The Untold Truth Of Jimmy Tatro

In the early days of YouTube, Jimmy Tatro became a star for skits like "How to Have Sex on a Plane" and "Partying Sober vs Drunk" from his channel "LifeAccordingToJimmy." More than just a YouTuber, Tatro showed he could entertain on a wide variety of platforms. On the big screen, he appeared in comedies like "22 Jump Street" and "The King of Staten Island." Over on Facebook, Tatro created and starred in the mini-series "The Real Bros of Simi Valley." As for more traditional formats, Tatro played one of the main characters on the ABC family comedy "Home Economics," alongside Topher Grace. Tatro also teamed up with big names Dave Franco, Daryl Hannah, and Bill Murray on the Farrelly brothers' TV series "The Now," which debuted in 2021 on Roku after it moved over from the defunct Quibi network, per Coming Soon.

Perhaps Tatro's biggest hit was on the Netflix series "American Vandal." The mockumentary series followed high school kids investigating vandalism in the style of true crime genre documentaries. For his role as Dylan Maxwell on the streaming service, Tatro earned a Best Actor nomination at the Critics Choice Awards. Not all the recognition has been easy for Tatro, who quickly learned about the differences between YouTube fame and Hollywood fame. This is the untold truth of Jimmy Tatro.

As a teen, Jimmy Tatro attended Notre Dame High School, a private college prep school in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In addition to his studies, Tatro was actively involved in sports. He told Collider that he joined his high school's football team, but that didn't stick for long. "I'd say my peak of football was seventh-grade flag football," he said.

In addition to playing volleyball all four years at high school, Tatro was a member of the varsity basketball team. According to Max Preps, he averaged 1.7 points per game in a total of ten games. Tatro disputed these numbers in an interview for "Pardon My Take." While he admitted his real average wasn't much higher, maybe around eight points per game, the actor claimed he once scored 40 points during a tournament game. 

Tatro told "Pardon My Take" he honed his skills at various basketball camps and became a three point specialist. He also revealed that he didn't get along too well with his coach. More than just taking jump shots on the basketball court, Tatro also used the facilities to entertain his fellow students. A video shows Tatro and two of his classmates dressed up in athletic gear but dancing to the song "Sandstorm" by Darude during a school pep rally.

As Jimmy Tatro was rising in popularity for his pre-taped skits on his YouTube channel "LifeAccordingToJimmy," he decided to make fans laugh in person. "I'm in the process of planning a stand up comedy tour right now," Tatro said in a 2014 Reddit AMA. He realized his dream with the 2016 tour called "Jimmy Tatro Live: Memoirs of a College Dropout." During his standup sets, Tatro would talk about pop culture and his experiences throughout college. Proving that he could make people smile in various formats, Tatro received positive feedback for his shows. "I was afraid that he wouldn't be as funny as we know him to be from his countless videos," a student in the audience told the Sonoma State Star. Instead, that same person admitted about Tatro, "I was actually really surprised of how funny he is in person." 

University students from around the country were delighted by Tatro's live show. He was especially well received in his home city of Los Angeles after a performance at Loyola Marymount University. "I think he's so popular at LMU because he can relate to college students the most and that's what most of his jokes are about," an attendee told The Los Angeles Loyolan. Showing love for the locals, Tatro reportedly took time for a meet and greet after that particular show for lucky fans that won a competition.

From a young age, Jimmy Tatro enjoyed making videos to make people laugh. In high school, he tried to use his comedic skills as a reporter on his school's morning show but felt restricted to more serious journalism. "It was extremely frustrating to have the videos but not have an outlet to show everyone my funny videos," he recalled of those days to Knight News. While at the University of Arizona, Tatro linked up with fellow student Christian Pierce and the two began writing and directing comedy sketches. Though Tatro was the star, Pierce said he equally enjoyed the success of the YouTube videos. "I feel just as important because we really put the same amount of effort into everything," Pierce said about Tatro to The Tab. "Jimmy and I write, produce, direct everything as a team. We work as one unit and it's great," Pierce added.

Tatro admitted making videos was fun but he also liked the monetary potential. After learning how much money famous YouTubers could make, Tatro focused much of his time on creating videos. Not that success came as quickly as he hoped. "It was a slow burn," Tatro said about the success of his YouTube videos on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" He was ecstatic about his first viral video, which quickly had 100,000 views.

