hesitant about getting married, Brittney and Roman lived together without a certificate for several years. They finally decided to get married in 2018 when they were both ready. While they were living together, Brittney gave birth to second and third Roman children. His second son, Kane Alexander Atwood, was born in 2011, and his first daughter, Cora Atwood, was born in 2017. In 2020, Brittney and Roman posted on social media that they were expecting a fourth child. Just a few months later, Knox Atwood was born into the Atwood-Smith family.
Roman Atwood on YouTube
Roman made his social media debut in 2009 when he created his YouTube channel, previously called Sketch Empire. At the time, Roman was still attending Ohio University and decided to film a few videos just for fun. His channel was oriented on pranks since the very beginning, based on his first ever YouTube video called Epic Cooler Prank. In the said video, Roman and his friend decided to pull a prank on his other roommate by placing a cooler full of water behind his room’s door. Once the friend opened the door, the water spilt all over him, creating a funny scene. After posting the video on YouTube, Roman noticed that people were cheering on him, asking him for more pranks. Roman was so amused by the reaction that he decided to quit studying and focus solely on his YouTube career.
Roman’s channel went viral in 2011 when he was already more confident about his pranks. He posted a video called Cops Get Owned!!!, where he and his friend pretended to fight each other on the street next to a group of police officers. Once the officers noticed them and decided to calm the situation, Roman and his friend turned on the police officers with water balloons and water guns. After capturing the prank on video, Roman and his friend ran away. Once the video was posted, it went viral and collected over a million views. But while it made Roman more known, it also caused him some trouble, as people didn’t approve of his behaviour towards law enforcement. Weeks after the video was posted, Roman had to film an apology, explaining his poor judgement.
Roman Atwood – Popular videos
Roman’s YouTube channel quickly became known for his comedic and sometimes outrageous pranks, whether they were pulled on by his friends or complete strangers. Roman’s pranks included a wide range of situations, starting with fake spiders and ending with murder mysteries. His most popular video is Anniversary Prank Backfires!!, with over 93 million views. While people seemed to love Roman’s pranks about cheating and murders, his family’s videos were just as popular. Because of that, Roman quickly began sharing the spotlight with his family, especially his kids.
One of Roman’s most popular creations was a movie called Natural Born Pranksters, featuring Vitaly Zdorovetskiy and Dennis Roady. Roman thought of creating the movie because he was tired of pulling pranks on his kids and wife, who often predicted it. He asked fellow pranksters, Dennis and Vitaly, to go on a creative trip with him. Once they agreed, the trio began travelling the country, looking like normal three friends on vacation together. Without other people knowing, the trio thought of several pranks, which they pulled on unsuspecting people.
What happened to Roman Atwood?
Being a popular prankster on YouTube came with several advantages and disadvantages for Roman. Since he built so a huge following, he knew that he could use his influence for good. To use his platform for the right cause, Roman promoted various social causes, for example, suicide awareness and mental health awareness. To push this agenda even more, Roman founded the Smile More line, which sold his own merchandise while helping to raise awareness about the difficult stuff and to spread happiness instead. The idea grew really fast and became a high-selling company in just a few years. On the other hand, Roman’s platform received a lot of criticism as well. On several prank videos, people commented that the pranks weren’t funny but possibly traumatising, especially for kids.
In 2019, Roman posted a video on New Year’s Eve and then went silent for several months. Since he didn’t announce that he would be taking a break, his fans began thinking of any possible cause, some being quite extreme. Roman came back to his platform in August but didn’t reveal the cause of his absence. Three years after his absence, Roman finally revealed that his absence was caused by the FBI, which was a piece of information no one expected. Roman later explained that he and his family were followed by a stalker, and the FBI advised them to leave social media until they caught the stalker. Roman and his family returned to social media only once they knew they were safe.
Roman Atwood Vlogs
Once he became popular on YouTube, people thought that Roman would stick to his thing. But even though he collected over 10 million subscribers, Roman decided to leave his channel and stop posting. On the other hand, Roman became more active on his second channel called Roman Atwood Vlogs. While the decision to leave pranks and start vlogging might seem crazy, Roman showed the world that he knew what he was doing. After all, pranks began becoming less and less popular over the years, and Roman couldn’t afford to go down with them. Instead, he began filming daily vlogs with his family, which became surprisingly popular. In just a couple of years, Roman’s second channel collected over 15 million subscribers.
How much does Roman Atwood earn? Net worth
As of 2023, his net worth is estimated to be between 14 and 18 million US dollars. While Roman’s YouTube presence earns him a lot of views and money, it could never result in such richness. Roman’s main income is his merch store, which grows on its own. The Smile More store grew into a large company, selling thousands of products for millions of dollars every year.
Interesting facts about Roman Atwood
- As of 2023, he is 39 years old.
- His zodiac sign is Gemini.
- His height is 5’8’’ or 173 cm.
- He studied engineering at Ohio University before dropping out to pursue a YouTube career.
- He briefly worked at Atwood Rope, which was his parent’s rope factory.
- He created his YouTube channel in 2009, initially under the name Sketch Empire.
- He filmed a movie called Natural Born Pranksters, featuring Vitaly Zdorovetskiy and Dennis Roady, in 2016.
- He has over 10,2 million subscribers on his main channel and over 15 million subscribers on his second vlog channel.
- His most popular video is Anniversary Prank Backfires!!, with over 93 million views.
- In 2019, Roman, alongside his family, vanished from social media for half a year because of the FBI, who was chasing the Atwood family stalker.
- He created his own merchandise store called Smile More in 2013 to spread happiness.
- As of 2023, his net worth is estimated to be between 14 and 18 million US dollars.
