Background and career
Zachary Michael King (born February 4, 1990) is an American internet personality and filmmaker, known for creating short videos featuring visual effects. He began posting content on YouTube in 2008 and gained widespread recognition on Vine in 2013 for his six-second "magic vines." King later expanded his content creation to TikTok, where he has amassed tens of millions of followers for his digitally edited videos, which he describes as "digital sleight of hand."
Zachary Michael King was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He is of half-Chinese descent from his paternal side, one-quarter Austrian and one-quarter Nicaraguan descent from his maternal side. King's mother homeschooled him and his three sisters, including one adopted sister, while his father worked in their home office. King made his first film at age seven using a home video camera. When he was fourteen, he purchased video equipment including a Mac computer, cameras, and a tripod and started making and editing videos.
King started his website, FinalCutKing.com, in 2008 to offer training and tips about using the editing software Final Cut Pro, as he was unable to find tutorials for the software on the internet. At the same time, he started using his YouTube channel to give tutorials for visual effects using the software. After gaining an audience for his website, he began selling training seminars and used the money to help pay his college tuition. He participated as a contestant on an episode of Viral Video Showdown that aired on Syfy in 2012.
In 2011, he posted a video titled Jedi Kittens on YouTube that he produced with a college friend under the name FinalCutKing. The video showed two kittens fighting with lightsabers. The video gained over a million views in three days and went on to have over 25 million views as of March 2025. A sequel of the video titled Jedi Kittens Strike Back gained over 10 million views as of 2014. A third video in the series, Jedi Kittens – The Force Awakens, was posted in 2013 and has gained over 28 million views.
He was named by YouTube as one of the 25 most promising young film-makers in America in May 2013. As part of its Next Up Creators contest, YouTube awarded King $35,000 as well as a trip to New York City for a four-day YouTube Creator Camp. His submission to the contest was titled Contest Entry Gone Wrong. As of May 2025, he has 42 million subscribers and 775 videos with 21.4 billion views.
