Cody Ko

Cody Ko
Ko in May 2019
Born	Cody Michael Kolodziejzyk (1990-11-22) November 22, 1990 Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Education	Duke University (BA)
Occupations	YouTuber comedian podcaster rapper
Years active	2013–present
Partner(s)	Kelsey Kreppel (2017–present; engaged)
Parent(s)	Greg Kolodziejzyk Helen Kolodziejzyk
YouTube information
Channels	Cody Ko Cody & Ko
Genres	Comedy commentary satire sketch comedy criticism
Subscribers	5.88 million (Cody Ko) 1.5 million (Cody & Ko)
Total views	1.39 billion (Cody Ko) 116 million (Cody & Ko)
Associated acts	Noel Miller Kelsey Kreppel
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2016, 2018 1,000,000 subscribers 2018, 2020
Last updated: October 21, 2022
Musical career
Genres	Hip hop
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	2017–present
Labels	Arista

Cody Michael Kolodziejzyk (/ˌkɔːləˈdʒɛ.sɪk/ Kaw-lə-JEH-sik, Polish: [kɔwɔˈd͡ʑɛjt͡ʂɨk]; born November 22, 1990), better known online as Cody Ko, is a Canadian YouTuber, comedian, podcaster, and rapper. Kolodziejzyk first became popular on Vine in 2014, before becoming a commentary YouTuber on internet culture. His style of content is often profane and comedic.

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Kolodziejyzk graduated from Duke University with a degree in computer science and a certificate in markets and management. After his mobile app "I'd Cap That" became top of the App Store, he worked as an iOS developer at Fullscreen, but quit in 2016 to focus on his internet career full-time. He had around two million followers before Vine's discontinuation.

After Vine was shut down, Kolodziejzyk shifted to YouTube commentary. With his partner, fellow YouTuber Noel Miller, Kolodziejzyk co-hosts and co-founded the Tiny Meat Gang (TMG) podcast and eponymously named TMG Studios, respectively. He and Miller also comprise the satirical musical duo of the same name. TMG has featured celebrity guests such as MrBeast and Gary Vaynerchuk, and won the 11th Shorty Awards for Best Podcast. In a widely-criticized 2019 video, YouTuber Jake Paul accused Kolodziejzyk of being a "cyberbully" for his commentary ridiculing Paul and other YouTubers, inadvertently causing his following to grow. As of October 2022, Kolodziejzyk has nearly 6 million subscribers on his main YouTube channel.

Early life and education

Edens Quad in the Duke University West Campus in Durham, North Carolina, where Kolodziejzyk lived as a student

Cody Michael Kolodziejzyk was born on November 22, 1990, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to Greg and Helen Kolodziejzyk. Both his parents competed in athletic competitions, and his father is a cyclist who holds several world records. He has one sister, Krista. Kolodziejzyk attended Springbank Community High School before attending Duke University in the U.S. state of North Carolina after being recruited on their swimming and diving team following a meet in Montreal.

At Duke, he lived in Edens Quad at the Duke University West Campus. He joined a fraternity, pursued a degree in computer science and a certificate in markets and management, and eventually became captain of the varsity team. He eventually came to regret some parts of his time in a fraternity. Kolodziejzyk majored in computer science. He graduated from Duke University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts.

Career

2012–2016: I'd Cap That, computer engineering and rise on Vine

In March 2012, while a senior at Duke University, Kolodziejzyk began to develop the photo-sharing mobile app "I'd Cap That", which automatically added meme-like captions to images. It went viral, amassing over four million users in four months, and was the App Store's Free iOS App Of The Week in May 2012. Kolodziejzyk wanted to join a start-up company instead of creating his own, and continue to develop similar apps. One of his interviewers immediately received six messages from CEOs looking to recruit him. In July, "I'd Cap That" was acquired by the Silicon Valley company Iddiction. Iddiction launched "I’d Cap That+", which added an algorithm that selects the ten best captions for an image and more connectivity to social media. Kolodziejzyk worked there on the app for two years before quitting in 2014.

Kolodziejzyk first began uploading to Vine in 2013. He partnered with the now-defunct multi-channel network Fullscreen, with Director of Talent Mahzad Babayan becoming his full-time talent manager. He credited the MCN and his background in computer engineering for his early success. In May 2014, on an eight-month backpacking trip around Asia with friend Devon Townsend, the pair began uploading Vines. They became unexpectedly viral and Kolodziejzyk became one of the prominent figures on the platform. They also started several side projects for ad revenue, such as a greeting card website. He had over 290 followers on Vine in July 2014, and his #6SecondAuditions Vine amassed more than two million views. By November 2015, he had almost two million followers on the platform.

