Watching videos can help you a lot in learning the French language. This can be a fun way to learn vocabulary and French slang and you won’t feel you are learning!
This is a personal list, feel free to leave a comment with your favorite French YouTubers. We would be happy to answer you. Let’s start with this selection of popular French YouTubers discussing different topics.
French YouTubers: Comedy
Here is a selection of the funniest and the most famous French Youtubers in France. I tried to list all of them even though I am not a big fan of all of them.
- SQUEEZIE
Around 17,8M subscribers
Squeezie aka Lucas Hauchard is one of the most important French YouTubers (or even the biggest one). He is also super active on Twitch where he plays mostly video games. He has his Youtube Channel “SQUEEZIE” but also one in duo with the other big French YouTuber Cyprien with the channel “Bigorneaux et coquillages” (I go more in detail in the section of Cyprien below). Sqeezie started back in 2008 and specialized in the French videogame of Dofus. From there, he will create many more YouTube channels oriented around video games. In 2020 he left Webedia (An important French online media company) and started his own agency named Bump.
In October 2022 the French YouTubers realized something big in the French internet. He organized a car race (formula 4) on the iconic circuit of Le Mans with 22 other French YouTubers. There were in total 40 000 fans in the grandstands and there were more than one million viewers on Twitch (me included), a huge success proving that the French internet community can manage big “TV events”. Here is a video of “Qui est l’imposteur ?” (=Who is the impostor?) with the funny famous French actors: Eric and Ramzy.
- Greg Guillotin
Around 3.9M subscribers
This French YouTuber is a specialist in hidden cameras in France. He started his career as a YouTuber and started to become famous in 2011 with his character: Bengui. A character completely disconnected from the real world sounds crazy. The date with the dolphin plush is probably one of his most famous hidden cameras at that time.
A year later, he joined Studio Bagel reunited with some French humoristic YouTubers, where he participated in many videos. In 2018, while he was working for the TV show “Touche pas à mon poste” hosted by Cyril Hanouna, some of his viewers noticed that he took some actors in his hidden cameras for his YouTube channel “Nou” (created in 2016). He admitted it, but he said that it was just for a few shoots. After that, people realized that he used many more actors for many other hidden cameras. Then, he published many videos to ask for forgiveness after a few months of break.
Now, he explains a lot about how each of his pranks are produced. My two favorite hidden cameras from him were “The worst intern” produce with the company Orange and the carpool (English subtitles):
- Ludovik
Around 1.3M subscribers
This French YouTuber is hilarious, he started in 2007 and was spotted by the general public with the YouTube channel Le Studio Bagel (I talked about it in this list). He started his own channel with Ludovik. I love his series on his channel named “Micro Troll”, he goes to interview people in the street acting super weird.
- Mister V
Around 6M subscribers
Mister V became famous by talking about general topics about his generation. Compared to Norman he does not care about the language he will use in his videos. I wrote an article especially about him: Who is the French Youtuber Mister V?
- Norman fait des vidéos
Around 11.9M subscribers
This is a YouTuber for French teenagers. He is talking about the general topics of everyday life. Probably the most famous YouTuber for the general public in France but now he is in trouble with the justice concerning sexual abuse. In the same category, you can add the French Youtuber Le Rire Jaune with around 5M subscribers. He has Asian origins and loves to talk about his studies, his family, and his life.
- Kemar
Around 1.3M subscribers
Marc Jarousseau decided to go with the verlan version of his first name on YouTube with Kemar (more explanations about Verlan in French). This YouTuber talks about mainstream subjects in a really funny and probably weird way. He started his adventure by meeting the two French Youtubers Norman and Hugo tout seul in high school. He had common friends with them. Besides being a YouTuber, he wrote his first movie for Netflix named “Le Manoir” full of French YouTubers. I have to say this movie won’t receive an Oscar. For your information, he used to be the boyfriend of the YouTuber Natoo.
- Natoo
Around 5.2M subscribers
She is one of the few girls famous on YouTube. She has a great sense of humor in her videos. She loves, a lot, her two dogs and she is into Japanese culture. Another famous female French YouTuber is Andy with around 3,6M subscribers. She is talking about life, relationships, and girls.
- SEB
Around 5M subscribers
He used to be called Seb la Frite, but now his channel is named SEB. Like the previous French YouTubers, he talks about general topics. I enjoy watching his music reviews. It is thanks to him that the French singer Rilès became famous in France. He went to one of his concerts (at that time a small one) and, he enjoyed a lot his performance that night. He decided to talk to him to ask him to produce a video about him. After releasing the video, the career of the French rapper just skyrocketed.
