The Untold Truth Of Jimmy Tatro

In the early days of YouTube, Jimmy Tatro became a star for skits like "How to Have Sex on a Plane" and "Partying Sober vs Drunk" from his channel "LifeAccordingToJimmy." More than just a YouTuber, Tatro showed he could entertain on a wide variety of platforms. On the big screen, he appeared in comedies like "22 Jump Street" and "The King of Staten Island." Over on Facebook, Tatro created and starred in the mini-series "The Real Bros of Simi Valley." As for more traditional formats, Tatro played one of the main characters on the ABC family comedy "Home Economics," alongside Topher Grace. Tatro also teamed up with big names Dave Franco, Daryl Hannah, and Bill Murray on the Farrelly brothers' TV series "The Now," which debuted in 2021 on Roku after it moved over from the defunct Quibi network, per Coming Soon.

Perhaps Tatro's biggest hit was on the Netflix series "American Vandal." The mockumentary series followed high school kids investigating vandalism in the style of true crime genre documentaries. For his role as Dylan Maxwell on the streaming service, Tatro earned a Best Actor nomination at the Critics Choice Awards. Not all the recognition has been easy for Tatro, who quickly learned about the differences between YouTube fame and Hollywood fame. This is the untold truth of Jimmy Tatro.

Jimmy Tatro was born in 1992, as indicated by his 30th birthday celebration in 2022. One of three kids, Tatro attended a Catholic school where he wasn't always on his best behavior. As he told GQ, "I've had my fair share of pink slips with ridiculous reasons on them." Around the age of 10, Tatro started creating skateboarding videos. As he told "What's Trending," he was convinced that he was going to become a pro skateboarder or play basketball in the NBA.

After his dreams faded away from the X Games, Tatro's videos pivoted from skate clips to comedy skits. To record higher quality home movies, Tatro told Knight News he joined a TV production class in high school and learned how to use editing software. More than just improving his skills behind the camera, Tatro became a member of his school's morning TV crew. Unfortunately for Tatro, his comedic sensibilities did not totally line up with the news-focused program. "I definitely had a pretty big beef with my TV production teacher," he said in GQ.

As a teen, Jimmy Tatro attended Notre Dame High School, a private college prep school in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In addition to his studies, Tatro was actively involved in sports. He told Collider that he joined his high school's football team, but that didn't stick for long. "I'd say my peak of football was seventh-grade flag football," he said.

In addition to playing volleyball all four years at high school, Tatro was a member of the varsity basketball team. According to Max Preps, he averaged 1.7 points per game in a total of ten games. Tatro disputed these numbers in an interview for "Pardon My Take." While he admitted his real average wasn't much higher, maybe around eight points per game, the actor claimed he once scored 40 points during a tournament game. 

Tatro told "Pardon My Take" he honed his skills at various basketball camps and became a three point specialist. He also revealed that he didn't get along too well with his coach. More than just taking jump shots on the basketball court, Tatro also used the facilities to entertain his fellow students. A video shows Tatro and two of his classmates dressed up in athletic gear but dancing to the song "Sandstorm" by Darude during a school pep rally.

While attending the University of Arizona, Jimmy Tatro entered into the Greek life system and said that more than anything, he was happy to be part of an organization. "You can definitely have a good time in college no matter what you're involved in, you just gotta be involved in something," he explained to Knight News. At least on one occasion, Tatro became a little too involved in Greek life. Per The Los Angeles Loyolan, in one of his standup sets, he recounted the time when he landed in jail after running from cops while intoxicated. Oh, and he happened to be wearing an elf costume.

While in the slammer, Tatro remembered trying to fight a guy. "Santa's gonna be so mad," he said he told his fellow inmates about his misdeeds. Tatro then used his wild experience to create the skit "Campus Police" on his YouTube channel. "Inspired by the s***heads over at the University of Arizona Police Department and Tucson PD," reads the video description.

Tatro may have had even more stories if he completed his degree. Instead, he dropped out during his junior year in college and started putting all of his time and energy into creating YouTube videos, according to TCU 360.

