Sam Denby

Sam Denby
Denby in 2023
Personal information
Born	(1998-03-17) March 17, 1998 (age 26)[‡ 1][‡ 2] Washington, D.C., United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	YouTuber
YouTube information
Channels	Wendover Productions Half As Interesting Jet Lag: The Game
Years active	2015–present
Genre	Educational entertainment
Subscribers	4.64 million (Wendover Productions) 2.72 million (Half as Interesting) 728 thousand (Jet Lag: The Game) 161 thousand (Extremities) 56.5 thousand (Sam from Wendover)
Total views	713 million (Wendover Productions) 673 million (Half as Interesting) 71 million (Jet Lag: The Game) 1.73 million (Extremities) 748 thousand (Sam from Wendover)
Website	wendoverproductions.com
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2016 1,000,000 subscribers 2018
Last updated: September 24, 2023

Sam Denby (born March 17, 1998) is an American YouTuber who created the edutainment YouTube channels Wendover Productions and Half as Interesting, and the travel competition show Jet Lag: The Game, alongside other projects. Across all of Denby's channels, he has accumulated more than 1 billion views and more than 7.8 million subscribers. He is the chief content officer of streaming service Nebula.

Created in 2010, Denby's primary channel is Wendover Productions. As of July 27, 2024,^[update] that channel has over 4.6 million subscribers and more than 703 million total video views.^[1] His videos most commonly feature the topics of logistics, most notably those of aviation, as well as geography, economics,^[2] and military. The Wendover Productions video about tourism in Iceland received significant attention from Iceland's national newspapers.^[3] Wendover Productions is based in Aspen, Colorado.^[4]

Launched on August 26, 2017, Denby's second YouTube channel, “Half as Interesting”, publishes weekly releases on an unrestricted range of curious topics delivered in a witty style. The videos are 2‒3 times shorter than a typical Wendover Productions release and are dedicated to a single little-known fact each. According to the launch announcement, the channel continues the well-liked coverage of topics from the Wikipedia:Unusual articles list, referred to as “That Wikipedia List” or TWL, which was previously published on the Wendover Productions channel, but doesn't restrict its scope to it.^[5] As of July 27, 2024,^[update] the channel had more than 2.69 million subscribers, over 450 published videos and more than 658 million views.^[6]

In June 2019, Denby created a scripted podcast called Extremities about the logistics of living in the world's most isolated and populated locations.^[7] The show's format has since been modified into short documentaries exclusive to the streaming service Nebula with the same concept.

Denby's YouTube channel Jet Lag: The Game hosts a travel competition show created by Denby and Half as Interesting's writers, Ben Doyle (the son of writer Larry Doyle) and Adam Chase.^[8] Inspired by The Amazing Race, the season usually consists of four players (with the fourth player being another YouTuber). The show was nominated for Best Editing at the 13th Streamy Awards.

All air travel on the show is carbon-offset by a multiple of 10 via Gold Standard carbon credits.^[9] As of July 2024,^[update] the channel has over 692 thousand subscribers and more than 63 million total video views.^{[‡ 3]} The episodes were released on Nebula one week earlier than YouTube, causing large spikes to Nebula's usage traffic.^[10]

On August 25, 2023, Nebula announced that they had appointed Denby as their chief content officer.^[11] Nebula CEO Dave Wiskus stated, "the process for developing Nebula Originals should be creator-led, so we turned to a creator with a solid track record for format development across production styles and genres to lead the charge on content as we continue to expand our Originals slate for Nebula." Denby also holds a minority stake in the content distribution platform.^[12]

On April 8, 2024, Denby's production company, Wendover Productions, announced production on The Getaway, a reality game show which premiered exclusively on Nebula on July 10, 2024.^{[13][‡ 4]} The game involves six content creators competing on a road trip through the American West. The contestants are led to believe that there is one secret saboteur among them, with the rest of them working collaboratively. In actuality, all six contestants are told that they are the saboteur. Denby, Wiskus, and Trenton Waterson executive produced the project. Denby also directed, with Doyle and Chase involved in production.^[13]

Denby was born and raised in Washington, D.C.^{[‡ 5]} In 2018, Denby stated he had been living in Edinburgh, Scotland, for the past two years for university studies at the University of Edinburgh.^{[‡ 6]: 1:32} As of April 2018,^[update] he was studying international business.^{[‡ 7]} He has said that he has also lived in Rennes, France and Sydney, Australia.^[14] As of 2020, Denby stated he has lived in Colorado, somewhere around Aspen.^{[‡ 8][‡ 9]} Through Standard, he became a minority owner in the streaming service Nebula in 2020.^{[‡ 10]}

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

• Official website