Marques Brownlee, 23, Maplewood, NJ
Tech Reviewer & YouTube Star
One can arguably say that there aren't many people in tech like Marques Brownlee. If you factor in that he's 23, Black and basically spends his days testing really cool technology and showcasing his findings on YouTube, that disparity is a little more self-evident.
Our NBCBLK28 recipient has an uncanny knack for shedding light on what he calls "dope tech." You can tell he knows his stuff, but he also breaks down the specifications of the products in a very conversational manner that's easy to digest.
Affable yet informative. Armed with more than 4 million YouTube subscribers and an alias fit for a Terminator villain, it's no wonder as to how menacing the digital grind is for the New Jersey native known online simply as MKBHD. He's not actually a Schwarzenegger adversary—MKB are the initials for his first, middle, and last name. The HD stands for high-definition.
Brownlee, a seasoned tech professional who started making tech videos in high school, now boasts more than 883 videos on his channel. Those videos have amassed more than 200 million views. High-definition, indeed.
CHECK OUT THE FULL LIST OF THE #NBCBLK28 HERE!
Outside of being a tech YouTube star and an ultimate frisbee aficionado, Brownlee prides himself on simply helping everyday consumers buy things.
"Being a game changer to me means changing the way other people see things,” said Brownlee. “I guess for me, I keep saying the words consumer electronics, consumer tech—the biggest purchase decisions people make a lot of times are the phones they buy and the tech they buy. To be able to influence other people's decisions on that front is pretty game changing."
NAME THREE HASHTAGS THAT DESCRIBE YOU: #quality #crispy #craft
LATE NIGHTS OR EARLY MORNINGS? Early mornings. Mostly because video editing takes so long.
FAVORITE ALBUM TO PLAY ON FULL BLAST: Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories”
