| Lynja | |||||||||||||
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 Lynja in 2021 | |||||||||||||
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| Born | Lynn T. Yamada (1956-07-31)July 31, 1956 New York City, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Died | January 1, 2024(2024-01-01) (aged 67) Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Other names | Lynn Yamada Davis | ||||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Chef, engineer | ||||||||||||
| Children | 4, includingSean | ||||||||||||
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Last updated: June 22, 2024 | |||||||||||||
Lynn T. Yamada Davis (July 31, 1956 – January 1, 2024), mononymously better known by her online aliasLynja, was an American onlinecelebrity chef known for her viralTikTok andYouTube Shorts videos. Praised for her quick-styled editing and references to popularinternet memes, "Cooking with Lynja" accumulated over 13.9 million subscribers on YouTube and over 22 million followers on TikTok as of February 2025.[2]
Davis earned degrees fromMIT andColumbia Business School. She worked atAT&T Labs for 29 years. Her interest in video-making flourished in 2020, when she was 63. Since going viral, she won threeStreamy Awards and built up a fanbase of dedicated viewers.
Lynn T. Yamada was born inNew York City on July 31, 1956 to Mabel Fujisake and Tadao Yamada.[3] She was a third-generationJapanese-American and grew up inFort Lee,New Jersey.[4][5]
She attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning a degree incivil engineering in 1977.[3][6] During her time at MIT, she was the chairwoman forThe Tech student newspaper.[7] Following her graduation, she was employed by the government and worked to ensure the accessibility of federal buildings.[8] She went on to earn degrees in public health and business administration from Columbia Business School.[3]
Davis worked at AT&T Labs (then Bell Labs) for 29 years as a project manager and systems engineer.[8]
Davis began creating videos for TikTok in 2020 when she was 63.[9] The idea for the videos came from her youngest son, Tim Davis, who was honing his video editing skills, while they were in lockdown during theCOVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.[10] He helped shoot and edit each of her "Cooking with Lynja" videos since 2020.[3] The videos were praised byVice for their simple recipes, clever editing techniques and writing style.[10] The videos also reference viral memes, including theGrimace Shake trend.[11] In 2021, "Cooking with Lynja" won "Best Editing" at the11th Streamy Awards.[12] The next year, "Cooking with Lynja" won "Best Food" and "Best Editing" at the12th Streamy Awards.[13] In 2022, Davis signed withWME[14] and was featured onForbes Top 50 creators list.[9]
She frequently collaborated with fellow internet celebrity chefNick DiGiovanni, including a video in November 2021 where they broke theGuinness World Record for the largest evercake pop, which weighed 97 pounds 8.52 ounces (44.240 kg).[15][16][17][18] She broke several other records with DiGiovanni, including the world's largestchicken nugget, which weighed 20.96 kg (46.2 lb)[19] and the world's largestsushi roll, which measured at 2.15 metres (7 ft 1 in) in diameter.[20] She was named toForbes "50 Over 50" list in 2023.[9] Her fans are called "Lynja-turtles", a play on words to theNinja Turtles.[4]
Davis lived inHolmdel Township, New Jersey. Davis married Hank Steinberg, having two daughters together, though the marriage ended in divorce. Following their divorce, she married Keith Davis with whom she had two sons, professional soccer playerSean Davis and "Cooking with Lynja" editor Tim Davis.[3]
In 2019, Davis was diagnosed with throat cancer, which caused her voice to change.[3] Davis likened her new voice toMarge Simpson fromThe Simpsons.[14] In 2021, she announced that she was diagnosed withesophageal cancer. Subsequently, she made a video called "Cookies for Cancer" in which she made cookies in celebration of finishing her cancer treatment. The cancer returned in 2023 and she died from complications of the disease atRiverview Medical Center inRed Bank, New Jersey on January 1, 2024. She was 67.[3] A private funeral, attended by close friends and family members, was held on January 9, three days before her death was announced on social media by her son in a post in which he shared photos and memories of her life.[4][21] Later that day, fellow celebrity chef Nick DiGiovanni made a farewell video honoring Lynja showcasing his favorite memories being with her.[22]
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11th Streamy Awards | Editing | Won | [12] |
| Food | Nominated | |||
| 2022 | 12th Streamy Awards | Editing | Won | [13] |
| Food | Won | |||
| 2023 | 13th Streamy Awards | Editing | Nominated | [23] |
| Food | Nominated |
Davis was born on July 31, 1956, in New York City and lived most of her early life in Fort Lee, before she attended and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering.
