Douglas Darien Walker (born November 17, 1981) is an American comedian, film critic, actor, and YouTuber. He is best known for creating and starring in the satirical film review web series Nostalgia Critic, wherein the titular character reviews nostalgic media in an angry or profane manner.[3] After an initial run on YouTube, Walker co-created the website That Guy With The Glasses (later merged into Channel Awesome) in 2008, where he and the series gained wider popularity. The site also presented other media critics of whom created similar content, including Lindsay Ellis and Angry Joe. Walker and his series returned to YouTube in 2012.[4][5]
Walker is the son of Barney (b. 1946), a naval officer and musician, and Sandra Ruth (née Polkow) Walker (1947–2016), a therapist.[6] 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 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.
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.[7]
He is a descendant of German composer Heinrich Schütz.[8][self-published source]
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.[9]
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.[10] 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.[11]
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.[12]
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.[11][13][14] 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,[11][14] said that Doug and Rob Walker were "complicit" and had failed to address complaints about Michaud's behavior.[15][16] 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.[16]
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. Walker later acknowledged the controversy in a 2021 interview with Korey Coleman for Double Toasted, admitting that Channel Awesome had gotten "too big", resulting in poor communication among staff and producers, and that he had since been consciously trying to "keep everything closer and more personal".[17]
Doug Walker has cited to have many influences on his acting and style of comedy, including Mystery Science Theater 3000, Monty Python, The Simpsons, Lewis Black, Tom and Jerry, Mel Brooks, South Park, Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Murray, Animaniacs, Dave Chappelle, Robin Williams, and especially Looney Tunes (particularly Daffy Duck).[30]
Walker has been married to clinical social worker and therapist Robin Poage since 2012.[31][32][33]Walker and his wife have two cats, Chaplin (a rescued tuxedo cat whom they named after Charlie Chaplin that they adopted in 2018)[34] and Buster (a smaller orange cat whom they named after Buster Keaton that they adopted in 2020).[35]
Walker has often noted that his favorite film of all time is the 1985 Terry Gilliam film Brazil.[36]
In August 2023, Doug Walker contracted shingles on his head, which he explained hurt so badly that he couldn’t put on his signature hat or glasses, which got in the way of his progress in releasing videos.[37] In his Nostalgia Critic review of The Land Before Time which was released in April 2024, he has mentioned that he very likely has ADHD and OCD.[38]
Quotations related to The Nostalgia Critic at Wikiquote