FROM YOUTUBE TO TV

To understand why Alan Chikin Chow is one of the most successful creators on YouTube, watch the first 18 seconds of My Boyfriend Is A Werewolf?!

- Matt Stevens

The video, part of his series Alan's Universe, opens with paper airplanes zipping around a classroom whose pastel colours and clean-cut teenagers radiate the aesthetics of American teen sitcom Saved By The Bell (1989 to 1992).

The werewolf, played by Chow, shows up two seconds in and sinks his teeth into a hapless jock’s neck as his terrified classmates tumble out of their desks. A young woman screams, and viewers realise it is a dream sequence. The episode, published in late June 2025, has been viewed more than 23 million times.

Those 18 seconds took Chow and his team four hours to nail, shooting take after take at his 10,000 sq ft production studio until they got the movement of the airplanes just right and the students falling to the ground with a proper thud.

“Most important scene of our episode,” Chow called out to start the shoot day. He knows that the 10-year-olds watching have other distractions, and is determined to hold their attention.

“The video clicks open, it's explosive and then go, go,” he said in an interview. But his audience also wants “story-driven videos”, he added, filled with “emotion and moments and beauty”.

It can be hard to accomplish all of that. But the 27-year-old American is among the 1 per cent of the 1 per cent, like American YouTubers MrBeast and Ms Rachel, who have figured out something that is working.

Chow's videos are viewed one billion to 1.5 billion times a month on average. Alan's Universe has 98.3 million subscribers and in 2025 became available on Amazon Prime Video and the Roku Channel.

He is starting a pop group and has announced a partnership with South Korean skincare brand Laneige. In July 2025, he was named to Time's list of 100 influential creators, alongside podcaster Joe Rogan and online streamer Kai Cenat.

“It’s 100 per cent my intention to build this franchise into the next Disney,” Chow said.