Devin Graham: Mormon Videographer
Devin Graham is a photographer and videographer. He is best known for his adventure and extreme sport videos on YouTube. His subscribers number over two million and his work has been viewed more than 400 million times (as of September 2014).
Graham was born on July 29, 1983, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He recalls borrowing his parents’ cameras when he was a child to take photographs that no one else could. In the process, he broke several of their cameras. While filming his snowboarding stunts as a teenager, he suffered several injuries, including broken legs and back.
He studied filmmaking at Brigham Young University with the intent of making feature films. But the lure of YouTube caught him and he decided to create and market videos on YouTube instead of finishing his degree. He noted that a cellphone video posted on YouTube garner two million views, and he knew he could do the same, only with improved production quality. He began filming and editing friends and gathered a following. His video “World’s Largest Rope Swing,” filmed at Corona Arch in Moab, Utah, quickly cached more than ten million views, with November 2014 viewers over 24 million. Over 14 million watched “Human Slingshot” and more than 16 million have seen “Trike Drifting.” With all of his videos, he tries to put his viewers into the action. He also keeps the videos family friendly with no language barriers.
Graham primarily films, edits, and produces his videos by himself, but he has used the help of Jeff Harmon and others when needed. Athletes and corporations have taken notice and have commissioned him to produce their videos or have purchased his footage. He has sold clips to Coca-Cola, the U.S. department of travel and tourism, and TV stations and broadcasters. He has collaborated with corporate sponsors such as Citibank, Intel, Mountain Dew, Ubisoft, Bear Naked, Ford, Reebok, Speed Stick Gear, and Vooray.
Although his videos focus on happiness and fun,[1] he works long hours to produce them. He also helps other people, including Lindsey Stirling, produce videos.
Graham is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and lives in Provo, Utah. He was one of the creative forces behind the December 2014 effort to claim the Guinness Book of World Records’ title for largest live Nativity. Popular Latter-day Saint YouTubers and Salt Lake area television favorites played the leading roles. An open invitation to be part of the effort was placed on Facebook. The final tally was a record 1,039 participants. Radiant, a nondenominational interfaith foundation to promote Christ in the world, coordinated and funded the effort. The final video premiered on The Piano Guys’s YouTube channel and featured David Archuleta, Peter Hollens, The Piano Guys, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing “Angels from the Realms of Glory.” The video quickly climbed to over seven million views. Graham created a “behind the scenes’’ video as well.
