How O’Neil Thomas turned his love of performing into a creator career

Before O'Neil Thomas had millions of followers, he had a third-grade Christmas production and a serious case of stage fright.

But the nerves didn’t last past curtain call.

Watching family members, faculty, and staff stand and applaud, he knew he wanted to keep performing.

"I felt something really warm in my heart," Thomas tells Mashable.

"I was like, 'I think this is something I want to do for the rest of my life.'" By high school, he was studying performing arts, writing scripts, and filming YouTube sketches between classes and auditions.

And as new platforms arrived, he kept finding new places to perform, learning what audiences responded to and how his comedy could work differently on each app.

Over the past decade, Thomas, 29, has grown his audience to more than six million across social media platforms , with fans following his social commentary, comedy sketches — like his YouTube series Shady Family — and viral recreations, including his take on Beyoncé's Grammy-award-winning album Cowboy Carter 's cover art (which earned a shoutout from her team).

But his latest project brings that work back to the passion that started it all: acting.

His vertical "microdrama" , the 7:33 minute Investigator, Investigator , was selected for New York's inaugural Alza Film Festival, held Oct.

16–18, where he also joined a conversation aptly titled "What Does Creator Even Mean" to discuss the increasingly blurred lines between creators, filmmakers, actors, and producers, especially as the vertical series boom is getting bigger.

For Mashable's Creator Playbook , Thomas sat down with deputy editor Olivia Tauber ahead of the festival to explore his beginnings as a performer, how he brings an actor's approach to content creation, the comedians who inspire him, and how he gives viewers a reason to keep coming back.

Credit: O'Neil Thomas/Mashable Mashable: You started out as an actor before becoming a creator.

What drew you to acting, and how did that transition happen? O’Neil Thomas: Honestly, it all started in the third grade.

That’s when I found my calling for acting.