In January 2015, Kolodziejzyk and Townsend returned to the United States, looking for software jobs and continuing to make Vines traveling to Los Angeles. He collaborated with comedian Hannibal Buress to promote Buress' Comedy Central show Why? with Hannibal Buress (2015). People described Kolodziejzyk's Vines as "goofy, relatable [and] often profane," and Kolodziejzyk said that his Vines were often spontaneous, and advised other Viners against over-editing or "trying too hard."

Kolodziejzyk worked for the company Victorious for eight months but had to leave midday for auditions to the company's annoyance. Babayan gave him a job as a senior iOS developer at Fullscreen, where they would be more relaxed about him leaving midday. This was when he met Noel Miller, a web designer, former Viner, and his future collaborator after they had chatted briefly online The pair would often create internet content on their lunch breaks and dubbed themselves Tiny Meat Gang for a song.

In June 2016, Kolodziejzyk starred in the Vine original long-form series "Camp Unplug" alongside twelve other Viners. He quit his job at Fullscreen in August 2016 to focus on his internet career.

2016–2019: Move to YouTube commentary, music, and podcasts

Kolodziejzyk joined YouTube on May 30, 2014. After Twitter Inc. discontinued Vine in January 2017, he shifted to YouTube, where he uploads commentary and comedy videos.

[That's Cringe started when Miller] sent me this video of a blowjob robot [...] Super funny. And I was like, we could do this for a video—watch it, and rip it on for 20 minutes.

Cody Ko, Forbes

Kolodziejzyk and Miller rose to popularity on YouTube by co-hosting their commentary series That's Cringe, hosted on Kolodziejzyk's channel, where the two react to and joke about internet personalities and content which they consider to be cringe. The series has over 153 million combined views and made up most of the channel's most popular videos. Their That's Cringe episode on controversial YouTuber Jake Paul in October 2017 amassed seventeen million views.

After a video of That's Cringe featuring the Christian lifestyle channel Girl Defined, YouTube videos and TikTok memes mocking Girl Defined and their videos' themes of extended chastity began to grow popular. Kolodziejzyk's other content also focuses on internet culture, such as criticism of internet personalities, NFTs or ASMR videos involving dangerous acts and online courses. The New York Times Magazine described Kolodziejzyk and other commentary YouTubers as "media critics" for an online millennial audience. He used to edit his videos himself, but began to hire outside editors and a production team.

Since 2017, Kolodziejzyk and Miller have made satirical and comedy rap songs together as Tiny Meat Gang (abbr. TMG). They came up with the name for a song making fun of Jake Paul, but began considering music earnestly after they were contacted by producer Diamond Pistols. They released their first extended play Bangers & Ass the same year.

After struggling with repeated demonetization, Kolodziejzyk and Miller began the podcast Tiny Meat Gang in October 2017 to make up for losses. Funded solely by their Patreon supporters, Tiny Meat Gang's YouTube channel has over eleven million views, with each hour-long episode discussing various topics related to pop and internet culture. Kolodziejzyk also hosts the podcast Insanely Chill.

Since 2017, Kolodziejzyk has been part of the cast of YouTuber Jimmy Tatro's comedy television series The Real Bros of Simi Valley, which airs on Facebook Watch. In 2018, Kolodziejzyk and Miller went on tour and reached one million subscribers on his main channel in June. In an interview with Tubefilter, Kolodziejzyk attributed his success to "ripping on the Paul brothers." The same year, Post Malone was featured in an episode of their podcast and they released their second EP, Locals Only.

2019–present: Jake Paul and growth on YouTube and as Tiny Meat Gang

In early 2019, Tiny Meat Gang won Best Podcast at the 11th Shorty Awards. Kolodziejzyk and Miller also appeared in a sold-out live comedy tour across the United States as Tiny Meat Gang. A reviewer for The Tufts Daily in Cambridge, Massachusetts, praised the personal, relaxed tone of the show, saying "there was never a dull moment, nor a joke that landed flat," although noted that it was geared towards the two's existing online audience.

