Creatorverse: How IShowSpeed and the Obamas Partnered on a Critically Praised Doc

Hey Creatorverse readers, In the coming weeks and months, there will be countless thinkpieces about how creators and social media impacted the 2026 American midterms. But while that’s all being sorted out, it’s worth shining a light on one of the coolest creator collaborations of this year: how mega-streamer IShowSpeed partnered with Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground and Oscar-winning documentarian Ben Proudfoot to make one of the most interesting documentaries of the season. “The Eyes of Ghana” isn’t what you may expect from a creator project, a label that many still mistakenly correlate with low quality. Proudfoot’s film, which premiered at TIFF, is a meticulously researched, gorgeously filmed and inspiring deep dive into the life of Chris Tsui Hesse, the cameraman to Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah. The documentary expertly explains how Nkrumah was key to inspiring the liberation and decolonization of the African continent throughout the 1950s and ‘60s while showcasing Hesse’s personal collection of films, the originals of which were burned. It’s a celebration of the power of filmmaking, which is partially why Proudfoot thought to bring IShowSpeed to the project. “There’s a real tie between the impulse of a filmmaker to show people the world through their eyes and a streamer’s impulse to do the same thing, which is why, among other reasons, it was such an easy fit with Speed,” Proudfoot told me. Proudfoot first learned of Nkrumah and Hesse’s stories in 2021 while making a film in Ghana for UNICEF. He soon started working on what would become “The Eyes of Ghana,” a project that Higher Ground joined a couple of years later. But Proudfoot knew that a documentary about African history would be a hard sell to most TV and film executives. Right as he was starting to think outside the box, IShowSpeed announced his 28-day tour across 20 African nations. The tour took place between December of last year and January and was a massive event, generating an estimated 16 million watch hours in total. Speed’s tour was also widely praised for authentically introducing so many people to communities that are often ignored or incorrectly represented by mainstream media. Fittingly for the doc, Speed ended his tour by being awarded a Ghanaian passport (the streamer’s mother is from the West African country). “That’s when it clicked for me that maybe there is an extraordinary opportunity here with somebody who had the ear of the internet,” Proudfoot said, noting that 60% of the African continent is under 30 years old. Speed, whom Proudfoot said “loved” the movie, quickly embraced the idea. He and his team have been involved in the distribution and marketing of the documentary, supporting its ongoing theatrical showings and livestreaming the trailer on his channel. That trailer scored over 25 million views, a shockingly high number for a documentary. “You look at the entire continent of Africa, and — more or less — almost all of its independence can funnel back to this story and this history,” Ethan Lewis, head of non-fiction and sports at Higher Ground, told me, noting that people have tried to erase Nkrumah’s story. “It almost worked if it weren’t for Chris Hesse saving it and for then Ben getting out, meeting him and telling the story at scale.” Speed using his own filmmaking platform to highlight the work of a nearly forgotten filmmaker is a beautiful story. But more than that, “The Eyes of Ghana” is a breathing example of how great things can happen when the walls between “traditional” Hollywood and the creator economy are broken down to focus on great art. Now onto the rest. Kayla Cobb Senior Reporterkayla.cobb@thewrap.com NBC News’ Kornacki Cam (NBC News) In Political News The Kornacki Cam scores over 6.3 million views on YouTube for NBC News Break’s over; back to the midterms. Once again, one of the biggest digital stars on Tuesday night was NBC News’ Steve Kornacki, the meme-able pollster who has gained a bit of a cult following. Over the course of the night, the Kornacki Cam — which was streamed on YouTube while NBC News anchors ran the traditional broadcast just feet away in the same studio — was seen by 6.3 million viewers on YouTube and scored 29 million views across platforms. Personally, I witnessed over 330,000 concurrent viewers around 9 p.m. ET as well as a super supportive comments section that repeatedly called Kornacki a “king” and encouraged him to drink water. It was all a delightful mix of lo-fi, intimate livestreaming with the toys and tools of a national broadcast. Obviously, Kornaki is a distinct talent whose superpowers catch the internet’s attention every two years. But there’s something to the Kornacki Cam. If NBC News can find a way to capture that YouTube magic for everyday news, we could be in a whole new era. Piers Morgan’s livestream hits over 650,000 views, and Jubilee’s hits over 260,000 views Speaking of YouTube livestreams, Piers Morgan’s “Uncensored” secured over 656,000 views during the course of the evening. As for Jubilee’s livestream, which was co-hosted by “The Split” hosts David Mauricio and Austin Julio Broughton, that scored over 265,000 views. I know that Morgan’s viewership was bigger, but Jubilee’s story is more interesting to me considering that last month the digital media company partnered with CNN on a town hall with senator-elect James Talarico. That town hall scored over 1 million views on Jubilee’s YouTube channel alone. It’s early days and Jubilee’s always a bit divisive, but this is proof that there’s something to traditional news media partnering with creator-focused companies. Over one-fourth of Americans said that creator content has influenced their voting habits According to a survey of 2,000 U.S. adults from Business Insider, 26% of those surveyedsaid that creator content has influenced their voting habits in the past. Also, influencer marketing company Fohr told Scalable that, as of mid-October, 83% of U.S. creators were already doing, planning to do or would accept paid political work. However, only 29% of creators reported that they were approached about any kind of political content ahead of the midterms. Steven Bartlett on “Diary of a CEO” (Photo Credit: YouTube) What’s New Steven Bartlett’s “Diary of a CEO” is now the most-subscribed podcast on YouTube After months of teasing, “Diary of a CEO” has officially dethroned “The Joe Rogan Experience” as the most-subscribed podcast on YouTube. As of the first of the month, Bartlett’s podcast has 21.3 million YouTube subscribers and has added more than 7 million YouTube subscribers in 2026 alone. This audience increase was due