Good morning. ’Tis the season when Spirit Halloween stores occupy empty strip malls across America with timely, pop culture-inspired costumes. Spotted on shelves this year: inflatable Skibidi Toilets. Brace yourselves—hoards of them may come knocking at your door October 31.

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

It’s been a busy year for YouTube creator and actor Abigail Thorn, with appearances in TV shows like House of the Dragon and Star Wars: The Acolyte. Now, Thorn is set to premiere her new short film, Dracula’s Ex-Girlfriend, in Los Angeles later today.

We caught up with Thorn to chat about her journey creating the dark comedy film →

She started her channel, Philosophy Tube, in 2013 to make higher education more accessible. Thorn loved reading the works of famous philosophers in her university courses, but she didn’t think resources and discussion should be kept in an “academic ivory tower.”

Thorn’s video analyses resonated, earning her 1.6 million YouTube subscribers. “Why shouldn’t a mom from the Midwest have an opinion on Schopenhauer?” she told us.

Thorn thought she’d need to leave YouTube behind in order to pursue her acting career. She initially went the traditional route by attending a professional drama school and getting an agent, letting her YouTube success pay her rent.

It was Dave Wiskus, CEO of the creator-owned streaming platform Nebula, who convinced her to try combining YouTube and acting. With the support of her YouTube audience (and funding from Nebula), Thorn wrote and starred in The Prince, a 2022 Shakespearean play that sold out its limited theatrical run in London and helped Thorn land more acting gigs.

Her approach to new projects remains consistent, regardless of scale. Thorn said she’s excited to premiere Dracula’s Ex-Girlfriend in front of a live audience tonight before the film releases on Nebula later this week.

For Thorn, every job—producing a YouTube video, creating this film—is just as serious as appearing in a prestige drama “in terms of the talent, the professionalism, and the ambition,” she told us.

Over the last month, a handful of creator IP has debuted across streaming platforms and theaters, including toy review creator Ryan Kaji’s Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure and Brian Jordan Alvarez’s FX series English Teacher.

Context: Creators have slowly carved their own path in Hollywood over the last five years, from reality formats like The D’Amelio Show and A Little Late with Lilly Singh to scripted series like Quinta Brunson’s Abbott Elementary. 

This summer has brought several more high-profile Hollywood operators to creator-helmed and creator-inspired projects →

Looking ahead: Hollywood is taking inspiration from creators on multiple platforms—from TikTok trends to YouTube livestreams. As Spring Breakers director Harmony Korine recently told IndieWire, “IShowSpeed is a movie, Kai Cenat is a movie.”

Last week, Twitch updated its Ad Manager to allow Partner streamers to control how many ads are played during their streams on a sliding scale. They’ll also be able to see when ads are being played on their streams.

Quick backstory: Pre-roll ads that play at the start of every Twitch stream have been a pain point among viewers and streamers alike—something Twitch CEO Dan Clancy has criticized as an obstacle for new streamers looking to gain viewership.

“[The new Ad Manager updates] can be useful for streamers that care about their community and let them experience their streams if they’re not subbed,” gaming streamer Jesus Garcia told us.

The revenue details: Partner streamers will see revenue estimates based on how much ad time they select for their streams (something they used to only see with Twitch’s Ads Incentive Program). Those estimates are regenerated monthly based on streamers’ ad-running activity in the past.

Looking to bring on new team members? You can post opportunities on our (free) job board here.