In May 2019, Jake Paul released a video accusing Kolodziejzyk of being a "cyberbully" and confronting him in person whilst he was on Jeff Wittek's podcast. The video was widely criticized on the internet, especially in regards to the video being monetized and the wide disparity in their subscriber counts (with Paul and Kolodziejzyk then having 18 and 2.5 million subscribers, respectively). The Washington Post described it as an example of celebrities dismissing genuine criticism as hate. The video had over 800 thousand dislikes. Kolodziejzyk later reacted to the video on his channel, describing the experience as "fucking uncomfortable." Directly after the incident, he gained around 140 thousand new subscribers. By late 2019, Kolodziejzyk had surpassed four million subscribers.

Tiny Meat Gang collaborated with Blackbear for the single "short kings anthem". In October 2019, they signed with Arista Records and announced a new EP. On November 22, 2019, Kolodziejzyk's twenty-ninth birthday, he partnered with company Killer Merch and artist Dan Taylor to launch his merchandise collection, Ko-Official. Killer Merch had previously repped the Tiny Meat Gang podcast on their commerce and tour merchandise. In January 2020, Kolodziejzyk and Miller rescheduled their next tour to the second half of the year.

In August 2020, Kolodziejzyk produced one of Dhar Mann's videos. He previously criticized Mann in both an episode of That's Cringe and a standalone video. After this, he released a video detailing his experience in the collaboration. He said that working with Mann was "humbling" and that, in criticizing his videos, he had failed to understand why Mann made his content the way he did. In 2021, controversial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, who Kolodziejzyk and Miller had previously mocked in an episode of Tiny Meat Gang, appeared in another episode. Adlan Jackson of The New York Times Magazine noted that, as Kolodziejzyk and Miller rose in popularity, several of the subjects of their criticism began appearing in their videos in "gestures of reconciliation." Newsweek said that "most of the internet stars they've poked fun at have become their friends," with several exceptions. Due to this, some of their fans began to worry about a conflict of interest and that the two "would [be incentivized] to pull their punches."

In October 2020, Kolodziejzyk hosted an eight-episode podcast on iHeartRadio titled The Pleasure is Ours, in which he debunks the truth of clichés and popular sayings. The podcast features a guest star each episode, including YouTubers Drew Gooden, Emma Chamberlain, and comedian Tim Dillon. Kolodziejzyk would frequently speak at college webinars in the United States over quarantine, and previously in-person.

As part of his angel investments, Kolodziejzyk has invested in the bitcoin startup Lolli, JuneShine, and Stir. He and Townsend started an investment vehicle called Dumb Money Capital, which has invested in Liquid Death, the NFT platform Autograph, and, alongside Miller, Moment House. Kolodziejzyk has expressed his intention to develop a media network from the Tiny Meat Gang podcast. In February 2022, he invested in the gaming startup Metafy. In October 2022, YouTuber MrBeast was featured in an episode of the podcast where they discussed his possible future presidential run and how he would fare competing against Logan Paul.

Personal life

In 2012, Kolodziejzyk moved to Silicon Valley, California. He lived in San Francisco for his job, decided to travel for a year in southeast Asia, and was in Australia for several months. Returning to the United States in January 2015, Kolodziejzyk traveled to Los Angeles, where he now lives. In 2020, he bought his first home for $3.8 million, a three-story compound in the neighborhood of Venice Beach. In 2022, he bought a beachfront unit near the Ventura County Line for $3.7 million. Kolodziejzyk is engaged to Kelsey Kreppel, a preschool teacher and influencer who occasionally appears in his videos.

According to Kolodziejzyk, his surname is Polish. He abbreviated it to "Ko" online due to its length and difficulty to spell.

Discography

Solo discography

Cody Ko discography
Singles	4

Singles

Title	Year	Album	Ref.
"Cuddle Bug"	2019	—
"Sadboi Watermelon Party"
"Fuck Halloween"
"Fiat" (ft. Matt Miggz)	2022

TMG discography

As Tiny Meat Gang with Noel Miller.

Tiny Meat Gang discography
EPs	2
Singles	9

Extended plays

Title	Year	Ref.
Bangers & Ass	2017
Locals Only	2018

Singles

Title	Year	Album	Ref.
"Super Xan"	2017	Bangers & Ass
"Stay Safe"	2018	Locals Only
"No Flex"
"Walk Man"	2019	—
"Short Kings Anthem" (with Blackbear)
"Club Poor" (with Rynx)		In Pieces
"Broke Bitch"	2020	TBA
"Sofia"
"Daddy" (with Quinn XCII)	2021

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2016	Camp Unplug	Himself	Vine series
2017–present	The Real Bros of Simi Valley	Wade Sanders	Main role
2017	The Boonies	Teddy	Main role

External links

• Cody Ko at IMDb