PewDiePie

Felix Kjellberg began an online relationship with Italian internet personality and beauty creator Marzia Bisognin in 2011. After living together in Italy and Sweden, the couple moved to Brighton, England, choosing the seaside town in part for its reliable internet connectivity. The couple lived together with two pet pugs named Edgar and Maya.

The pair became engaged on April 27, 2018, and married in August 2019 in a private ceremony in London. In July 2023, they welcomed their first child, a son named Björn. Kjellberg was raised in Sweden alongside his sister Fanny by parents Johanna and Ulf Kjellberg.

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg was born on October 24, 1989, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Growing up with a passion for art and video games, he purchased a computer during his final year of high school using money made from selling his artwork through his grandmother's gallery. He originally registered a YouTube account called PewDie in 2006, based on the sound of a laser gun firing, but created a new channel under the name PewDiePie in 2010 after forgetting his original login password.

While studying industrial economics and technology management at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Kjellberg began posting Let's Play gameplay videos, starting with Minecraft. Finding little common ground with other students in his degree program, he dropped out of Chalmers in 2011 to concentrate on his channel, supporting himself by working at a hot dog kiosk and continuing to sell artwork.

Kjellberg gained rapid traction online after posting gameplay of the horror game Amnesia, drawing large audiences through his energetic reactions and commentary. His channel reached one million subscribers in July 2012 and two million two months later. In December 2012, he signed a multi-channel network partnership with Maker Studios.

On August 15, 2013, PewDiePie surpassed Smosh to become the most-subscribed channel on YouTube. Over time, his output expanded from horror and action game playthroughs to comedic sketches, formatted vlogs, and music videos such as "Bitch Lasagna". In 2015, he authored a parody self-help book titled This Book Loves You and later starred in the YouTube Red series Scare PewDiePie. In August 2019, he became the first individual creator to surpass 100 million subscribers on YouTube.

Throughout his online career, Kjellberg faced public criticism and controversy regarding offensive jokes and language in his broadcasts. Following apologies in 2012 and 2016, a series of incidents in 2017 involving anti-Semitic imagery and racial slurs led to Maker Studios severing its commercial partnership with him, as well as YouTube cancelling the second season of Scare PewDiePie.

Kjellberg issued public apologies and sought to recalibrate his creative output. In December 2019, following years of continuous production and surpassing 100 million subscribers, he announced a temporary hiatus from regular YouTube uploads to step back from the platform.