The Untold Truth Of Marzia Kjellberg

Marzia Kjellberg (née Marzia Bisognin) started her rise to internet fame when she launched her YouTube channel in 2012. Marzia quickly built a following by posting vlogs, DIY instructions, and fashion tips, and within just two years she had millions of people showing up to watch her videos. Her channel grew to millions of subscribers before she decided to quit the platform and remove every video she'd ever posted.

If you never got around to watching Marzia's videos, you probably know her as PewDiePie's wife. The two met in 2011 (per Newsweek) and started living together while they each pursued careers on YouTube. In the years since they've worked on video series, games, and even fashion brands together. Marzia still shows up in the occasional video on her husband's channel, but now she mostly stays away from the camera. When she isn't dealing with PewDiePie's in everyday life, she's pursuing countless creative projects and helping to run two different brands.

Marzia Kjellberg is the rare YouTuber who made it big quickly and then stepped away on her own terms. By shifting her energy away from making videos, she's managed to forge a unique path.

Marzia started down the path to internet fame a full decade ago. She launched her YouTube channel in 2012, when she was just 20 years old. By some measures, she was a late arrival on YouTube. After all, platform had already been up for seven years by the time she joined, and other prominent YouTubers, like Kjellberg's future husband Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, had already been creating content for a while. Even so, she wasted no time in getting her channel off the ground.

CutiePieMarzia, as the channel was called then, primarily posted vlogs, DIY projects, and fashion tips. By July 2013, about a year and a half after Marzia started making videos, her channel had grown to more than a million subscribers. In 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that CutiePieMarzie was one of the most watched beauty and makeup channels on YouTube, generating millions of views every single month. With a large and growing audience, Marzia was free to start branching out into other passions. 

Even though she's now left YouTube behind, her vacant channel still has over 7 million loyal fans subscribed to it, just waiting for her to pop back in.

Marzia's relationship with PewDiePie has been a big part of both YouTuber's careers. She was actually introduced to PewDiePie (a.k.a. Felix Kjellberg) through YouTube when a friend of hers recommended some of his videos (via Metro). Marzia decided to reach out to say how much she enjoyed his content, and the two hit it off and started talking on Facebook Messenger. According to Newsweek, the two started living together in Sweden in October 2011, just a few short months before Marzia officially launched her own YouTube channel. 

For years, PewDiePie and CutiePieMarzia were a YouTube power couple. They occasionally appeared in each other's videos, but mostly the two of them continued to grow their audiences individually. After moving in together in 2011, the couple took their next big step in August 2019. Kjellberg posted on Instagram to celebrate their wedding, which she said took place on a day "exactly 8 years since we met." 

Their ceremony included a small group of the couple's "closest friends and family," though fans were able to vicariously attend the wedding through the posts and videos Marzia and PewDiePie made. 

After achieving success on YouTube, Marzia set her sights on other creative endeavors. One of her first notable offline projects was writing the novel "Dream House," which was released under her maiden name, Marzia Bisognin. The book was published in 2015 by Keywords Press, an Atria Books imprint that focuses on books written by internet celebrities.

The book follows a young woman named Amethyst who's on the hunt for her dream home. She finds the perfect house and is even invited to spend a night there by the family selling it. When Amethyst arrives for the stay, however, things start to go sideways. First she wakes up to discover the family missing, then she realizes that she can't make herself leave. Amethyst begins to meet the strange cast of characters living in and around the house as she hunts for the missing family and the truth about the house.

"Dream House" combines ghost story and haunted house elements to tell a brief but entertaining story. The book found its fair share of readers, but received some mixed reviews after its release. Marzia hasn't released a second book yet, but she's kept herself plenty busy with other projects.

After becoming a YouTube star and publishing a novel, Marzia tackled some voice acting projects. It's not a huge leap from YouTube to a vocal booth, after all, and some of Marzia's acting roles had direct ties to her career online.

Kjellberg's first notable acting gig was on the streaming miniseries "Oscar's Hotel for Fantastical Creatures," in the episode "Hunger Pains." The show, which was filmed with a mix of live actors and puppetry, won multiple Streamy Awards the year it debuted. After the show, Marzia went on to voice herself in PewDiePie's video game, "PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist." The game was released for iOS on September 24, 2015 to mostly positive reviews. Later that year a PC version of the game was also released.

Kjellberg's most recent voice acting job was on the series "Pugatory." In this project, Marzia collaborated with her future husband as well as voice actor Ted Evans to create a web series about two pugs who get trapped in another dimension and have to work together to escape it. There's always a chance that Marzia will return to voice acting, but her career has been pointed in a different direction in more recent years.

