| Intro | American vlogger & comedienne |
| A.K.A. | Gabrielle Jeannette Hanna, Gabrielle Hanna |
| Is |
Video blogger Internet personality YouTuber Singer |
| From | United States of America |
| Type |
Internet Music |
| Gender | female |
| Birth | 7 February 1991, New Castle |
| Age: | 29 years |
Gabrielle Jeannette Hanna (born February 7, 1991) is an American Internet personality, author, comedian, actress, and singer-songwriter. She started her career on the streaming service Vine, under the name The Gabbie Show, then started a YouTube channel with the same name a year later; both were nominated for several awards. She won a Streamy Award for storyteller in 2018. Hanna released a poetry book titled Adultolescence in September 2017. She ventured into the music industry with her debut single “Out Loud” (2017) and has released seven singles and one promotional single as of 2019. Hanna’s debut studio album This Time Next Year is scheduled for release in 2019. As an actress, Hanna’s first major role was in the YouTube Premium series Escape the Night.
Early life
Hanna was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania. She has six siblings and is of Lebanese, French, and Polish descent. Her first job was cashier at a local Pizza Joe’s in her home town. Hanna graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in psychology and communications and was a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. Hanna worked as a bartender in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and as a waitress in her home town of New Castle. After college she worked for a marketing company that sold products out of a Sam’s Club; she quickly became the top salesperson in the US for the company and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to help start a new branch of the company. However, she soon departed after realizing that they relied on a pyramid scheme. Hanna subsequently moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue an acting career and focus on her role as a social media influencer.
Career
2013–2016: Vine and YouTube success
Hanna began uploading skits to Vine in late 2013 and later gained recognition for her activity on the Vine app where she accumulated around five million followers. In 2014, she set up a YouTube channel under the name The Gabbie Show, which was later changed to Gabbie Hanna. The channel featured story time videos and by 2018 had acquired nearly 6.5 million subscribers and over 900 million views. In 2015, Hanna and partner Matt Steffanina won the fourth season of the dance competition web-series Dance Showdown. After graduating college, Hanna moved to Los Angeles, California, to work with internet media company BuzzFeed, but eventually left to focus on her YouTube and Vine platforms. She later created a second YouTube channel, The Gabbie Vlogs, which has gained over 1.6 million subscribers and nearly 180 million views. After Vine shut down in 2016, Hanna focused on YouTube. Meanwhile, she was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards—Choice Web Star: Female and Choice Viner. In late 2016, Hanna joined the lip sync tour Drop the Mic alongside other YouTubers.
2017–present: Acting, music, and Adultolescence
Hanna chronicled her life struggles in a book of poems, Adultolescence (2017). During the same time, she premiered her debut single “Out Loud” along with its music video and announced plans to release an album. A few months later, Talent Agency CAA signed Hanna and she joined the social media team of MTV. She hosted backstage for the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards and co-hosted the revival of Total Request Live in October of the same year. In 2017, Hanna joined the main cast of web series Escape the Night as the vaudevillian and appeared in seven episodes. She previously had had a small role as Lindsey in Laid in America.
In January 2018, Hanna was nominated for YouTuber of the Year at the 10th Annual Shorty Awards and for the Social Star Award by iHeartRadio at the 2018 ceremony. Returning to her music career, Hanna released a promotional single entitled “Roast Yourself” which spoke about how social media creators live. This was followed by her third single “Honestly” and its encore “Honestly (Encore)”. “Honestly” gained minor success in the United States, where it peaked at number 21 on Billboard‘s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. Hanna eventually announced that her upcoming debut album was to be titled This Time Next Year, for which she also released “Monster” and “Monster (Reborn)” in October. At the 8th Annual Streamy Awards, Hanna won the award for Storyteller; she was also nominated for two other awards for First Person and Audience Choice: Creator of the Year. In an interview with Tom Ward on November 26, 2018, Hanna stated that her album would be released 2019. and that she had plans for a second book. On December 5, 2018, Hanna released her first merchandise line on Amazon.
In early December 2018, Hanna became the center of a trending viral meme. Earlier that year in an interview with Genius Verified, she sang her song “Monster” a cappella but due to technical errors, the microphone was unable to filter her voice correctly. Fans spliced in clips, including vines and voice distortions, at the point of technical error to create a meme that gained significant media coverage. Hanna has since released merchandise showcasing her singing face during the meme, which was met with mixed reviews. As of December 2018, Hanna is working on a second album.
Personal life
In early 2018, Hanna began semi-publicly dating a man who fans dubbed the “mystery man”. He often appeared in her Vlogs and Instagram Stories with his face blurred out or covered by an emoji. On July 4, 2018, Hanna released a lengthy video about a pathological liar she dated and confirmed that it was the Instagram mystery man. In an interview with Genius Verified, Hanna said that the mystery man was the inspiration for her song “Honestly”. Hanna has openly discussed her struggles with depression, eating disorders, C-PTSD, and body dysmorphia. In an interview with Adam Grandmaison, she stated she was raised Catholic and believes in God, but does not agree with some of the Catholic stances on topics such as homosexuality and sex before marriage. In September 2018, Hanna published a YouTube video in which she expressed her belief that her deceased great-grandmother communicates with her through a medium. Hanna again made mention of this belief in an interview with Megan Batoon in the following month, in which she also discussed her views on the possibility of reincarnation and enlightenment.
