Trisha Paytas

Trisha Kay "Trish" Paytas (born May 8, 1988) is an American singer-songwriter and internet personality. In 2006, Paytas began her YouTube channel "blndsundoll4mj". She had made her debut television appearance as a correspondent in Greg Behrendt's talk show The Greg Behrendt Show. She appeared on the show until it was cancelled in 2007 after one season. Paytas then began stripping and doing extra work to support herself. Paytas had also been doing "odd jobs" during her early years living in Los Angeles but stopped once her YouTube channel had began receiving more attention and subscribers. She currently uploads videos every day to her YouTube channel. She released the EPs Fat Chicks, Superficial Bitch, and Under The Covers in 2015, while in 2016, she released Daddy Issues and Showtime.^[1]

Life and career

1989–05: Early life

Paytas was born on May 8, 1988, in Riverside, California to parents Lenna and Frank Paytas. She has an older brother, Nicholas, and a younger half-sister, Kalli Metz. Kalli and Trisha have the same mother. After moving to Illinois, she attended Byron High School. Paytas often visited her father in California and stayed there over summers. She moved back with her mom and attended Pecatonica High School where she graduated.

2006–12: Career beginnings

After moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting, she began doing professional lingerie modeling. She attempted to break the world's fastest talker record on Guinness World Records Unleashed, but was unable to break the record. In 2006, Paytas' made her first television appearance as a correspondent to Greg Behrendt on The Greg Behrendt Show. She appeared on the show for its full thirteen–episode run before it was cancelled after only airing one season. The following year in 2007 she appeared on the second season of Who Wants to Be a Superhero?.^[2] Paytas played "Ms. Limelight." She was on the show for four episodes although she was eliminated from the competition portion of the show on the third episode. On January 3, 2007, Paytas started her YouTube channel "blndsundoll4mj". The channel was originally dedicated to movie director Quentin Tarantino, whom Trisha idolized, but soon after being created, Paytas began to focus on other types of videos. Blndsundoll4mJ primarily gives fashion, beauty and relationship advice videos.

In 2008 through 2010, Paytas made many guest appearances on shows including The Price Is Right (2008), The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2011), Jane by Design (2011), Huge (2011), and Modern Family (2011), among others. She portrayed Jessica Simpson in the 2009 Eminem video "We Made You."^[3] She also appeared as a background dancer for rapper M.I.A. at the Scream Awards in 2010. Later in 2010, she appeared in the videos for "Playing the Part" by Jamey Johnson, "A Girl's Got To Do What A Girl's Got To Do" by Barbwire, and "Tears Dry on Their Own by Amy Winehouse. Paytas made an appearance in a Guns N' Roses' tour video, playing a mobster's girlfriend. Paytas starred in the Les Savy Fav video for their song "Sleepless in Silverlake" and portrayed Marilyn Monroe. In 2012, she made her latest music video appearance by playing a stripper in the The All-American Rejects' music video for "Beekeeper's Daughter". One of her most notable appearances during this time was in 2010 on an episode of My Strange Addiction as a self-admitted tanning addict. Despite being aware of the high chances of developing skin cancer,^[4] Paytas insisted on visiting the tanning salon at least daily, and follow up with a spray tan.^[5] Later the following year, in 2011, she appeared on an episode of The Millionaire Matchmaker but was not accepted.

2013–present: Current career

She appeared on the January 18, 2013 episode of Dr. Phil, as someone called her a slut due to the way she dresses.^[6]

As of July 2016, she has 1,525 video uploads and over 705 million video views total.^[7] She formerly vlogged on blndsundoll4mJ, but then started posting them on a channel called "Trisha Paytas", formerly "TrishasLife". Paytas stated her reasoning for the switch was that a portion of her subscribers didn't enjoy her vlogs and they only liked her other videos, while others liked her vlogs better, so she decided to start posting her vlogs on "Trisha Paytas" and post her non vlog related videos on her main channel.^[3][8][9] On August 15, 2014 Paytas had reached the milestone of having one million subscribers.

In 2014, Paytas starred opposite Richard Grieco in Viral Video, a fifteen-minute-long short horror film that she also came up with the concept for along with co-producing. The film premiered online on October 17, 2014. It currently has over 1.12 million views. In November, Paytas announced that her first single was going to be released on December 10, this announcement was followed with a photo of Paytas in a recording studio.^[10] that same month, Paytas posted a photo on her Instagram revealing that Pete Mills produced her debut single along with several other songs.^[11][12] On November 26, Paytas released her first single, a cover of Eartha Kitt's single "Santa Baby".^[13] The cover reached a peak of #87 on the iTunes Holiday music chart.^[14] On December 6, Paytas began posting a string of photos that showed she had begun production on the music video.^[15] On December 12, Paytas released the video onto her YouTube channel.^[16] Within its first day, the video gained over 200 thousand views.

