Phil DeFranco, 24, YouTube Celebrity

I asked my daughter what’s hot among her college age friends and she immediately replied Philip DeFranco. Philip Who?

Apparently I am among the last to know about this mega-YouTube personality. DeFranco, 24, video blogs four days a week to his fan base of nearly 1 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, sxephil.  Here is today’s installment, fresh from the SXSW meeting in Austin. It is a rapid fire monologue, closely edited quick cuts of DeFranco’s extemporaneous thoughts on (roughly) the topic of Internet freedom with some celebrity gossip thrown in.

Apparently he ends each segment with, “My Name is Philip DeFranco, and you’ve just been Phill’d in.”

DeFranco is certainly prolific. In addition to the daily post on sxephil, he has a second YouTube channel (Totally Awesome) and an active Twitter account with over 110,000 followers (@PhillyD).

According to Wikipedia, Philip “DeFranco” Franchina is from New York and has been blogging since 2006.  He appears to be to YouTube, what Jon Stewart is to television, a ‘don’t miss’, daily dose of hip, funny commentary on current events.

Now that I’ve been “Phill’d In“, I only have one question: Why am I the last to know about him? I suspect we haven’t heard the last of this genuine Gen Y Internet celebrity.