Lilly Singh

Early life

Singh was born and raised in Scarborough, Toronto. Her parents, Malwinder and Sukhwinder Singh, are originally from Punjab, India, and she was raised as Sikh. She has an older sister named Tina. As a child, Singh has said she was a tomboy. She attended Mary Shadd Public School during her elementary years and in 2006, she graduated from Lester B. Pearson Collegiate Institute. In 2010, she graduated from York University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. Singh developed a strong connection with her Punjabi heritage during visits to India. She struggled with depression, and began making YouTube videos as a way of dealing with her feelings. As a young adult, she lived with her parents in Markham, Ontario, and, in December 2015, she moved to Los Angeles, where she currently resides, to further her career.

YouTube

In October 2010, Singh started a YouTube channel under the pseudonym "IISuperwomanII". She has explained that the name Superwoman was prompted by a childhood idea that she had an invisible "S" on her chest, making her believe she CAN do anything. Punjabi culture is frequently portrayed in her videos, which also contain satirical takes on everyday life and people's favorite complaints. Her most popular video is How Girls Get Ready and her most popular series features her fictional parents, Paramjeet and Manjeet, both played by Singh herself, reacting to trending and controversial videos. She also documents meeting celebrities.

Singh also includes an "Lilly Live" segment (previously Ask Superwoman Live) on her main channel. During this 1 hour+ live segment, she has her fans ask her questions through social media platforms and has guests to interview on the live stream. In July 2016, Singh announced the YouTube channel of Dwayne Johnson, her childhood idol, and collaborated with him for a video. During the same month, she launched a talk-show series titled #GirlLove, in which Singh interviews celebrities and inspirational personalities to diminish hatred in the female population. On 25 September 2016 (the night before her birthday), Singh received her diamond play button although she did not hit the 10 million subscribers milestone at that time. One month later, on 25 October 2016, she reached the 10  million subscribers milestone.

She is known as a Feminist Youtuber and as of July 2017, she Now has 12 million subscribers who follow her and 2 billion views on her main YouTube channel (IISuperwomanII).

Vlog Channel

In December 2011, Singh created a second channel called SuperwomanVlogs, where she chronicles her daily activities and includes behind the scenes footage from her videos. She used it as a second channel to upload videos until August 2014, when she began uploading daily vlogs. Singh has been uploading daily vlogs ever since. As of June 2017, "SuperwomanVlogs" has over 2+ million subscribers and 235+ million views.

Music

In August 2013, Singh featured alongside Jassi Sidhu in his Punjabi song Hipshaker. Singh rapped in the song Mauj Ki Malharein, which played in the Bollywood drama Gulaab Gang in August 2014. In July of the same year, she released a song titled #LEH in a collaboration with her friend, author and rapper Kanwer Singh, who is known by the pseudonym "Humble The Poet". She recorded and released another music video in February 2015 titled The Clean Up Anthem in collaboration with Canadian artist Sickick. In April 2015, Singh released a song about her hometown Toronto in collaboration with Humble the Poet titled #IVIVI (roman numerals for 416, Toronto's area code). On 8 August 2016, Singh released a visual music piece on YouTube, titled "Voices". The piece includes five songs portraying the "voices in her head". The piece has a genre of Pop/Modern Hip Hop. The songs included are a mix showing signs of boasting, fear of loneliness, lust, goofiness, and positive views promoting global peace.

Acting

Singh appeared as a background dancer in the movies Speedy Singhs and Thank You in 2011. In 2014, Singh appeared in a small role in the 2014 Indo-Canadian production Dr. Cabbie. In 2016, she voiced miniature unicorns named Bubbles and Misty in the animated film Ice Age: Collision Course and played a cameo role in the movie Bad Moms. She made an appearance in the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark as herself. She also had several of her own web series with I Love Makeup channel on YouTube, including Giving Back Glam, The Tube's Hautest, and Lana Steele: Makeup Spy.

Singh was cast in HBO's film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 after recording an audition outside an Internet cafe in Melbourne, Australia. She was in the region to promote her book and rushed the audition at her agent's urging around 2 a.m. in May 2017. She will play the character of Raven, "a tabloid blogger who works with the fire department to spread the ministry’s propaganda by broadcasting their book-burning raids to fans."

Live performances

In March 2015, Singh began a world tour called "A Trip to Unicorn Island", adapting her YouTube content and including singing, dancing, music performances, comedy, and her parent characters. Her tour covered India, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, UK, Dubai, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. Singh's vlog channel shows the planning of the tour, including dietary changes and rehearsing with her team. She documented the tour in her first feature movie, A Trip to Unicorn Island, which also describes how YouTube fame is affecting her life. The movie was released on 10 February 2016 on YouTube Red. She describes the film as being very "raw and genuine". She decided to partner with YouTube because of her and her fan's loyalty to the platform. The documentary references her happy place and her travels around 31 cities and was one of the first movies to be featured on the YouTube Red platform. The $9.99-per-month service includes ad-free and offline YouTube content, helping her fans to tap into her more personal life. She premiered her film at the Chinese Theater in Los Angeles where guests from the entire YouTube community attended such as Colleen Ballinger, Alyson Stoner, Bethany Mota, Joey Graceffa and many more.

Singh also released her own app named "Unicorn Island". This app was created to engage with her fans more by setting up meet and greets, with posts about her life and exclusive information for her viewers. In May 2016, Lilly introduced her new lipstick in collaboration with Smashbox Cosmetics named BAWSE. Singh appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on 22 January 2016, where she was challenged to play a game of Fast Family Feud. She also made appearances on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on 4 February, and The Today Show on 5 February 2016. On 22 July 2016, during her second appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she announced her first book. Titled How To Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life, the guide book was released on 28 March 2017. On 6 March 2017, she released her tour dates for her worldwide book tour. Her tour covered India, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, Dubai, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. This tour consisted of a book signing as well as a show in most places.

Philanthropy

In 2016 Singh partnered with Me to We to promote the product GirlLove Rafiki Bracelet. The purchasing of these bracelets gives funds to girls in Kenya in order to give them an education. Singh's first goal was to sell 5,000 bracelets. Once Singh passed that goal she made a new goal of 10,000 bracelets and she surpassed that goal by selling over 14,000 bracelets. As of January 2017, over 32,000 bracelets have been sold.

In 2017 Lilly Singh was announced as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, to advocate for children’s rights.

On 16 August 2017, Tubefilter (founder of Streamy Awards) announced that Singh will be honored at the first ever Purpose Awards for the positive impact she has made within the community and across the globe. She is being nominated under the Creator Award, along with Hannah Hart and Lizzie Velasquez. The Purpose Awards will be held on 25 September 25 in Los Angeles.

Writer

Singh made her debut as a writer on 28 March 2017 when she released her book How To be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. The day before, she started her book tour in New York City. Her book was ranked #1 on The New York Times Bestsellers list. She explained the meaning of the word "bawse" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Accolades

In 2014, her channel ranked at #39 on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels. The same year, she was nominated for a Shorty Award and a Streamy Award. In September 2015, People included Singh on their annual "Ones to Watch" list. She received her first MTV Fandom Award and, was nominated for two Teen Choice Awards, and won her first Streamy Award later that year. In October 2016, she ranked 8th on Forbes' list of World's Top-Earning YouTube Stars of 2015. She was also featured in Fast Company Magazine as the 100 Most Creative People in Business. Variety magazine recognized her as one of their 10 Comics to Watch for 2016, and she was honored at the Just For Laughs Film Festival in Montreal. In July 2016, she won two Teen Choice Awards from her three nominations. In January 2017, she won a People's Choice Award for Favorite YouTube Star.