| NileRed | |
|---|---|
| Personal information | |
| Born | Nigel Braun (1991-09-07)September 7, 1991 (age 33) |
| Education | McGill University (BS) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | nile |
| YouTube information | |
| Channels | |
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Genre | Educational entertainment |
| Subscribers | 8.64 million (main channel) 4.64 million (NileRed 2) 2.75 million (NileBlue) 16.5 million (combined)[b][1] |
| Views | 3.37 billion (main channel) 101.62 million (NileRed 2) 331.30 million (NileBlue) 3.9 billion (combined)[a][1] |
| Associated acts | |
Last updated: March 11, 2025 | |
Nigel Braun (born September 7, 1991), known professionally asNileRed, is a Canadian YouTuber known for his chemistry-related videos covering chemical reactions and strange compounds. He has aBachelor of Science degree inbiochemistry with a minor inpharmacology.[2][3]
Nigel Braun was born on September 7, 1991, inMontreal,Quebec,[4] to Dorian Braun, a sound engineer and former college professor, and Jody Tanaka. His younger brother, Corey, helps manage the channel. Braun has a BSc in biochemistry and a minor in pharmacology, both fromMcGill University.[3][5]
Before starting a YouTube channel, Braun was a trained laboratory technician in anorganic chemistry lab.[6] He later began aMaster's degree program in chemistry at McGill, but left it to focus on the NileRed channel.[1][3][4]
Braun had been making videos, mainly tutorials, for fun since his mid-teenage years, then creating a YouTube channel on March 10, 2014. His first video was uploaded on March 24, 2014, and most of his early videos were recordings of his projects as a laboratory technician then at his parents' garage, with them later being filmed at his industrial-grade laboratory.[3] Braun wanted his channel name, NileRed, to be related to chemistry, but not too chemical-sounding. He and one of his university colleagues looked through a book containing chemical names and started with "N" because his name began with the same letter. They settled onnile red, a compound for dyeing used in biochemistry and microbiology, as it sounded good and did not sound much like a chemical. A second channel, NileBlue, was created in 2016 to showcase more casual projects than the main channel, and a shorts channel, NileRed 2 (formerly NileRed Shorts), was created in 2021.[7][8] He is assisted in his channel by two family members and two friends he hired.[3]
Some of Braun's videos were deleted in 2018 during a purge of chemistry channels.[6] In 2019 and 2020, the web magazineHackaday reported on Braun extractingbismuth frompepto bismol,[9] makingaerogel,[10] and makingsuperconductors.[11] In 2021,The A.V. Club andNewsweek reported on a video of him dissolving ahot dog inpiranha solution, which went viral.[12][13]
| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Streamy Awards | Learning and Education | Nominated | [14] |