As Jimmy Tatro was rising in popularity for his pre-taped skits on his YouTube channel "LifeAccordingToJimmy," he decided to make fans laugh in person. "I'm in the process of planning a stand up comedy tour right now," Tatro said in a 2014 Reddit AMA. He realized his dream with the 2016 tour called "Jimmy Tatro Live: Memoirs of a College Dropout." During his standup sets, Tatro would talk about pop culture and his experiences throughout college. Proving that he could make people smile in various formats, Tatro received positive feedback for his shows. "I was afraid that he wouldn't be as funny as we know him to be from his countless videos," a student in the audience told the Sonoma State Star. Instead, that same person admitted about Tatro, "I was actually really surprised of how funny he is in person." 

University students from around the country were delighted by Tatro's live show. He was especially well received in his home city of Los Angeles after a performance at Loyola Marymount University. "I think he's so popular at LMU because he can relate to college students the most and that's what most of his jokes are about," an attendee told The Los Angeles Loyolan. Showing love for the locals, Tatro reportedly took time for a meet and greet after that particular show for lucky fans that won a competition.

Jimmy Tatro has never been shy to show off his family in public. For example, when he brought both his mom and dad to the taping of his appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", Tatro said that his parents incorrectly assumed he'd be embarrassed to bring them. And when he went to the 2018 Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles for his nomination from "American Vandal," Tatro adorably brought his mother as a plus one. "Thank you to my mom for being an amazing date," he posted on Instagram along with a photo of the two on the red carpet. "She's definitely cool in my opinion," Tatro said about his mom on "The Drew Barrymore Show." What's more, it sure seems like Tatro can goof around with his parents. On April 1, 2022, the actor shared a screengrab of a text conversation where he "cancelled" plans with his dad only to say he was joking. "Pranked my dad so hard today. Classic," he wrote. 

Though he's not a father in real life, on the TV show "Home Economics," Tatro got to be a parent. "A lot of people, my age would be worried about getting aged up by playing a dad," Tatro told The Daily Beast. Instead, Tatro liked the image change compared to his normal roles as college characters. It also meant the actor was qualified to tell "Dad Jokes" in a face-off of cringeworthy jokes with his co-star Topher Grace.

From a young age, Jimmy Tatro enjoyed making videos to make people laugh. In high school, he tried to use his comedic skills as a reporter on his school's morning show but felt restricted to more serious journalism. "It was extremely frustrating to have the videos but not have an outlet to show everyone my funny videos," he recalled of those days to Knight News. While at the University of Arizona, Tatro linked up with fellow student Christian Pierce and the two began writing and directing comedy sketches. Though Tatro was the star, Pierce said he equally enjoyed the success of the YouTube videos. "I feel just as important because we really put the same amount of effort into everything," Pierce said about Tatro to The Tab. "Jimmy and I write, produce, direct everything as a team. We work as one unit and it's great," Pierce added.

Tatro admitted making videos was fun but he also liked the monetary potential. After learning how much money famous YouTubers could make, Tatro focused much of his time on creating videos. Not that success came as quickly as he hoped. "It was a slow burn," Tatro said about the success of his YouTube videos on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" He was ecstatic about his first viral video, which quickly had 100,000 views.

Tatro celebrated the 10 year anniversary of his "LifeAccordingToJimmy" channel in 2022. At the time, he had an impressive 3.45 million subscribers to the channel.

Though Jimmy Tatro could have easily stayed exclusively on YouTube, he dreamed of expanding his reach in entertainment. Plus, Tatro said his videos were becoming too expensive to create. "I've always had aspirations to do bigger, longer things," he told Thrillist. Tatro's very first acting role unsurprisingly came in the comedy genre with the film "Grown Ups 2." Tatro's frat guy character was part of a posse with "Twilight" star Taylor Lautner. As for the experience filming in Boston, Tatro told "What's Trending" that the entire Happy Madison crew was great to work with. "Adam Sandler's like the nicest guy ever," he said. 

Tatro went on to appear in other films but without having full control over creation and distribution like his YouTube videos, Tatro experienced the ups and downs that come with the territory of being an actor. Countering his successes, Tatro also experienced disappointments and failed projects. One of his most promising opportunities was the ABC show "Bright Futures." The comedy featured Tatro alongside big names like Lisa Kudrow as the show's narrator, model Emily Ratajkowski, and comedian Lilly Singh, Deadline reported. After ABC passed on the pilot, NBC picked up the show but sadly for all parties involved, the project never saw the light of day, per Deadline. Though the two didn't appear together in the series, Tatro and Singh showed their comedic chemistry while playing cornhole on her YouTube show "A Little Late With Lilly Singh."