Filmography
Film, television and web series
| Year | Film / Show / Web | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Access Hollywood | Herself | 1 episode |
| 2014–15 | Sanders Shorts | Friend, girlfriend | 2 episodes |
| 2015 | Anxt | Herself | Full series |
| Teens Wanna Know | Herself | 1 episode | |
| Dance Showdown | Herself | Dancer; won the competition | |
| Occupy Alice | Melissa Krass | Short film | |
| Oscar’s Hotel for Fantastical Creatures | Snow Pea | 1 episode | |
| Janoskians: Untold and Untrue | Herself | ||
| 2016 | Laid in America | Lindsey | |
| Dance Showdown | Herself | Judge (6 episodes) | |
| AwesomenessTV’s Betch! | Laura | 1 episode | |
| Verizon advertisement | Herself | Commercial | |
| 2017 | Escape the Night | The Vaudevillian | 7 episodes (season 2) |
| Fantasies | Herself | Guest star (1 episode) | |
| MTV Video Music Awards | Herself | Backstage host | |
| Smosh’s You Posted That? | Herself | Contestant (1 episode) | |
| Romeo Lacoste’s Tattoo Roulette | Herself | Special sssistant to the host (1 episode) | |
| 2017– | MTV’s Total Request Live | Herself | Rotating co-host |
| 2018 | Escape the Night | The Vaudevillian | Season 3 season finale (flashback clip) |
| Shane Dawson’s The Truth About TanaCon | Herself | Miniseries. Cameo in a clip in part 3, “The Real Truth About TanaCon” | |
| MTV’s The Vault | Herself | Guest (3 episodes, season 1) | |
| MTV’s Creator to Watch | Herself | Special guest (1 episode, season 3). Responsible for choosing the season 3 host, Megan Batoon |
Podcasts
| Year | Podcast | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Jenna & Julien | Guest |
| Modern Male Radio | ||
| What’s Trending | ||
| Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig | ||
| 2016 | Shane & Friends | |
| Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig | ||
| 2017 | Zall Good | |
| Apologies in Advance with Andrea Russett | ||
| Shane & Friends | ||
| Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig | ||
| 2018 | Dear DeMartino | |
| Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show | ||
| No Jumper | ||
| Beats 1 interview with Travis Mills | ||
| Under the Influence with Tom Ward | ||
| Heard Well | ||
| Headgum’s Just a Tip with Megan Batoon | ||
| 2019 | ADHD with Travis Mills | |
| How’d You Do It? |
Discography
Studio albums
| Title | Album details |
|---|---|
| This Time Next Year |
|
Singles
As lead artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Digital |
AUS | CAN Digital |
NZ | SCO | UK Down. |
|||
| “Out Loud” | 2017 | — | 30 | — | 39 | — | 47 | 60 | This Time Next Year |
| “Satellite” | — | — | — | — | — | 65 | — | ||
| “Honestly” | 2018 | — | 10 | — | 24 | — | 61 | 81 | |
| “Honestly (Encore)” | — | — | — | — | — | 86 | — | ||
| “Monster” | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| “Monster (Reborn)” | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| “Medicate” | 2019 | — | 31 | — | — | — | 80 | 97 | |
| “—” denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||
Promotional singles
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Comedy Digital |
US Rap Digital |
|||
| “Roast Yourself (Harder)” | 2018 | 1 | 19 | Non-album single |
Videography
| Title | Year | Artist(s) | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Sad Song” | 2017 | Scotty Sire | 80Fitz |
| “Out Loud” (Lyric Video) |
Gabbie Hanna | ||
| “My Life Sucks” | Scotty Sire | 80Fitz | |
| “Out Loud” | Gabbie Hanna | ||
| “Satellite” | |||
| “Roast Yourself (Harder)” | 2018 | Gabbie Hanna | Peter Macaluso |
| “Honestly / Honestly (Encore)” | Ryan Parma | ||
| “Monster / Monster (Reborn)” | |||
| “Monster / Monster (Reborn)” (Lyric Video) |
|||
| “Freaky Friday (Parody)” | Lilly Singh and James Charles | Lilly Singh | |
| “Medicate” | 2019 | Gabbie Hanna | |
| “Gateway” | Elli Moore | Nayip Ramos | |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Shorty Awards | YouTube Comedian | The Gabbie Show | Nominated | |
| Teen Choice Awards | Choice Web Star: Female | ||||
| Choice Viner | |||||
| 2017 | Shorty Awards | Vlogger of the Year | The Gabbie Vlogs | ||
| 2018 | iHeartRadio Music Awards | Social Star Award | Gabbie Hanna | ||
| Shorty Awards | YouTuber of the Year | ||||
| Best YouTube Ensemble | Vlog Squad | Won | |||
| Streamy Awards | Creator of the Year | Gabbie Hanna | Nominated | ||
| First Person | |||||
| Storyteller | Won | ||||
| Ensemble Cast | David’s Vlog |