to “Diary of a CEO” being translated into more than 20 languages as The Publish Press broke down earlier this week. Instagram is offering to pay creators up to $500,000 to lure them off of YouTube Instagram’s longform offering, Features, still doesn’t have a revenue-sharing model, but its parent company still has deep pockets. Meta has offered select creators up to $500,000 to post on Features. These deals aren’t platform exclusive, but YouTube probably isn’t thrilled about this development considering the platform’s talent tug-of-war with Netflix. California will let child creators request the removal of content once they turn 18 Starting in January, child creators will be able to request the removal of their content once they turn 18 years old. This bill was approved in California and is different than the Child Content Creator Rights Act, which requires family vloggers to set aside a portion of their earnings for minors who appear in at least 30% of content. In related news, Meta and Snap settled another social media addiction case, which was supposed to go to trial this week. The financial terms of the settlement were undisclosed. YouTube and TikTok previously settled the case. iShowSpeed in the trailer fro “Speed Does Africa” (Photo Credit: YouTube) Platform Updates YouTube surpasses 150 million Premium subscribers, but Wall Street’s AI backlash intensifies YouTube’s Premium and Music surpassed 150 million subscribers, Alphabet reported during the company’s third quarter earnings report last week. That same report revealed that YouTube’s ad revenue increased 9% year over year to hit $11.2 billion and that living room viewership accounted for a third of YouTube’s overall ad revenue. It was a solid quarter for Alphabet overall, but that didn’t stop the company’s stock from dropping.Meta experienced a similar decline as Wall Street becomes increasingly anxious about whether big tech’s massive investment in AI is paying off. In the case of Alphabet, there’s growing concern that Google’s own AI summaries might be cannibalizing its core ad business. Reddit will require users to create accounts to use the website Speaking of AI-inspired changes, Reddit will soon be requiring users to have accounts after reporting weakened guidance for the fourth quarter of this year. Since its creation, the self-described “front page of the internet” has allowed users to search and browse Reddit communities without an account, a system that has made the platform especially valuable to companies looking to train AI models. Google’s shift to AI mode and AI overviews were specifically cited as the reason for this change. The platform will also soon be offering a “For You” and “Following” feed similar to TikTok. Discord servers will be searchable later this month Starting Nov. 16,Discord servers that have more than 1,000 members for more than eight months will be searchable on Google. If you know anything about Discord, that news should make you raise an eyebrow. The forum hub is an excellent organizational and communication tool for large communities, but the platform’s decentralized design and self-moderation approach means that Discord is used by both innocuous groups, like running clubs, and more nefarious ones, like alt right groups. Server administrators and users will be able to opt out of Google search. Still of “MrBeast Lab” (Photo Credit: Beast Industries, Studio Moshi, Moose Toys) Movers and Shakers MrBeast spent $7 million to level up his animated series “Beast Labs” Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, seriously invested in the second installment of his animated series, “Beast Labs.” In a new video, Donaldson revealed that he spent $7 million on the eight new episodes that will be released in the coming months. That money went into bettering the animation, hiring writers like Jameel Saleem (“Bob’s Burgers”) and Daniel Kibblesmith (“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”) and hiring professional voice actors like Fred Tatasciore, known for voicing the Hulk. The first episode of the new and improved series has already scored 6 million views in two days. Who needs studios when you have Beast Industries? Druski signs with Netflix Ahead of his “SNL” debut, Druski signed a multiyear development deal with Netflix. The deal will start with the premiere of “Collect & Praise” in December, a comedy that stars Druski and Mike Epps as two money-hungry leaders of a megachurch. Netflix will also license select content from Druski’s existing catalog. Meanwhile, Tubi signed a distribution deal with 85 South Media, the Atlanta-native independent media company, which will bring 10 episodes of “The 85 South Show” to the streamer. As for Paramount+, several Moonbug shows, including “CoComelon’s JJ’s Animal Time,” “CoComelon’s The Melon Patch,” “Blippi,” “Meekah” and “Little Baby Bum,” will be coming to the streamer. Hasan Piker files $72 million defamation lawsuit against Scott Jennings We can’t talk about creators and politics without mentioning leftwing streamer Hasan Piker. Last week, Piker filed a $72.5 million defamation suit against Scott Jennings, a conservative commentator for CNN. The lawsuit came about after Jennings falsely told his podcast listeners that Piker advocated for lynchings. Piker’s lawyer in the case told Vanity Fair the creator is “just getting started” and that there are likely more defamation suits on the way. Who to Watch “If Technoblade’s Life Was a Movie…” At long last, Sticks’ (1.16 million YouTube subscribers) ode to the late YouTuber Technoblade is here. Alexander, who was known online as Technoblade, wasa streamer known for his Minecraft videos who had nearly 11 million subscribers. After announcing his cancer diagnosis in 2021, he died of the illness a little less than a year later. The short film directed by Lucas and Curtis Nicotra was originally shown during Disney’s “Created in LA” event and was made with the blessing of Technoblade’s father. Viewers are also encouraged to support the Sarcoma Foundation of America. Sticks often reimagines popular creators as the subjects of movie trailers. But the channel’s latest short shows how loving and respectful this often silly pursuit can be. Bonus Content How IShowSpeed Became the Most Influential Streamer in the World (via New York Times) Meet the Duo Who Left 60 Minutes and Launched Their Own Newsgirls Empire (via Vanity Fair) How a Kansas City Vlogger Captivated New York Society (via Semafor) Want more? Explore WrapPRO now. This report provides a weekly deep dive into the creator economy. It highlights key trends, political and technological developments, data points and industry leaders all with the goal of making you smarter about this constantly evolving space.