The first season of "American Vandal" revolved around amateur high school detectives trying to find out who vandalized the school with graffiti penises. One of the lead suspects in the show was played by Jimmy Tatro. Though the series was satire, the format was so similar to real crime documentaries that some viewers were convinced it was a true story. As a result, one fan approached Tatro in a grocery store only to learn that he is an actor. Alternatively, as he explained on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", other fans who know the show is a joke have asked Tatro to draw the show vandal's, ahem, illustration in lieu of an actual signature. Oh, and that's not all. As Tatro shared with GQ, "My friend was getting a new wrap job on his car and asked me to spray paint a d*** on it."

For almost as long as he's been in the public eye, fans have assumed Tatro is exactly like his frat boy YouTube character. He told Collider, "But I have a lot of weird interactions just because I do a lot of videos on the party scene, so a lot of people will come up to me and say completely out-of-hand statements, and expect me to just think that they're awesome."

In a Reddit AMA, Tatro revealed what he really thought about becoming famous. "To be overly honest, it gets annoying," he admitted. According to the actor, the best part of the job is when people say they appreciate his work.

While attending college at the University of Arizona, Jimmy Tatro decided to rush fraternities at the insistence of his friends. Prior to exploring the different frats to join, Tatro told Knight News that he didn't think the scene would be his thing. However, after he joined Pi Kappa Phi, he was pleasantly surprised to connect with other guys who would become his best friends. Tatro admitted that he encountered some of guys who fit the stereotypical frat dude mold along the way, and he channeled the persona into his performances. "The Real Bros of Simi Valley" series on Facebook was a perfect vehicle for Tatro to show off his skills portraying a not-so-smart but charming bro. 

Eventually, Tatro decided he wanted to pivot away from his frat guy reputation in Hollywood. That is, until big name directors wanted Tatro to reprise his formula. As he shared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", Tyler Perry called him once and asked him to be a part of his movie "Boo! a Madea Halloween." Only, Tatro thought it was a prank phone call from an unknown number and hung up. Perry called Tatro back using video and the stunned actor could only say yes to appearing in the film as a frat boy.

During an interview with "Pardon My Take," Jimmy Tatro talked about his experiences with marijuana. The California native alluded to smoking weed when he was in high school, but said that the older he gets, the stronger the stuff gets. When the actor visits dispensaries, he said the best method for him is to ask for something bad because a seller once said 38% THC was a good amount for a casual user. Speaking of dispensaries, he revealed on Reddit that the strangest place a fan ever spotted him in public was at a weed store.

While not obsessed, he still likes to celebrate a stoner's favorite holiday. "Don't get me wrong I'll smoke a lot of weed today, but I'm not about to be the guy walking around saying happy 420 like I live for this s***," Tatro wrote on Twitter on April 20, 2017.

In the past, Tatro was quite resourceful when it came to lighting up. During one of his standup shows, Tatro revealed that he used various materials from his hotel room in Las Vegas to construct a crude bong to smoke marijuana, The Breeze reported. In the same set, Tatro also joked that he got high enough to believe in alien abduction conspiracies.

Early in his career as a YouTube star, Jimmy Tatro appeared to be romantically involved with Emily Osment, an actor best known for her role as Miley Cyrus' best friend on the Disney series "Hannah Montana." In a Reddit AMA thread, Tatro said of Osment, "We met through a mutual friend." In an on stage interview, he explained that the mutual friend used to be a guitarist in Osment's band. A different Reddit user further pressed on the relationship and asked if Tatro was sleeping with Osment. "Uh.....no comment," the actor replied. Another commenter mentioned how Osment was in several of Tatro's videos and wondered what their status was. "We date and stuff," he admitted, then adding, "ARE YOU HAPPY EVERYONE!?" 

The two ultimately broke up and Tatro found himself enamored with actor Zoey Deutch. Her credits include a lead in the Netflix romcom "Set It Up," the object of Ed Sheeran's affection in the video for "Perfect," and a part in Richard Linklakter's "Everybody Wants Some!!" Similar to Osment, Deutch also has ties to Disney, as she appeared in the TV series "The Suite Life on Deck." In February of 2021, Tatro posted a cute series of photos with Deutch including one of her licking his face and others of the two traveling around together. "Just using today as an excuse to post some top notch untapped Zoey content," he wrote. Aw.

