Shay Carl Butler is an American YouTube personality known for his three YouTube channels: shaycarl, SHAYTARDS and ShayLoss. He was also involved with other creators on The Station and the Maker Studios, which he co-founded. Along with Corey Vidal, he had developed a documentary called Vlogumentary. His rise to fame was documented in an article by Forbes, while he also featured in a The New York Times article in 2011.
Early Life
After graduating from Highland High School, Shay Carl Butler served a two year mission in Barbados, Trinidad and Guyana for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He briefly attended Idaho State University before dropping out. Prior to YouTube, he did various odd jobs like installing granite countertops, selling pest control door-to-door, working as a school bus driver and a radio DJ for Z103.
Career
After working as a granite countertop laborer for 3-4 years, Shay Carl Butler established his own granite countertop business called Rock Tops and began selling houses as a real estate agent. He eventually bought a $499 dollar Dell laptop and discovered YouTube. After watching nonstop videos overnight, he told himself that he could also do that and subsequently started his YouTube journey. He began posting videos and even entered a contest that popular YouTuber Philip DeFranco aka sxephil was hosting. DeFranco gave his channel a shout-out, which helped in boosting his subscribers. He also collaborated with other YouTubers at The Station. He further joined the YouTube Partner Program and, using his business acumen, co-founded Maker Studios along with several other creators including DeFranco.
He had originally created the channel shaycarl in December 2006, and the earliest video on the channel, Fun with Helium and Passing Out, was uploaded in August 2007. While it was more like his personal channel, he created a second channel called SHAYTARDS for the whole family on October 2, 2008 and began uploading the same day. In November 2009, he created a third channel called ShayLoss to document his weight loss journey. All his channels were widely popular, earning him several awards and accolades. However, he was forced to stop YouTube following an infidelity scandal involving an adult webcam model named Aria Nina, and also due to his alcoholism. He was on a hiatus for nine months in 2017, but returned to YouTube following rehab.
Family Life
Shay Carl Butler was born to Carl and Laurie Butler as the oldest of four children. His siblings Casey, Carlie, and Logan are also active on YouTube. He met his future wife, Colette Crofts, at a production of the musical Anything Goes, in which she was acting. He was immediately smitten and secured a date with her after “stalking her around campus for the next 3 weeks”. After about a year and a half of dating, they got engaged and got married within two months on January 3, 2003. They welcomed their first child, son Gavin, in December that year, followed by Avia (Princesstard), Emmi (Babytard), Brock (Rocktard), and Daxton (Brotard).