Beginning of 2020, he innovated on the internet with a documentary in Papua with a partnership with one of the most important French channels, TF1. The documentary was released first on television before being published on his channel. I would say that this format was a little revolution in the French YouTube universe.
- Cyprien
Around 14.4M subscribers
Besides Norman, he is one of the most famous French YouTubers. He is a real businessman and has many YouTube channels besides his main one like Bigorneaux & Coquillages (translated into English gives Winkles & Shells) with approximately 6,5M subscribers. This is a channel with Cyprien and Squeezie, they just play video games and try new objects. The name of the channel was because they lost a bet with McFly & Carlito. He is not only a YouTuber, but he also designed t-shirts with his drawing, and he created cartoons such as “ Roger et ses humains”. He is a huge fan of the Nippon culture and loves to travel to Japan. I like his video series “Réunion”, here’s one:
- Rémi Gaillard
Around 7.3M subscribers
Rémi Gaillard is probably the most famous French YouTuber abroad, and the best publicity for French culture. The French YouTuber also started his YouTube career by doing hidden cameras by messing with people in the street and loved to piss off the police. For example, he drove a kart to do a race like the video game Mario Kart in his city from the south, Montpellier, he juggled with the ball and shot at a police car, he smoked in an elevator, and so on.
Now he has reduced his production of hidden cameras and he is using his celebrity in France to denounce animal life conditions in the water parks or the dogs and cats that people abandon in the streets in France. His famous slogan that you can see at the end of his videos “C’est en faisant n’importe quoi que l’on devient n’importe qui” means “By doing whatsoever you become anybody”. I have written a special article about him if you want to learn more about him: Meet Remi Gaillard: French YouTuber Activist and Entertainer.
Best of 2017-2018:
Subsection: Duo
- McFly & Carlito
Around 7.1M subscribers
They start to become big in France only in 2017. They created original topics for their videos. I find it pretty funny the videos where they have to call people from their contacts list or the videos where they have to guess if the guest is telling a true or a false story.
- Batp&Gael
Around 1.2M subscribers
Those two French guys have weird humor that I especially like. They started with the YouTube channel “10 minutes à perdre” and came back with a new channel “Bapt&Gael” years later. I liked their video “pour combien“.
Subsection: Group of YouTubers
- Studio Bagel
Around 3.5M subscribers
This channel was bought by the French channel Canal Plus. They create higher-quality videos thanks to the French channel. In this channel, there are Greg Guillotin, Ludovik, and Monsieur Poulp. One great video about the Friendzone.
- Golden Moustache
Around 3.6M subscribers
This channel produces good-quality videos. I enjoy this video about being friends forever after a relationship. This video regroups all I like humor, reflection on life, and great text, written by the talented FloBer by the way.
Subsection: Comedy WTF
- Jérôme Neil
Around 1.1M subscribers
This French actor is crazy. He started with his YouTube channel La Ferme Jérome and since then he made some videos for Studio Bagel or Canal Plus. He created a series named “Les Tutos” completely WTF. There are tutorial videos to create objects in a crazy way. There is also the crazy fake TV show Balek.
- MrAntoineDaniel
Around 2.9M subscribers
Antoine Daniel is a YouTuber anti-youtube and he does not like to be seen as a YouTuber. He sees this platform as a way to create, and innovate in terms of content and he does see YouTube as a place for promoting food brands. He hates the fact that success nowadays is measured by the amount of money you can make, for him, success is when you can create something that you are proud of. This YouTuber is famous for his video series “What the cut” where he talks about WTF videos from around the world. One of his big hits was a video compilation of weird videos coming from Russia.
Even though he is always trying to innovate, his famous series “What the cut” is not innovative. He admitted getting inspired by Ray William Johnson with Equals Three. Proof that he is trying to innovate, the format of his series changed a lot over time. When he started, the videos lasted approximately five minutes. It is now 45 minutes, within the introduction of the video a short film.
- Anthony Lastella
Around 0.3M subscribers
This is a crazy French YouTuber and one of the “smallest” in terms of subscribers in this list. He loves to make some parodies, he made one about ASMR videos nuts. He made the parody in the toilets. A good friend of Anthony Lastella is Hugo Tout Seul who has 2,3M subscribers. He goes in the same category as Norman and Seb la Frite. He is not really active at the moment, he does not publish that many videos (Ce pote amoureux). I would recommend you to watch the Instagram concept “Rond carré”. It is a short filmed podcast with phones made with many French humorists.
