Photo courtesy of Ethan Gilbert
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In today’s digital world, it is easy for content creators and new celebrities to feel like they come out of nowhere. It isn’t uncommon for audiences to feel like a new talent goes from someone they’ve never heard of before to someone who is everywhere, seemingly overnight.
However, behind each blossoming talent is an underdog story of their own and a team of individuals working tirelessly over the years to cultivate an environment fit for success. That’s very much the case with Jake Paul and a crucial member of his team: Ethan Gilbert.
Ethan serves as the Lead Social Media Manager and Video Editor for Jake Paul, a highly polarizing and influential internet creator. With over 73 million followers and hundreds of millions of monthly impressions across various platforms, Jake Paul’s brand has grown into a global media powerhouse. Ethan has played a key role in driving this growth.
As Jake has become an increasingly influential and popular figure, Ethan has gone on his personal and professional evolution journey. What began as a smalltime hobby, with him creating videos in a small Welsh town, has now elevated him to directing global digital campaigns internationally.
Fortunately, Ethan’s work ethic and creative process have proven reliable and consistently inspiring, making him an ideal fit for the role and helping him elevate social media content to an art form and a business tool. He exemplifies how selfdriven talent, strategic thinking, and emotional storytelling can propel a creative professional from modest beginnings to the forefront of digital media leadership.
Humble beginnings in Wales
Ethan began his work in video editing as a selftaught hobbyist, working quietly from his family’s home in Wales. No one mentored him on editing videos or finding a career path within the sector he was passionate about. He was fascinated by online content creators, such as Jake Paul, and sought online resources to hone his craft and become a better, more expressive, and more efficient editor.
Even at this early stage in his work, Ethan had a real knack for wowing his audiences with his ability to seamlessly integrate footage from various sources into a coherent and impactful final product. Whether he was editing home videos to share exclusively with friends and family or working on fight trailers to upload online, his work was consistently met with positivity and acclaim.
Ethan began uploading his videos to YouTube without expecting how things would turn out. He wasn’t betting on a future as a content creator; he was excited to share his passion and work with anyone who cared to see it. To this end, Ethan may not have had major expectations, but he worked consistently around the clock to ensure his videos were as great as possible.
While it’s easy to overlook this early period of Ethan’s career as an editor, it ultimately proved formative to him as both an artist and a person. This period of his life, when he was honing his craft out of passion and creating videos for the joy of selfexpression, laid the foundations for his later success. Here, Ethan honed his skills in isolation and learned quickly that dedication was the key asset to capturing an audience’s attention.
Breaking into the industry
One of Ethan’s early fight video trailers was compiled using disparate footage for an upcoming bout between Jake Paul and Tommy Fury. The video found some online success and eventually caught the attention of Jake’s team. Because of his work here, Ethan was invited to participate in what Jake Paul’s team called an “editor challenge,” in which thousands of people were given access to footage and asked to create a compelling video. Ethan’s submission stood out and earned him a spot on Jake’s video editing team.
Ethan recalls, “They told me to take some vlog footage and turn it into something without instructions. I knew Jake’s style inside out, so I edited like a fan would, because I was one. A few weeks later, I got the message that would change everything: ‘We’d love for you to be part of the team.’”
The countless hours Ethan spent consuming content online and honing his craft to express himself effectively through these formal exercises led to his victory. He understood the exact style that Jake and his team were looking to tap into and gave it to them in abundance. As such, it wasn’t luck that won him the challenge but his persistence and readiness.
Scaling a digital powerhouse
Now, Ethan is Jake’s lead social media manager and video editor. Jake was already a major figure in pop culture when he got the role. But since then, his star has grown even brighter, and Ethan has played an integral role in making that happen. He has a strategic role within Jake’s larger team, working on content ideation, execution, and platformspecific storytelling.
Since joining Jake’s team, Ethan has helped to grow the influencer’s Instagram following from 20 million to 28.5 million.
Additionally, Ethan has helped Jake’s YouTube channel surpass 538 million views and 567,000 new subscribers in under 18 months. Those numbers are in addition to the tens of billions of impressions Ethan’s work has garnered across various social platforms. For example, Jake’s TikTok has amassed over 706 million views and 439 million total viewers within the year, thanks to Ethan’s strategic leadership in content and marketing.
Nowhere is the sheer impact of Ethan’s contributions more apparent than in the velocity with which Jake’s brand has become almost inescapable. From supporting a series on HBO’s streaming service to helping promote the nowinfamous, streamerbreaking Mike Tyson fight on Netflix, Ethan’s behindthescenes leadership has been instrumental in putting Jake Paul’s content in front of millions.
Creative philosophy & leadership
Ethan’s work is driven by a couple of core creative principles, all of which contribute to its effectiveness at capturing attention from a global audience. For starters, he believes that emotional resonance is more impactful than trendy visuals. For all of the flashy cuts and techniques someone can put into a video, it doesn’t mean anything if the craft isn’t actually in service of the content.
Beyond that, Ethan feels that consistency in content creation is essential. He doesn’t want any Jake Paul video to feel more or less important than the next, instead creating the impression that the whole of Jake’s video library is essential viewing.
As Ethan says, “People now come to me for strategy, creative direction, and insight. Managing the social media presence of one of the world’s biggest influencers isn’t just about posting — it’s about leading a vision. I’ve had to learn fast, adapt constantly, and stay ahead of trends. That pressure has pushed me to the top of my field.”
Despite how far he has come, Ethan Gilbert still remembers where he came from. He has made significant efforts to give back, supporting initiatives for young people in Wales and partnering with Jake Paul’s charitable organization, Boxing Bullies, to help empower the next generation, including distributing boxing gloves and equipment to local communities. Ethan wants to ensure that other people have the same accessibility to hone and refine the skills related to their passions as he did, and is putting his money where his mouth is to do so.
Moving forward, Ethan is focused on expanding his leadership role in the digital media and entertainment industry, with ambitions to direct largescale international projects and mentor emerging talent.
His longterm goal is to continue shaping the future of online content, bridging creative innovation with realworld impact, and contributing meaningfully to the global creative economy.
