Irish-origin British filmmaker, scriptwriter, author, and YouTuber Hazel Hayes shot to fame with her YouTube channel ChewingSand, which later became a self-titled channel. She is mostly known for her YouTube series such as Tipsy Talk, Talking Pictures, and Time of the Month. Her notable works include the award-winning thriller Prank Me. She has also directed music videos and penned the romance novel Out of Love.
Early Life
Born and raised in Dublin, Hazel Hayes obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree journalism from the Dublin City University in 2007. She was also the university students’ union’s deputy president. Hazel later joined The Irish Writers’ Centre, where she studied creative writing.
She moved to London, England in 2012. There, she created her YouTube channel after being encouraged by her British friends. She also simultaneously started building a career in screenwriting for short films and series.
Social Media Career
Hazel Hayes began her career as a manager for Google and then YouTube. However, soon after, on June 15, 2011, she started her journey as a YouTuber by launching the channel ChewingSand. The channel was later renamed after her.
She shot to fame on YouTube with her celebrity chat series Tipsy Talk, which had her interviewing celebrities such as Guillermo del Toro, Margot Robbie, Anna Kendrick, and Daisy Ridley. She launched another YouTube series known as Talking Pictures, which featured film personalities and social media stars Sammy Paul and Bertie Gilbert, among others. Her other notable series was Time of the Month.
Her YouTube channel also features videos related to her book launch and book-signing events, ASMR and GRWM clips, book-reading sessions, and other vlogs. She is now hailed as one of the first female writers/directors on YouTube. Over the years, she has interviewed many top-notch celebrities, such as Amy Schumer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Matt Bomer, and Channing Tatum. She has also become close to many British YouTubers, such as Louise Pentland, Tomska, and Charlie McDonnell.
She has also gained thousands of followers on her Instagram account, thehazelhayes. Her content on the platform mostly focuses on travel, poetry, art, and beauty. She is quite popular on Twitter too.
Career as a Scriptwriter and Author
Some of Hazel’s best-known scripts have been for the series Unnecessary Otter (2014), the short film Super Brainy Zombies (2014), and the eight-part thriller PrankMe (2017). She won the award for Excellence in Storytelling at Toronto’s Buffer Festival and the SITC Series of the Year honor for Prank Me. In 2020, she released her first novel, Out of Love.
She has also directed music videos such as Dodie’s Human (2018). Some of her other short films are Dementia (2014), Hot Mess (2016), and Anxious (2018).
Family Life
Hazel Hayes grew up with her three siblings: her two older brothers and her older sister. She often features her mother, Helen, in her videos. Hazel was quite young when her parents divorced.
After moving to London, she lived with musician Dodie Clark for quite a few years. However, she then moved to another apartment. In 2020, she came out as bisexual.