French YouTubers: Video Games
Here is a list of French YouTubers playing or talking about video games.
- Joueur Du Grenier
Around 3.7M subscribers
I am a big fan of the YouTube Channel. The name of his character means in English “Player Of The Attic”. This French gamer plays recent but mostly old video games. He always gets super mad at the developer and mentions all the errors. He has a second gaming channel “Bazard Du Grenier” with 1,1M subscribers, not bad! Important information, he is not alone. Facing the camera, we have Frédéric Molas acting as the Joueur du Grenier, or as known as the acronym JDG, and in production, there is Sébastien Rassiat.
This channel is successful even though they are not following the different trendy formats on YouTube. They keep playing the character and they do not try to make video editing with a lot of movements and cuts as most French YouTubers saw before. Those annoying video montages are here for the watchers not to be bored and keep them to watching the video.
- CYRILmp4
Around 4.8M subscribers
I could also put this French YouTuber in the travel category, but, most of his videos are about video games like Fortnite or PUBG. He is from the north of France so maybe you will be able to notice his accent. I can add another YouTuber, it is Squeezie, he has many more subscribers with around 13,5M subscribers but I found him less entertaining and not funny. He talks also about video games, life issues, or random subjects.
French YouTubers: News & Business
- Sylvqin
Around 0.3M subscribers
He started in 2019 and he has a strong belief that YouTube is not only for entertainment, it is not just there for you to kill time. He is a journalist who is doing some quality investigations like revealing the identity of the owner of a polemical YouTube channel “Lama Faché” or explaining the algorithm of YouTube. The default that reproaches his fans, is his irregularity in publishing new videos. I discovered him with his analysis of how the video games company Epic Games was built. You can tell that he worked on building a visual identity in the way he is using filters.
- Le Créatif
Around 0.4M subscribers
He is not French! This Belgian YouTuber is a French speaker and you can easily hear his Belgian accent. He used to be an advertiser and studied communication. After working for three years in the advertising industry, he decided to quit and start to work freelance. While working freelance he started to have the idea of creating his own YouTube channel about advertising. It is what he did in 2017 with the channel “Le Créatif” translated into English “The Creative”, he talked about actual ad strategies from big companies to some communication mistakes made by Coca-Cola in the 80s for example.
He also explains and describes the magic recipes on how dropshipping is working or how to create online training. It is a super interesting channel, you will realize the way brands have been communicating has changed over time and how they manage to trick our brains. The way he edits his videos is a little bit annoying with a lot of cuts, but this is the only negative point about him. Unfortunately, he decided recently to take a break and stopped his channel.
- HugoDécrypte
Around 1.7M subscribers
This is a perfect French YouTube channel if you are into news and politics. He sometimes makes some reportage. He studied at the notorious French University of Science Po (Political Studies). He started his YouTube Channel while a student and stepped apart from his promotion by being a Youtuber where most of his university promotions will end up working for the French state or big companies in high positions.
- Ludovic B
Around 0.3M subscribers
His real name is Ludovic Bassal before having his YouTube channel this French worked at an important French radio Europe 1 and a French channel LCI. His first experience with YouTube was the channel “Le Tatou”, a four-person collective. He decided in October 2018 to launch his own channel named “Ludovic B”. However, he did not stop producing videos on the other channel “Le Tatou”. Ludovic B is creating instructive formats and the keyword is discovery! You will learn what the different business models of the French media are or he will go for a day to discover a job.
French YouTubers: Education
Here is a selection of French YouTubers talking about knowledge in science, psychology, history, or language.
- E-penser
Around 1.1M subscribers
Bruce Benamran is the creator of the French YouTube channel E-penser, which started in 2013. He belongs among the first YouTubers to do science popularization on the French internet. Besides that, he has a completely different profile compared to most of the French Youtubers, he was born in 1977 and has a wife and two kids and most of the others are in their 20s and 30s with a single life.
He started this activity in order to fulfill his free time. This computer specialist, therefore, launched the E-penser channel, taking over the domain name that he had bought two years earlier if he wanted to do something with it. He published in September 2013, his first video entitled “Does the Earth revolve around the sun?”. Most of his videos are about physics and he loves to refute scientific theories unfounded.
- ScienceEtonnante
Around 1.2M subscribers
A really interesting YouTube channel about science where you do not need a master’s degree to understand the subject. As E-penser this YouTuber is good at science popularization. He knows quite well the subject since he is a physicist with a Ph.D. in fundamental physics, which contains theories like loop quantum gravity or unification of forces. David Louapre started first with his blog with the same name in 2010. Then he moved to YouTube to create a new format of content. Besides the blog and the YouTube channel, he wrote two books about science popularization.
