Rafi Fine

With his brother, Benny, Rafi Fine created some of the better original online content for YouTube, including the wildly popular "React" series of videos and the clever, pop-culture-skewering sitcoms "MyMusic" (2012- ) and "Sing It" (2016- ). Born June 9, 1983 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, Rafi Fine began collaborating with his older brother, Benny, on short comedy projects as pre-teens, recording comedy sketches with their first video camera. Rafi earned his degree in film studies at Hunter College before reuniting with his brother for the purposes of creating a feature film. They shifted their focus to content for the Internet in 2003, believing it to be a path that would allow them greater creative freedom. Their shorts - a blend of social observation and gleeful, anarchic humor, soon began to attract an audience on their own web site and later, the social media site MySpace before launching their own channel on YouTube in 2007. The Fine Brothers experienced their first widespread success three years later with their series "Kids React," which showcased children between the ages of 4 and 14 watching and reacting to a variety of videos. The content ranged from viral videos to the Harlem Shake meme, which earned the Fine Brothers a special Emmy Award in 2012; eventually, the brothers showcased children viewing more sobering material, including the 2012 U.S. Presidential debates. The "React" series soon expanded to feature teens, parents and even other YouTube celebrities, and briefly spawned a Nickelodeon series, "React to That" (2014-2015), which the Fine Brothers developed with entertainer Nick Cannon. In 2012, Benny and Rafi launched a second YouTube channel, "MyMusic," a mockumentary-style sitcom that followed the employees at a music production company. The Fine Brothers' brand stumbled briefly in 2015 when they attempted to trademark their "React" series and them form a new channel to which content creators could upload their own versions of the programs. The decisions were met with universally negative response from YouTube viewers and creators alike, which believed that the brothers were attempting to claim credit for a concept that they did not create. The Fine Brothers rescinded their copyright plans in 2016 and removed all related videos, which spurred further online furor; against that backdrop, they debuted a new comedy series, "Sing It!" that same year. The program, which parodied television competition/reality shows, premiered on YouTube Red, a paid service of streaming original content.