Douglas Darien Walker (born November 17, 1981) is an American comedian, film critic, actor, filmmaker, and YouTuber. Walker is best known for creating and starring in the satirical review web series Nostalgia Critic, wherein the title character reviews nostalgic films and other media, often in an angry and profane manner. After an initial run on YouTube, Walker co-created the website That Guy With The Glasses in 2008 (later Channel Awesome), where he and the series gained popularity. The site also cultivated a community of creators making similar content.
Early life
Walker is the son of Barney (b. 1946), a naval officer and musician, and Sandra Ruth (née Polkow) Walker (1947–2016), a therapist. Both parents, as well as Walker's older brother Rob (b. June 5, 1979), would later appear regularly in his videos. Due to his father's career, Walker was born on November 17, 1981, on a naval base in Naples, Italy, and moved frequently as a child, spending parts of his childhood in Rhode Island, Washington, and Jacksonville, Florida before moving to the Chicago, Illinois area in his teen years.
Doug Walker attended and graduated from Northern Illinois University, majoring in mass communication and minoring in visual art, also serving as an editor and cartoonist for the school newspaper.
He is a descendant of German composer Heinrich Schütz.
Nostalgia Critic
After graduating college, Walker worked as an illustrator and janitor. He started making videos on the then fairly new video sharing site YouTube in his spare time. Although his early "Nostalgia Critic" videos were popular, Walker claims his rise to internet fame first came from the success of his "5 Second Movies" edits. Walker has stated that the Nostalgia Critic character is primarily inspired by Daffy Duck and the Queen of Hearts, as well as by comedians Lewis Black, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Murray.
In 2008, Walker moved his skits from YouTube to independent site That Guy With the Glasses, later renamed Channel Awesome, with videos hosted via Blip.tv. The majority of his skits have since been reuploaded to YouTube, and form a full web series spanning several seasons. Walker now works as a full-time content creator and staff member of Channel Awesome in Chicago, under the leadership of CEO Mike Michaud.
In September 2012, Walker announced that the Nostalgia Critic series would be ending and that he and his brother would create the sketch comedy web series Demo Reel. In January 2013, however, Walker released "The Review Must Go On", a short film announcing that the series would continue. The new incarnation would co-star Malcolm Ray and Rachel Tietz of Demo Reel, playing fictionalized versions of themselves as well as performing in sketches. Tamara Chambers would later join the series following Tietz's departure.
Criticisms and controversies
In March 2018, numerous former Channel Awesome contributors and employees accused the company of widespread mismanagement and mistreatment, culminating in the Twitter hashtag #ChangeTheChannel and a Google Doc entitled "Not So Awesome" chronicling the complaints of over 20 contributors. While many of the allegations were directed at Michaud, former contributor Allison "Obscurus Lupa" Pregler, who had been critical of the site since leaving in 2015, said that Doug and Rob Walker were "complicit" and had failed to address complaints about Michaud's behavior.
Another former contributor, Lindsay Ellis, described filming conditions on the Walker-directed Channel Awesome anniversary films as "grossly unprofessional", lacking film industry standards such as craft services and safety insurance; she also recalled the 2012 anniversary film To Boldly Flee, saying she had voiced discomfort to Walker about the sexualization of her character (a parody of the Star Trek character Seven of Nine, which she had not agreed to) and in one particular instance, after her and co-star Lewis "Linkara" Lovhaug objected to a perceived rape joke they were scripted to perform, Walker had merely "toned down" the scene in the final cut, and Ellis was later pressured by Walker to dub "comical sexual assault noises" for the scene during reshoots. This was corroborated by Pregler, who noted that "they didn't let anyone see the script until last minute", and Lovhaug, who said their concerns were "continually" dismissed.
Following the allegations and several poorly received statements from Channel Awesome management, many contributors left the site, with only Walker, Brad Jones, and Larry "Guru Larry" Bundy Jr. remaining by the end of April.