Surprisingly, he is not a professional on YouTube and sees it as a hobby. He worked in the research in material science for the industry, then he did his thesis and now he is working at Ubisoft in the videogames industry. He helps them to improve video games from a scientific point of view and make sure that what’s been said is scientifically right. He also helps them to create educational video games about science. Let’s conclude with his interesting video about “How airplane flight?”.
- DirtyBiology
Around 1.2M subscribers
A YouTube channel that I enjoy watching about biology. This Youtuber explains in a fun way a subject that could be in the past may be boring. Not a fun fact, he is now in trouble with the French justice concerning sexual abuses. Before it started, Léo Gasset was coming back from a six-month trip to Zimbabwe. He had returned to his parents in Guadeloupe and he was a professor of biology in a middle school to get some money. Besides that, he was also preparing a thesis on the relationship between humans and the ecosystem that he was supposed to write in Northern Thailand. At the same time, as he was watching a lot of videos on YouTube about science popularization, he realized he could do the same.
He decided to go to Thailand to do his thesis with the idea of creating some videos. His brother was already in Thailand and helped him to produce his first videos. In the end, the channel was doing so well that it took over his studies. He ended up not writing his thesis and now he is working at 100% on his channel “DirtyBiology”.
- Nota Bene
Around 2.1M subscribers
I recommend you check out this channel if you are a history lover. This French Youtuber explains in a clear style with nice illustrations, complex wars, or events that happen in the history of the world. He studied at the university history and has a background in video editing, I guess creating a history channel was the best fit for him.
- Fabien Olicard
Around 2M subscribers
This is a YouTube channel about mostly mentalism. This showman goes into the street to trick people and teach them about mentalism. I love his videos where he tries to crack Chinese puzzles.
- Paul Taylor
Around 0.3M subscribers
Paul Taylor is British but he speaks perfect French. He is good at teasing the French and their culture. He funnily talks about French culture.
French YouTubers: Travels & Movies & Cars
In this section, I put two topics one about travel and the other about movies. I enjoy watching those two YouTubers.
- Bruno Maltor
Around 0.3M subscribers
A French YouTuber who travels the world and France. He is good at editing his videos. His Instagram account is worth being followed (@brunomaltor). He studied business and communication and started his blog as a hobby while doing an internship abroad in Shanghai during his studies. At that time he did not know that he could make a living out of it. When he finished his studies he had an opportunity to sign a permanent working contract with a big company. He took the difficult decision to work on his blog and YouTube channel. In the end, it is paying off and he’s a successful travel blogger now. By the way, during the quarantine of the coronavirus, he decided to travel to France and show the original places to visit.
- Tales From The Click
Around 0.5M subscribers
French YouTuber in the movie critic industry. By using his voice-over, he makes videos with fun facts about actors, especially American actors with his series TABS. I am pretty sure you will discover something new about the life of the different actors in his series. I think the way he edits his videos is original, he is stepping apart from the competition.
Another video format on his YouTube channel is his series about movies named “Videostore” where he is accompanied by his friend Guillaume and they play two employees in a video store telling each other anecdotes about their favorite movies. A fun fact, Jean-Baptist worked in a video store in Montreal, and his passion for movies grew even bigger there. Sometimes they invited some internet guests (such as Mister V or Kemar for example) to act in a sketch. Besides his YouTube channel, he uses now the same concept by creating one of my favorite podcasts about movies. I mentioned it in the link at the end of the article.
- Vilebrequin
Around 2,1M subscribers
This is the story of two young French guys, Sylvain Levy, and Pierre Chabrier, who randomly meet in a BlaBlaCar to Saint-Etienne. They decided from their conversation, during the carpool, to create a car YouTube channel. They are deeply passionate about cars (not only French cars) and they are good at popularizing automotive concepts.
Besides, the two French Youtubers love to do silly videos like “We are trying to take a speed bump at 170 km/h” or “Drive without wheels”. Finally, they succeeded in an important project by creating a Fiat Multiplat of 1000 horsepower (Renamed the “Miletiplat”) with the help of a 1 million euro crowdfunding of their fans. The project was so successful that they were sponsored by the French brand Michelin!
Do you know other famous French YouTubers worth being known? Let me know in the comment section!
For now, you can learn some tips about learning French in my next article: How to Learn French with 10 Fun Tips.
michelle
Wednesday 10th of February 2021
thanks! merci! obrigada!
Sacha
Thursday 11th of February 2021
You're welcome Michelle :)