• Tony Donovan Schork (Amiri King) is a YouTube personality from Louisville, Kentucky with a net worth of $150,000
• He had a rough upbringing and was arrested for robbery at age 16
• He gained fame from his parody and comedy videos, particularly car commercial parodies
• He has recently been producing videos about politics, society, and social media issues
• He is married to Sara Ruminski, has three daughters, and is close friends with fellow YouTuber Peter Shukoff
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Who is Amiri King?
Tony Donovan Schork was born on 10 July 1979, in Louisville, Kentucky USA, and is a YouTube personality, best known for his channel entitled Amiri King, assuming the persona of a comedy character of the same name. His parody and comedy videos have helped him gain a lot of attention online.
The Wealth of Amiri King
Amiri King’s has a net worth estimated to be close to $3 million, primarily earned through YouTube videos. Aside from this, he supplements his income through selling art.
Early Life and Online Beginnings
Amiri had a rough time during his youth, and resorted to a life of crime because of the hardships he endured. He became a conman, and later dabbled in other crimes which proved to be his downfall, as he was arrested by the police for robbery. He was 16 years old at the time, and was sent to what he called one of the toughest prisons in Kentucky for three years.
Following his release from prison, he decided to live a straight life and started taking jobs to make ends meet. He began learning more about art, and became a middleman to sell works to art galleries.
Throughout this time, he also developed a strong passion for comedy, and wanted to pursue a career in the field. This led him to discover the website YouTube, an online video sharing platform that could potentially earn him income through advertising revenue, provided that he could generate enough views and interactions through his own channel. His channel was initially called RoyalMediaMafia, which he later changed to Amiri King, reflecting a new persona, and his love for the work of poet Amiri Bakara.
YouTube Content
King started posting videos in 2012, beginning with recordings of prank calls he did which eventually caught on. Those that helped him initially were “My Vlog Is Better Than Yours”, a series in which he parodies YouTubers who focus on creating video blog content. These helped him gain hundreds of thousands of views, kick starting his earnings on the website. His fame reached viral levels when he began doing parody videos, and short comedy videos ranging from two to three minutes.
His most popular videos are parodies of car commercials, taking the concept of old car television advertisements, which often displayed a customer talking about the benefits of his car, and why he bought the vehicle. His version of the videos, however, had him blurting out random comments, comedic lines, or insults towards competitors in a comic fashion. He executed the videos well by pretending to be serious throughout the video, with his comedy commercials covering Chevrolet cars gaining millions of views. Other popular videos he posted include bad pickup lines and gadget commercial parodies.
Advocacies, Recent Content, and Social Media
As Amiri’s popularity grew, he started using his channel as an outlet of sorts for his frustrations and opinions on many recent issues, talking about politics, society, problems with social media, and many more. Some of his more recent videos cover gender equality, abortion, the music industry, and autism. He still puts in a lot of comedy spin into his videos, with his recent content being more akin to videos from TikTok or Vine.
Due to the ever-shifting changes towards monetization on YouTube, he also created an account on Patreon, so that he could gain direct financial support from his fans. Patreon is a service that is often used by content creators and social media personalities, which allows them to gain monthly donations directly from their fans or patrons in exchange for exclusive content. He uploads several times a month, though he’s recently taken a short break from YouTube.
Headed to Portland Maine for Sean McKenna's art show! See you there! pic.twitter.com/7LE5ebcnlH
— Amiri King (@AmiriKing) November 15, 2019
His social media accounts remain active, on which he posts mainly about his family, and continues to express some of his opinions. He also encounters many of his followers when out and about.
Personal Life
Amiri is married to Sara Ruminski who is actually of Irish descent, and they have three daughters. He does his best to keep them away from the spotlight, particularly his wife who isn’t fond of appearing online.
He’s close friends with fellow YouTuber and comedian Peter Shukoff, crediting him for helping him get a start in comedy. His life story and rise to fame on YouTube has led him to feature in several publications, most notably “Readers Digest” which did an article of his past as a criminal, leading to his career on YouTube. He also creates and sells his own art, showcasing some of his works online.