Jeana Smith is an American YouTuber best known as one half of the popular YouTube channels PrankvsPrank and BFvsGF with her ex-boyfriend Jesse Wellens. They primarily posted pranks and vlogs, respectively, on the two channels until their break up in May 2016, following which Jesse and Jeana took one channel each and renamed them. She also has a channel called NylahKitty for her cats.
Early Life
Jeana Smith studied at Rowan University where she finished top of her class. Jeana, whose real name is Jennifer, and is known to friends as Jen, was studying to become a teacher, so when she and Jesse decided to start YouTube, she adopted the pseudonym Jeana because professors told her that having a social presence was risky.
Career
Jeana Smith and her then-boyfriend Jesse Wellens often played pranks on each other and recorded them. It all started when Jesse filmed Jeana attempting the cinnamon challenge and posted the video online, starting the serial pranking of each other. Eventually, they created two YouTube channels back to back; BFvsGF in October 2009 and PrankvsPrank a month later. However, they started posting on the second channel first, with GIRLFRIEND FAKE HEAD IN BED SCARE PRANK, in November 2009. While they had started to post videos about their lives on the other channel in July 2010 with the video Late Night Pizza in Philly, they began vlogging on a daily basis from 2012. Both channels grew rapidly thanks to their innovative pranks on PrankvsPrank. They also appeared as Spartan King Leonidas I and Queen Gorgo in the web series Epic Rap Battles of History in 2012.
The couple turned from pranksters to mentors in March 2016 with the launch of the YouTube Red series Prank Academy, where they taught celebrity guests how to pull off their most ambitious pranks. However, in May that year, they announced taking a break from YouTube and each other shortly before announcing their break up. Jesse kept the PrankvsPrank channel, which he renamed to Jesse, while Jeana took hold of BFvsGF and renamed it to Jen Smith. She continued to post vlogs, travel videos, cooking videos and the occasional pranks, while also maintaining her third channel, NylahKitty, featuring her cats Nylay and Kitty, which she had created back in November 2011. She and Jesse eventually started to reappear in each other videos in November 2022 and have collaborated several times since then.
Family Life
Jeana Smith was born as Jennifer Smith to Steve Smith and Harilyn Sue. She has a brother named Jason. She was deeply affected by losing her mother to ovarian cancer in 1996. Her father briefly suffered from prostate cancer, but made a full recovery.
She met Jesse for the first time in 2005 and started dating shortly after. She also visited him in Korea while he was serving in the Air force. They moved in together in a Philadelphia house in 2014. While they separated in May 2016, they remain cordial and continue to appear in each other’s videos.