As an expert in building an audience on YouTube, Jimmy Tatro also knew a thing or two about navigating social media. Growing up with various apps, Tatro was also smart enough to recognize the changing landscape that comes with posting. "Social media is crazy. You can no longer sing your racist frat song," he joked during one of his standup sets at James Madison University, per The Breeze. In the past, Tatro tried out many experiments on social media, including his user name. For a time in 2013, Tatro's Instagram handle was @jimbuktu, referencing the West African city in Mali. Tatro also used to be on BlackBerry messenger, or BBM, and would change his name almost daily. Some of his more comical handles were "Jim and Juice," "Jimprov," "Jim Possible," and "Jungle Jim."

As of 2022, Tatro's Instagram name is simply @jimmy with over 500,000 followers. In an interview on "A Little Late With Lilly Singh," Tatro revealed how he secured what was probably one of the earliest usernames on Instagram. "I actually got quite lucky with that," he admitted. Tatro explained @jimmy was already taken by another user but one day a friend sent a group chat with that handle tagged. When Tatro clicked on the profile, he noticed the user was no longer active. The actor pounced on the opportunity and abandoned his account as "Jimprov" to pick up the highly coveted @jimmy. "I just scooped it up," he remembered.

Jimmy Tatro used charities as a punchline in his viral video "GRANT A WISH KID'S TOUCHDOWN GETS DENIED!" The clip introduces a fictional 9-year-old boy who was, as the video explains, "born with a potato for a heart." The kid gets a chance to play in a professional football game, only to be violently tackled at the end. It's the second-most viewed video ever on his YouTube channel "LifeAccordingToJimmy," with over 25 million views as of 2022.

Besides referencing fake nonprofits, Tatro has used his influence to help a real charitable cause. After the Serengetee brand reached out to the YouTube star to help bring awareness to the victims of Hurricane Sandy, Tatro wore a Serengetee shirt and mentioned the brand towards the end of one of his clips. "I just honestly really liked them," Tatro told Verizon when asked why he promoted the shirts for free. After the video racked up over half a million views, Serengetee posted about a line of shirts with the colorful pockets on Instagram. The Jimmy Tatro Pocket shirt collection featuring a men's button up shirt, t-shirt, and a tank top quickly became must-have items for his fans. Orders for the shirts crashed the brand's website but the collaboration was a win for all in the end. "Stoked to hear that my serengetee line has raised over $15,000 for charity," Tatro posted on Twitter.

Jimmy Tatro landed an amazing opportunity to join the cast of "22 Jump Street" when he was still trying to establish himself as a movie actor. While he was excited to work alongside Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in the sequel, Tatro was less thrilled about a visual component of the role: a huge red mohawk. As he recalled to Collider, even though he really did not want to have his hair styled in that way, producers dug their heels in.

"I didn't want to go Chuck Liddell, red stripe down the head," he said, referencing the famous MMA fighter. Instead, Tatro was able to convince the team that a less extreme fauxhawk may be a good compromise. Plus, the actor thought it looked even cooler.

When not sporting a mohawk, Tatro is often seen with his hair expertly styled up and out of his face. A fan asked the actor how he gets his hair to look so good. "It doesn't really take much effort," he admitted on "What's Trending." Tatro demonstrated his technique of simply pushing his hair back. Speaking of hair tips, Tatro once sincerely asked on Twitter, "Hey bald guys, do you wash your heads with soap or shampoo?"

Jimmy Tatro came a long way from his life as a college kid to a celebrity. On "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Tatro remembered looking into obscure ways to make more money while in college, including selling his white blood cells. Ultimately, Tatro determined making comedic videos for YouTube was a lucrative alternative. With some of his cash earned from YouTube and his work in entertainment, Tatro started to collect cars of all sizes, whether it be a remote controlled toy car or a real Tesla. "I actually won it through one of David Dobrik's giveaways," Tatro quipped on "Pardon My Take." All jokes aside, owning a car was a big moment for Tatro. "I never really had money as a kid so i'm just happy to be able to buy things without worrying," he revealed during a Reddit AMA. "My car was definitely a big purchase for me though," he added.

All the fame doesn't mean Tatro is too big time to take simple shopping trips. He once shared a snap on Instagram documenting his visit to Walmart, holding a basketball. Now that would be a slam dunk purchase.