Ryan Higa is not only celebrated as a YouTube star, but he is also famed for appearing on television screens as an actor and comedian. Nigahiga, his Youtube channel, has gathered over 20 million subscribers and billions of views with his different comic acts, short films, and music videos uploads.

With the rise in his career, it is no surprise that Nigahiga maintained the position of the highest subscribed YouTube channel from 2009 until 2011 before losing the slot to PewDiePie. Apart from Nigahiga, Ryan also has another YouTube channel called HigaTV which has over 4 million subscribers. Through his works on YouTube, the social media star has also introduced his brother to his fanbase, hence, bringing him into the spotlight as well.

Ryan Higa Grew Up With His Older Brother, Kyle, In Hawaii 

Ryan Higa, who is an American national, is of Japanese descent. Ryan, who is the youngest of two boys born to Luci and Wendell Higa, was born on the 6th of June, 1990, in Hawaii, United States, and there, he was raised alongside his older brother, Kyle.

Kyle Higa became a person of interest after appearing in one of his brother’s YouTube video uploads. Since then, he has gathered a few fans for himself. Growing up with a younger brother like Ryan was quite a task for Kyle as their lives were filled with competitions. They both practiced Judo and like always, he ensured that he kept his younger brother in his place. However, Kyle and Ryan Higa both share a strong bond and they have walked through life together by being each other’s support system.

His Journey To Becoming A YouTube Star

While in middle school, Ryan Higa gained expertise in Judo and earned a black belt. He schooled at Waiakea High school and was very active in the school judo and wrestling team. During his high school days, Ryan’s interest in the internet began budding. Thus, he liaised with Sean Fujiyoshi and began creating video uploads of music lip-syncing on YouTube. Soon they began to gather some following and decided to spice it up with a comedy twist. With time, the duo also invited a few of their friends on the platforms, creating an avenue for fun and delight.

Sean Fujiyoshi was already his right-hand man, so, Ryan Higa recruited two more colleagues, Enos, and Nago, and together, they created his YouTube Channel, NigaHiga on July 20, 2006. Ryan has revealed that the name NigaHiga was coined from the word ‘Rant’ in Japanese and his last name ‘Higa’. Within four years from when the channel was created, it gathered over 3 million subscribers making it the first channel on YouTube to attain such height within that timeframe.

High school days rolled by and he finally decided to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) with the intent of bagging a degree in nuclear medicine. However, Ryan Higa got bored with his studies as he didn’t find satisfaction in the curriculum. As a result, he opted out of school and decided to focus on his YouTube career. He moved on to launch another YouTube channel, HigaTV in the year 2011. There, he posts his vlogs and ‘behind the scenes’ videos as well.

Some of his popular videos include How To Be Emo, How To Be Ninja, FORTNITE The Movie (Official Fake Trailer), and How To Be Gangster. His creative YouTube video content has earned him nominations for Teen Choice Awards, The Streamy Awards, and Young Hollywood Awards, among others. Ryan Higa took home the YouTube Creator Award in the year 2016.

He Is The Co-founder Of Ryan Higa Production Company

In 2012, Higa aided the process of creating the YOMYOMF network- a network that focuses on video making competitions and also hosts Internet Icon. The YouTube celebrity has maintained the position of one of the Judges of Internet Icon year after year.

He later created a production company, Ryan Higa Production, with Sean Fujiyoshi. The company was launched in 2015 and is situated in Henderson, Nevada. It was created majorly to work on the videos that are uploaded on his YouTube channels. Ryan’s friend, Fujiyoshi, later parted ways with him in 2018 when he relocated to Sacramento, California, where his girlfriend resides and equally proceeded to the university to earn a degree in Engineering.

The YouTube Star’s Leap Into Show Business

The star’s quest for success is not limited to his many YouTube endeavors, as he has also walked the path of an actor. He starred and co-produced a feature film in 2008 titled Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure, working with director and producer Richard Van Vleet. Unfortunately, the film did not perform well. He later featured in one episode of the TV series, Electric Spoofaloo before portraying Ryan/Master Ching Ching/Lapchung in a 2009 short film, Ninja Melk.