Tatro celebrated the 10 year anniversary of his "LifeAccordingToJimmy" channel in 2022. At the time, he had an impressive 3.45 million subscribers to the channel.

The first season of "American Vandal" revolved around amateur high school detectives trying to find out who vandalized the school with graffiti penises. One of the lead suspects in the show was played by Jimmy Tatro. Though the series was satire, the format was so similar to real crime documentaries that some viewers were convinced it was a true story. As a result, one fan approached Tatro in a grocery store only to learn that he is an actor. Alternatively, as he explained on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", other fans who know the show is a joke have asked Tatro to draw the show vandal's, ahem, illustration in lieu of an actual signature. Oh, and that's not all. As Tatro shared with GQ, "My friend was getting a new wrap job on his car and asked me to spray paint a d*** on it."

For almost as long as he's been in the public eye, fans have assumed Tatro is exactly like his frat boy YouTube character. He told Collider, "But I have a lot of weird interactions just because I do a lot of videos on the party scene, so a lot of people will come up to me and say completely out-of-hand statements, and expect me to just think that they're awesome."

In a Reddit AMA, Tatro revealed what he really thought about becoming famous. "To be overly honest, it gets annoying," he admitted. According to the actor, the best part of the job is when people say they appreciate his work.

During an interview with "Pardon My Take," Jimmy Tatro talked about his experiences with marijuana. The California native alluded to smoking weed when he was in high school, but said that the older he gets, the stronger the stuff gets. When the actor visits dispensaries, he said the best method for him is to ask for something bad because a seller once said 38% THC was a good amount for a casual user. Speaking of dispensaries, he revealed on Reddit that the strangest place a fan ever spotted him in public was at a weed store.

While not obsessed, he still likes to celebrate a stoner's favorite holiday. "Don't get me wrong I'll smoke a lot of weed today, but I'm not about to be the guy walking around saying happy 420 like I live for this s***," Tatro wrote on Twitter on April 20, 2017.

In the past, Tatro was quite resourceful when it came to lighting up. During one of his standup shows, Tatro revealed that he used various materials from his hotel room in Las Vegas to construct a crude bong to smoke marijuana, The Breeze reported. In the same set, Tatro also joked that he got high enough to believe in alien abduction conspiracies.

As an expert in building an audience on YouTube, Jimmy Tatro also knew a thing or two about navigating social media. Growing up with various apps, Tatro was also smart enough to recognize the changing landscape that comes with posting. "Social media is crazy. You can no longer sing your racist frat song," he joked during one of his standup sets at James Madison University, per The Breeze. In the past, Tatro tried out many experiments on social media, including his user name. For a time in 2013, Tatro's Instagram handle was @jimbuktu, referencing the West African city in Mali. Tatro also used to be on BlackBerry messenger, or BBM, and would change his name almost daily. Some of his more comical handles were "Jim and Juice," "Jimprov," "Jim Possible," and "Jungle Jim."

As of 2022, Tatro's Instagram name is simply @jimmy with over 500,000 followers. In an interview on "A Little Late With Lilly Singh," Tatro revealed how he secured what was probably one of the earliest usernames on Instagram. "I actually got quite lucky with that," he admitted. Tatro explained @jimmy was already taken by another user but one day a friend sent a group chat with that handle tagged. When Tatro clicked on the profile, he noticed the user was no longer active. The actor pounced on the opportunity and abandoned his account as "Jimprov" to pick up the highly coveted @jimmy. "I just scooped it up," he remembered.

Jimmy Tatro landed an amazing opportunity to join the cast of "22 Jump Street" when he was still trying to establish himself as a movie actor. While he was excited to work alongside Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in the sequel, Tatro was less thrilled about a visual component of the role: a huge red mohawk. As he recalled to Collider, even though he really did not want to have his hair styled in that way, producers dug their heels in.

"I didn't want to go Chuck Liddell, red stripe down the head," he said, referencing the famous MMA fighter. Instead, Tatro was able to convince the team that a less extreme fauxhawk may be a good compromise. Plus, the actor thought it looked even cooler.

When not sporting a mohawk, Tatro is often seen with his hair expertly styled up and out of his face. A fan asked the actor how he gets his hair to look so good. "It doesn't really take much effort," he admitted on "What's Trending." Tatro demonstrated his technique of simply pushing his hair back. Speaking of hair tips, Tatro once sincerely asked on Twitter, "Hey bald guys, do you wash your heads with soap or shampoo?"