‘IMDb for Creators’: How Famous Birthdays Took Over Gen Z — and Became Agents’ Scouting Tool
SCOOP: Founder Evan Britton talks about his new feature to help brands reach its network and how he built his must-refresh site
This is a preview of Like & Subscribe, my standalone Ankler Media newsletter on the creator economy. I wrote about CNN Creators and top newsfluencers, reported on the Golden Globes podcast mess, how Dancing With the Stars seduced Gen Z with social media and the NIL gold rush. I’m natalie@theankler.com
One of the hardest parts of writing about creators each week is keeping up with how quickly the hierarchy of online fame can shift, especially these days when algorithmic feeds, tailored to each person’s unique set of interests, all but guarantee that what I see when I open TikTok will be vastly different from what you see. But there’s one website that has become an invaluable tool in helping me sort through the never-ending stream of newly minted online stars — I used it a lot when writing this story about the shows and podcasts Gen Alpha is watching — and it’s Famous Birthdays.
Founded nearly 14 years ago by web entrepreneur Evan Britton, Famous Birthdays does a lot more than its cutesy name implies. It’ll tell you the birthday of almost any celebrity, yes, as well as a lot of other biographical facts about them. It also houses what I’d say is the best real-time guide to internet popularity, at least among internet users who can’t yet rent a car.
As I write this story, for instance, FamousBirthdays.com tells me that — based on its propriety calculations, which factor in how often a person’s name is searched on its database — the most popular celebrity on its site is 15-year-old Salish Matter. Teen heartthrob Malachi Barton, star of the 2025 Disney film Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires, ranks fourth, ahead of TikTokers Embreigh Courtlyn and Kaido Lee Roberts and even Taylor Swift. I click over to Famous Birthday’s Trending page and the list is full of names you’ve probably never heard of but soon won’t be able to escape — people like 22-year-old Instagrammer and TikToker Derrick Cummings (aka Famous Debo), 24-year-old TikTok makeup artist Leah Halton and 18-year-old family YouTube vlogger Grace Conder.
When Britton talks about Famous Birthdays, he often compares it to IMDb. It has a consumer facing website — where he and his editorial team decide who to profile based in large part on who’s being searched on the site (and no, you can’t pay to be featured). It’s also become an indispensable resource for people who work with creators. I know agents who’ve discovered new clients thanks to Famous Birthdays and executives who track the trending page like investors do the stock market.
With around 20 million unique visitors every month, Famous Birthdays attracts more traffic than the website for The Atlantic or the Today show. In 2021, Famous Birthdays introduced a Pro product that offers super-charged tools for identifying and tracking up-and-coming creators and a database of information about their reps. Now, I can exclusively report, Famous Birthdays is launching a new feature, Outreach, that will allow platforms, brands and companies with creator services to directly contact the creators in its database for targeted outreach campaigns.
Britton tells me he came up with the idea for Outreach earlier this year after a social platform — he won’t name which one — asked if it could tap Famous Birthdays’ network of more than 100,000 creators to help it offer verification, partner support and monetization to a cohort of on-the-rise talent. “We’re going to selectively bring opportunities to creators,” he says, adding that since that initial Outreach campaign, he’s conducted another one on behalf of a second social platform and is also currently in discussions with a third.
Keep reading for the full backstory on how Britton turned Famous Birthdays into a business indispensable for creators and anyone who wants to do business with them (which is pretty much everyone in entertainment and media these days) — and how he’s protecting his unique and innovative platform from disruption with new industry tools like Pro and Outreach.
Read my full column over at Like & Subscribe to learn:
How a five-person team turned Famous Birthdays into the IMDb of the creator economy
The inside story of its new Outreach tool giving brands and platforms direct access to rising talent
How Britton’s low-key operation keeps its creator data uniquely accurate and valuable
Why a visit to the Santa Monica HQ can mark a turning point in a creator’s career
How Britton spotted Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae before anyone else
The low-key business style — and low-fi “Craigslist charm” look — that built “magic” loyalty among creators
What keeps Famous Birthdays’ data uniquely relevant in an AI-saturated world
The strategy Britton’s using to protect the brand from AI disruption
The rest of this column is for paid subscribers to Like & Subscribe, a standalone newsletter dedicated to the creator economy from Ankler Media. Click here or on the button below to access the full story.
Interested in a group sub for your team or company? Click here.