Between 2010 and 2015, Ryan Higa scored roles in many web shows and short films such as Love Vampires, Agents of Secret Stuff, Kung Fooled, Supah Ninjas, Surviving the Sorority System, Saved by the Bell, Flight 7500 and Single by 30. He also worked as the producer of Ninja Melk, Agents of Secret Stuff, The Last Skitzo!, and The Christian Show. Ryan additionally displayed his acting prowess in the horror movie, Tell Me How I Die (2016).

In 2016, Ryan Higa liaised with a few other YouTubers and created a K-pop parody group known as Boys Generally Asian. The group consists of R. O. P (Ryan Higa), J-Life (Justin Chon), Daeyang (David Choi), P-Dragon (Philip Wang, and Jeungri (Jun Sung Ahn). They debuted with a single titled ‘Dong Saya Dae’ and it clinched the No. 2 spot on the iTunes K-pop chart. In the next year, the BgA dropped another chart-topping single titled ‘Who’s It Gonna Be’ which peaked at No. 3 on the World Digital Song Chart and equally gained spots on two Billboard charts, as well as Spotify Viral 50 Chart.

As a solo artist, Ryan Higa has dropped singles such as ‘I’m Hardcore’ featuring David Choi and JR Aquino (2011), ‘Millenial Love’ feat Kina Grannis (2017), ‘8 Grapes’ (2018), and ‘Exposed’ feat David Choi (2019).

What Is Ryan Higa’s Net Worth?

Unarguably, the YouTuber’s escapades on his channels have paid his bills and also drawn him to fame. Normally, YouTubers are averagely paid $1-$5 per 1000 monetized views. So, if a rough calculation is made per his views daily, he would roughly earn $2,500 – $3,000 per day on his channel which, when calculated for a year, would run into nothing less than a million-dollar per anum. From this assumption, it is no surprise that Ryan Higa is estimated to be worth $10 million.

He additionally boosted his finances by publishing his autobiography entitled “Ryan Higa’s How to Write Good” in 2017. Also, he serves as the co-founder of Ninja Melk, LLC, which he established alongside Kathleen Hahn and Kyle Schroeder. Later in 2019, the trio produced an energy drink of the same name, Ninja Melk which Ryan promotes on his YouTube channel, Nigahiga.

His Love Story With Arden Cho

Ryan Higa once found love with Arden Cho, the Asian-American actress, singer, and model. Shortly after portraying the love interest of the actress in the 2010 short film Agents of Secret Stuff, which he uploaded on his Nigahiga channel, fans of Ryan and Arden began speculating that the two were dating in real life.

Their fans wished for them to be together at the time and eventually, they got their wish fulfilled in February 2019 when the award-winning YouTuber announced on one of the episodes of his podcast series titled Off the Pill, that he had been in a romantic relationship with Arden Cho for a long time and that the two celebrated the 2019 Valentine’s day together. Although he didn’t reveal the year they started dating, it was rumored that the pair became an item in 2015, but decided to keep it on the down low.

Prior to the announcement, the two usually posted pictures of each other on their social media pages and after making their relationship public, Arden started appearing on Higa’s podcast series, as well as his comic videos, which their fans loved. They also shared a strong bond while together and didn’t shy away from public different displays of affection in most of Ryan’s uploads. In late 2019, it was noticed that the celebrity couple no longer shared pictures of themselves on their social media platforms.

Then in March 2020, the Ninja Melk actor posted a YouTube video titled My Midlife Crisis, where he revealed that he had separated from Arden Cho, as the two mutually broke up. Since publicising about his split from the Teen Wolf actress, Ryan Higa has been reported to be single.

What Led To Ryan’s Break Up With Arden

Having saddened their fans with the news of their break up without revealing the cause, Ryan and Arden’s social media accounts were constantly monitored in order to get a hint of what led to their separation. So on March 24th, 2020, when Arden Cho posted a cryptic message on her Instagram Live story, insinuating that someone lied to her and broke her heart while they were dating, many people believed that she was referring to Ryan Higa. As such, rumors started making rounds that Higa cheated on Arden Cho.

Idk who decided I was relevant enough to start a rumor on, but NO, I did not cheat on Arden at any point throughout our relationship. Sorry to spoil your quarantine boredom.

— Ryan Higa ? (@TheRealRyanHiga) March 24, 2020

A few hours after Arden’s post went viral, the social media sensation took to his Twitter handle to put the rumor to rest by citing that he never cheated on the model while they were dating.