On March 6, 2015, Paytas released a YouTube video announcing the surprise release of her debut extended play titled Fat Chicks.^[17] Paytas also announced that each song would have an accompanying music video. Production has already started taking place for the music videos. The EP features four songs. The music video for the lead single from the EP, a cover of Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher", was released on March 9, with several days of promotion through social media having preceded it.^[18] Van Halen's member David Lee Roth provided the introduction to the music video.^[19]

A video for "A Little Less Conversation" was directed by Andrew Vallentine and released on April 27. The music video for "Fat Chicks" was released several days later on May 7, and was also directed by Andrew Vallentine. The video for "Fat Chicks" was featured on websites such as Cosmopolitan,^[20] The Huffington Post,^[21] and Business Insider.^[22]

Paytas revealed in a video with fellow YouTuber Shane Dawson that she was covering Britney Spears' song "Everytime" on her next EP.^[23] Paytas said that she'd like to experiment on her next EP by featuring a rap song.^[24] A song titled "Superficial Bitch" was announced on June 28 as one of the first original songs being recorded by Paytas intended for her next album.^[25] She stated that her new release would be an extended play and afterwards she'd release her debut album. A snippet for "Superficial Bitch" was released on June 30 and Paytas also announced that day that her new EP was also named "Superficial Bitch". She released the EP the following day on June 29. In the vlog containing the announcement of the surprise release, Paytas expresses interest in touring with her new songs and announced her debut album for the next month. She announced that the title track "Superficial Bitch" would be the first single and that "Leonardo DiCaprio" would be the second. The video for "Superficial Bitch" was released on July 23. A second music video from the EP titled "Leonardo DiCaprio" was released on August 7.

On August 1, 2015, Paytas announced that her next album would be a covers album and be called Under the Covers. She stated in a video that she had done every genre, including songs by Eminem, Green Day, and Marilyn Monroe. She released the EP, independently, on August 13. She announced on September 7 that she would be doing a series of Christmas-themed music videos before focusing on ones for her predecessor album.^[26] Later, it was announced in October that Paytas was developing Viral Video into a web series. Paytas is the only confirmed cast member so far.

In June 2016, Paytas released her fourth EP Daddy Issues. It reached number 6 on the iTunes pop chart and 11 overall, making it her highest chart rating yet. It was her first EP to make it into the Billboard Charts, where Daddy Issues was ranked #25 on the "Heatseekers Albums: Up and Coming Musicians Chart"^[27]

Paytas made an appearance on a June 2016 episodes of To Tell the Truth as an imposter for the creator of the selfie stick on the Brooks Wheelan episode.

In September 2016, she released her fifth EP, Showtime, which reached number 14 on the ITunes Pop Charts.

Personal life

Paytas' addiction to tanning was documented for one episode in My Strange Addiction. She stated she began tanning after her mother bought her some tanning salon sessions when she was only 14.^[28] As of 2014 she states on her YouTube channel that she primarily uses spray tans and accepts doctors' health warnings and no longer uses sun beds.

Paytas previously worked as a stripper when she was 18, and later as an escort.^[29]

Artistry

Influences

Paytas cites Anna Nicole Smith and Marilyn Monroe, whom she played in Les Savy Fav's short film Sleepless in Silverlake, as one of her musical and style influences. Some of her male musical influences include Donny Osmond and Elvis Presley, both of whom she covered on Under The Covers and Fat Chicks respectively.

Musical themes and genres

Paytas' music largely consists of rock and pop covers, such as Green Day, Cher, and Donny Osmond. Her original songs explore themes of body positivity, jealousy, lust, infidelity, abuse in relationships, and obsession. Paytas explored more autobiographical themes in her recent music with her song "There You Go" being about her infamous affair with actor Roger Bart and "Showtime" revolving around her struggle with fame and criticism from those around her and the press.

Music videos

Paytas' music videos are often noted for their eccentric colors and cinematic style. Her videos always tend to emphasize on glamorous costumes with some like the video for "Fat Chicks" featuring comedic aspects. Paytas also tends to incorporate opulence and fame related plots into her videos such as her video for "Little Less Conversation" where she performs on the stage of her own variety show and "Superficial Bitch" where she lives in a mansion with a wealthy old man and buys expensive designer clothing.

In 2016, Paytas began working with her on-again, off-again boyfriend choreographer Sean van der Wilt, to incorporate dance routines into her music. From there on out she has featured dance routines in her videos for "Playground" and "Shoulda."

Endorsements and sponsorship

Musical promotions

In October 2015, Paytas teamed up with mobile game Line Play to create a music video and original song that promotes the app.

Fragrances

• Trish by Trisha Paytas^[30]

See also

Related articles

• Trisha Paytas filmography
• Trisha Paytas discography
• List of songs recorded by Trisha Paytas

References

External links

• Trisha Paytas at the Internet Movie Database