Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Evans.
Rachel, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My involvement in the digital world is actually pretty serendipitous. I was fresh out of college working at a major talent management firm as an executive assistant when one day I noticed my Lyft driver’s Wrestlemania badge. We started chatting about wrestling, and he asked me if I wanted to check out the pro wrestling after show he was a camera operating. Without thinking, I went with this stranger to a house in Van Nuys to chat wrestling. Luckily, I wasn’t murdered and stuck around for three years.
After representation, I started working at an international sales and acquisitions company that owned a few production companies worldwide. I worked during the day, then recorded the wrestling show at night, rinse, repeat. After a while the company I worked for acquired a digital media production company, who saw my purple hair and figured I could help them build a few cool YouTube channels.
So me and my purple hair left the corporate world for the wild west of digital media. They kind of let me do whatever I wanted, so I decided to create a platform for female creators called Snarled, which is sitting at around 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube. After a couple of years and 100 episodes of my show true crime Dark 5, I moved on to help produce at a company called Skybound, owned by Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead comic.
I’m helping, with my amazing co-producers and team, to create a new platform called GammaRay, which is a fandom centric channel. I haven’t forgotten about wrestling though. After three years covering Robert Rodriguez’s Lucha Underground, I moved onto correspond for ProWrestling Sheet powered by Collider. I’m still working on getting where I’d like to be professionally, but the climb has been amazingly fun.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Has this been an easy road? Oh no no. No. Not easy at all. I’ve had myriad setbacks, but I think my biggest wrench was when Snarled was defunded. Snarled, like most digital media companies, was funded by a larger company. However, (very) recently they’ve teamed up with Studio 71 to bring back my show Dark 5.
We were growing steadily, but sadly great content quality & views don’t always translate to success on youtube. Without getting into too much detail, within a week everything I had worked for was gone. I had to completely re-evaluate my life. I no longer had the support system I needed to continue the job I loved. I lost my producers, editors, data managers, representation, everything within one day. I don’t think I ever felt as lost as I did on that day.
For a month I wallowed, mourned, and looked inside. What did I love about Snarled? I loved creating with people I admire, I loved talking to an audience about things people might be too afraid to talk about, I loved being part of a motivated team. Great news about all those things, I can carry them with me wherever I go. And I did. I was very lucky that Skybound plucked me out of my unemployment fueled depression and thrust me back into the world of creating.
We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I’ve struggled with the question, “what do you do?” since I started youtube. When I’m hosting Dark 5, I try to be my favorite teacher, Ms. Pate. She was the only person in the world who made me feel sane and heard. I try to do the same, approaching the macabre with empathy and understanding. What are the unmentionable things that connect us all and how can we eradicate shame when discussing those things?
My audience is mainly teen girls, so I try to be as sensitive as possible when talking about things like murder. I don’t focus on what or how, but rather why. The wrestling part of my life is definitely the most simple. I love wrestling, I love talking about it, seeing shows, learning and remembering. Every part of that carny world I want in on. Sure, there are obstacles in a world that has been driven almost exclusively by male bravado, but the tides are changing. I’m happy to be part of that change.
I think in a “public figure” sense I’m probably known for my wrestling commentary, Satanism or weird expansive knowledge about serial killer Carl Panzram, but my day to day isn’t so sexy. I produce and help cast for a lot of digital media companies and brand partners. I love connecting people, I do it for fun. To me, there’s nothing more fulfilling than being helpful.
Recently, I helped a friend who was casting a short film find three authentic non-sexual furries, who I happened to meet at San Diego Comic Con. My old show-businessy boss heard me connecting some people on the phone and asked, “Oh is this a favor for favor situation?” And no, it’s not. Not everything in Hollywood is the mafia, sometimes you just want to give your furry friends a platform.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I’m way too excitable. I love new projects, new friends, new ventures. That’s all great and good, but I’m slowly learning how to tamper my excitement for a few reasons:
1) Finish the damn thing first before moving on to the next thing
2) Know what you’re saying yes to – KNOW YOUR WORTH.
3) Hold your cards close to your chest. If you’re excited about it chances are someone else is excited about it too. Make sure it’s real before getting other people involved. You can hurt relationships that way or have projects stolen from right under you.
4) Don’t let yourself down. Stay excited, but maintain reasonable doubt until the contract is signed and the check is cleared. I’ve had more “done deals” go radio silent than I’ve had hot meals.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rachelsamevans/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rachelsamevans?lang=en
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLu5dCBz6Lc&list=PLlt49G0M7dfhGH4ng1bqLHBrKYdwZxahs
Image Credit:
Big E, Danielle Radford, Dani Fernandez, Ty Matthews, Christian Rosenberg, Scott Narver, Rome Moore, Paul London, Megan Toenyes as Babadook, Xavier Woods aka Austin Creed
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