Marzia spent nearly seven years posting videos on YouTube before she decided to call it quits. In 2018, her decision to put an end to her channel came as a shock to much of the community, especially her biggest fans. The Verge reported Kjellberg's decision on October 22, 2018, shortly after she posted a video to her channel explaining her thought process to her fans. She started by assuring viewers that her decision to leave was "something that [she] knew for a long time."

Marzia went on to explain that although she'd always treasured her fans, she'd long suffered from a kind of imposter syndrome when it came to her fame. "I felt like I was a fraud," she said, adding, "I didn't deserve all the attention." As Kjellberg stressed over her YouTube status more and more, she started cutting herself off from others. Finally, realized it was time for a change. "I don't want to force myself to keep going when I feel like I'm ready to do something different," she explained.

Marzia's YouTube channel still exists, but today the page is entirely blank. After posting her goodbye video, Kjellberg went ahead and removed every clip from the channel. 7.4 million subscribers are still hoping to someday see a new Marzia video, but for now, Kjellberg is having plenty of success in her latest career path.

So what exactly is Marzia Kjellberg up to now that she's quit YouTube? She primarily keeps up with her fans via Instagram, which is also where she gives updates on the two brands that she currently runs. She co-founded the clothing brand Tsuki with her husband. The brand is committed to creating ethically-sourced, environmentally friendly clothing that's still fashionable and affordable for most people. Marzia and PewDiePie design all the clothes themselves.

On her own, Marzia also runs Maì., a brand that sells ceramics, jewelry, clothing, and other products that she designs and creates herself. She initially launched the brand that she called her "secret project" back in July 2018, working with a team that handled the logistics of the business so she could focus on creating the products themselves. According to Marzia, her cousin helped her get into developing fine jewelry, while her father was the inspiration behind her various decor products. Over the last few years, running her various brands and designing new items has taken up much of Marzia's time.

Even when she was at her most active on YouTube, Marzia didn't make too many crossover videos with PewDiePie. That remained true even after she left the platform in 2018. For months, fans wondered where she had gone and whether or not they'd ever see her again. Of course, being married to another famous (and still very much active) YouTuber means it's pretty difficult for Marzia to avoid the camera altogether.

She returned to YouTube on PewDiePie's channel on March 3, 2019 for a video titled "QnA with future Wifey." She said it felt "weird" to be making a video after being away for so long, but she quickly eased back into her old style as she and her fiance answered questions from fans. The next time anyone got a glimpse of Kjellberg was in the wedding video that PewDiePie uploaded to his channel. Now after years of Kjellberg's YouTube retirement it's clear that she won't be appearing in PewDiePie videos very regularly at all, but fans will likely see her again the next time the couple has a big life announcement to make. 

When Marzia Kjellberg left YouTube, she said, "It's about me needing to find my path... I've felt like I was following someone else's, and I think it's about time that I give myself a chance with something else" (via The Verge). She absolutely took that chance, going on to create two different brands and produce designer products for her customers. However, Kjellberg wasn't just talking about branching out in her career. She also wanted to stretch her skills artistically.

You already know Marzia Kjellberg as a content creator, author, voice actor, and designer — but there's also Marzia Kjellberg, the artist. She spoke with Evermade about her drawing, painting, and printmaking. Kjellberg said her interest in art came from her art classes in school. She drifted away from creating in that way for a while, but now she's back in full force.

"I still like to base my illustrations on my photographs," Kjellberg said when asked about her method. Drawing on old photographs or even old paintings helps Kjellberg to see colors and shapes in a whole new light. She said that she worked in "a tiny corner beneath [her] staircase" throughout the pandemic, but the limitation didn't stop her from creating a series of prints called "Time," in addition to a swath of new products for her Maì brand.

After getting married, Marzia Kjellberg and PewDiePie decided it was the perfect time to buy a home and start a new adventure together. They announced in September 2019 that they had purchased a house in Japan and were planning on moving there from their current home in Brighton as soon as possible (via Dexerto). Fans were excited for the couple and eagerly awaited news of their big move. Then they kept waiting ... and waiting.

PewDiePie gave everyone an update on the situation with a YouTube video titled "Why am I still here.. (Japan Update)," which he uploaded on December 29, 2021. In the video, PewDiePie briefly talked about why he and his wife decided to move to a new country together, before revealing the not-so-surprising reason their move had been delayed. When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, Japan closed its borders, and the couple had to put their move on hold. According to PewDiePie, the two still plan on relocating to Japan, but they aren't sure when that's actually going to be able to happen. At least they have each other.