Grace Anne Helbig (born September 27, 1985 [Age 33]) is a self-made YouTube star and has transcended into the podcast world. She dabbles in many niches, including writing, acting, and hosting TV shows. However, she spends most of her time honing her brand and connecting with her followers.
Grace Helbig Beginnings
The future star graduated from Ramapo College in 2003. During her time in college, Grace worked on her improv. She started a troupe called Baked Goods along with her bestie, Michelle Akin. Helbig earned a Bachelor of Arts in Digital Filmmaking; a skillset should we put to good use over the next five years.
In 2007, Gracie helped support her income by babysitting. She started posting a daily vlog on YouTube under the title, GracieHInABox. Bit by the YouTube bug, Grace enlisted the help of Michelle to start the Grace n’ Michelle YouTube channel. They would post content from 2008 until 2013.
Birth of The Daily Grace
While she was garnering a small following with the Grace n’ Michelle channel, Helbig knew she had to diversify her portfolio. She took a number of hosting gigs and entertainment opportunities. One, in particular, paid off big for Helbig, as she was cast as a voiceover artist for the short-lived series, Bedtime Stories on My Damn Channel. While Grace’s time with that show wasn’t for long, the CEO of My Damn Channel saw star potential in Helbig.
From 2008, The Daily Grace posted weekly content on My Damn Channel. From there, Grace’s popularity skyrocketed. In 2010, The Daily Grace started its own YouTube channel. The channel pulled in huge numbers, topping over 2.4 million subscribers and 211 million views.
Following the success of the channel, My Damn Network experimented with supplemental content featuring Helbig when they launched One Thing You Didn’t Know About Me From Last Week. This series only lasted five weeks. Helbig didn’t last much longer.
In 2013, the star decided not to renew a multi-year contract with My Damn Channel. The content provider released a statement indicating The Daily Grace would be archived and repackaged content would be released sporadically. However, the channel is no longer available on YouTube, and Grace Helbig has moved on.
Rise of It’sGrace Channel
After her departure from My Damn Channel, Grace resuscitated her GracieHInABox channel. However, she renamed it ItsGrace and hasn’t looked back since. This controversial move caused a massive influx of viewers to her page. Within a week, she had half a million new followers to what was once almost a ghost channel. Nearly two years to the date of her page relaunch, Helbig passed the two million mark.
In April 2014, Grace entered a multi-year partnership with Fullscreen media company. Their multi-channel network won the right to stream exclusive Helbig content. She hit a career milestone on August 22, 2016. ItsGrace topped the three million subscriber number. That means the channel surpassed The Daily Grace channel through the My Damn Channel network that put the star on the map.
Partnership with Mamrie Hart
A huge part of Grace’s success can be accredited to her partner-in-crime, Mamrie Hart. The two were first partnered up for a travel show on the Astronauts Wanted YouTube channel. The show was called #HeyUSA.
In the first season, Hart and Helbig visited hot spots for the summer. They got renewed for a second season. This time around, Helbig stayed in the studio. She would throw to footage of Hart traveling around the globe with the likes of Tyler Oakley, Jenna Marbles, and Colleen Ballinger.
Shortly after, Helbig and Fullscreen split ways. Immediately, the star signed on with content creators, Studio71. Under the Studio71 partnership, Grace was reunited with Hart. The twosome kickstarted a new YouTube channel and show called, This Might Get… The pop culture show focuses on everything from current issues to trends and memes.
In late 2018, This Might Get… was canceled. However, Mamrie and Grace continued to create content together as they launched the podcast This Might Get Weird. New episodes release every Wednesday on Soundcloud and iTunes.
Grace Helbig Outside of YouTube
While YouTube is her bread-and-butter, Grace Helbig has branched out. She had a short-lived E! talk series known as The Grace Helbig Show. Unfortunately for Grace, this 2015 series only lasted eight episodes.
Helbig also has quite an established podcast career. Before venturing into This Might Get Weird, Grace was one of the first podcasters to make it when Not Too Deep launched in 2014. It debuted at #1 on the iTunes charts.
When she signed on with Fullscreen, the podcast was broadcasted in both audio and video format. In 2017, Fullscreen shut down its video service. Their last video content was a Not Too Deep. Audio versions of the podcast would continue to air. In 2018, Grace decided to upload the videos to her ItsGrace channel instead.
