Entertainment

You'll Want to Pay Attention to Grace Helbig

by Alanna Bennett

Following the rumors that James Corden would be joining the ranks of the many late-night Jameses in network television, here's another name you should make a point to learn before the rest of America beats you to it: Grace Helbig. Learn it, love it — Grace Helbig's heading to television. The show in question, according to Deadline, is "a hybrid comedy/talk show pilot" for E!. Deadline also noted that the network's partially known for making Chelsea Handler a household name — and if you've heard of Helbig before you likely already know she's poised for a big break.

Helbig, in fact, already has a pretty big, devoted audience: She's been a Youtuber for over five years, and is pretty well-known for the vlog DailyGrace and, after a split with My Damn Channel, it'sGrace. She's also got the film Camp Takota, which she made and released with fellow Youtube ladies Hannah Hart and Mamrie Hart (no relation). She's also schooled in comedy, having performed at the People's Improv Theater (known as the PIT) and at the Upright Citizen's Brigade (known at UCB).

She told the Washington Post in a profile in January that should her pilot go through one of her goals would be to "bring the Internet to TV." And E!'s certainly got hopes her 1.8 million Youtube subscribers will follow her to a cable network; as the Post profile noted:

Helbig’s fans — predominantly teenagers, mostly girls — probably wouldn’t care if she recorded her videos on a camcorder from 1986; they just want to hang out with her. She sees herself as an 'awkward older sister' to her fans, she says, one who 'just wants to tell them about the world, even though she has no idea herself.'

And now they'll get to hang out with her alongside a whole bunch of new people. Perhaps even in that timeslot Chelsea Handler's vacating?

The best way to get to know Helbig before her TV show turns her into a household name? Just spend some time chillin' with her videos.

And here's her acceptance speech when she won a fancy vlogger award: