Brendan North, Logan Paul’s Cameraman, Has Found His True Direction In Life

Brendan North, Logan Paul’s Cameraman, Has Found His True Direction In Life
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Brendan North is on the set of Logan Paul’s new Youtube Red film, a sequel to The Thinning, when suddenly he sees a camel.

The film isn’t set in the Saudi desert.

It’s set in L.A.

But one of Logan’s friends thought that renting a camel would spice things up, so there’s a camel.

Just another day for the world’s best known videographer.

North is legendary among YouTube viewers because he holds the coveted position of cameraman on Logan Paul’s YouTube videos.

Logan is a phenomenon with more than 14 million subscribers.

His daily vlogs attract an audience of millions, and only his brother Jake Paul comes close in terms of audience size and fascination.

North, who lives in the house along with Logan and Evan Eckenrode, better known as Dwarf Mamba, is in the middle of it all, which includes dealing with the rented camel.

So how exactly did he get here, and become so well known so quickly?

North was an All-State high school soccer player in Massachusetts when an ankle injury ended his shot at a college athletic career.

He instead attended The George Washington University, where he majored in International Affairs and Environmental Science.

“I thought I would go to work for a think tank or a lobbying group,” he recalls. “My primary concern is climate change, so I thought that would be my life’s work.”

Until a friend put a camera in his hand during senior year, and everything changed.

“I fell in love,” he said. “I’d always shot photos with an iPhone, but I’d never even held a professional camera before. Suddenly I had a new direction in life.”

North began to shoot videos, weddings, anything, really, and worked his way up the social media food chain.

“I put my photos and videos up on Instagram and sent them to influencers with fairly small followings at first,” North recalls, “and people liked what I was doing.

“So I reached out to people who had more influence, and more and more of them started saying yes to shooting with me. From there my work started getting a lot of attention on social media.”

“And eventually i was introduced to Logan by a mutual friend. We made a few videos together and shot a few photos and then in the spring he hired me full-time.”

North says his parents thought he had lost his mind, trading in the relatively sure thing of a career in government and policy for the uncertain world of the L.A. freelance videographer.

“It took some time before they realized I wasn’t crazy,” North laughs. “It can be hard for older people to understand the whole YouTube thing. But now that they realize I’ve made something of it, they’re happy with it.”

North is not just the videographer; he’s an artist well-known to his own massive audience.

“Sometimes the camera will get turned on me for commentary or an opinion,” North says. “So, yes, the audience has gotten to know me beyond my photos.”

When North went home for Thanksgiving, he announced that he would meet his fans at Boston’s Fanuiel Hall. With little notice or fanfare, more than 150 showed up.

“My mom was speechless,” he laughs.

Logan’s channel shoots and uploads a new vlog every day, which means that there are precious few days off for North or the rest of the team.

Which doesn’t bother North at all.

“It’s like a dream,” he says. “Logan is the most amazing, positive personality. He makes everything fun. This is the dream job. You can’t even say it feels like work.”

Living in the Logan Paul house creates its own levels of insanity, North says.

“We have no issues with the neighbors,” he says. “We work really hard at being good neighbors and not being disruptive. Although sometimes they’ll come over and ask why there’s 10 tons of snow on the front lawn when we’re in Los Angeles.”

North might have talked longer, but Logan was coming off set for a moment.

To meet the camel one of his guys had thoughtfully rented for the day.

Just another day in the this-can’t-be-real life of Brendan North.

This story was co-reported with Walter Levin.

Logan Paul and Brendan North, vlogging at Burning Man

Logan Paul and Brendan North, vlogging at Burning Man

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