"A little brown girl with big dreams."
"It's your girl, Liza. Coming at you..."
Elizabeth Shaila Koshy, better known as Liza Koshy
(born March 31, 1996) is an American actress, comedian, and YouTube personality.
She first gained a following on Vine; posting comic videos under the pseudonym "Lizzza". By 2016, Koshy was also becoming noted on the YouTube platform and she became "the fastest YouTube personality to reach 10 million subscribers". As of October 2018, her main YouTube channel has over 16 million subscribers.
She, and her videos, are well-known for "her loud facial expressions, quick pace, and her commitment to looking as ridiculous as possible as the joke demands. [Some of her videos] take serious issues – like anxiety, the pressure to fit in, and internet trolls – and make them accessible and engaging for her viewers."
She has some videos that follow a theme:
- Adventurezzz with Lizzza! - featuring Driving with Liza, Shopping with Liza. At the Dollar Store with Liza and other adventures....with Liza!
- Parodies - which mock makeup tutorials and hacks and Do It Yourself type videos
Outside of YouTube, she appeared in the Hulu series Freakish, was the host of the 2018–2019 revival of Double Dare, and stars in a comedy series she created: Liza on Demand. She voices Zipp Storm in My Little Pony: A New Generation, Jinx in The Ghost and Molly McGee, Arcee in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Margot in Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.
Her Twitter can be found here and her Instagram is here.
Liza and her videos provide examples of:
- A-Cup Angst: Usually Played for Laughs. She often notes that she can pass for a little boy and that her boobs are nonexistent.
- Answer Cut:
- In her STEALING FOOD?! GROCERY SHOPPING WITH LIZZZA video. After saying she's lactose intolerant she continues with:Liza: Does my condition stopped me from living life to the fullest and eating dairy products?
[it cuts to her laughing hysterically followed by another cut of squeezing whipped cream in her mouth]
Liza: Not at all. - Same video:Liza: Am I hungry right now? Uh...
[cuts to her fawning over a bag of Ruffles, Tostitos and eating from an open bag of popcorn]
Liza: Yeah, I'm freaking starving.
- In her STEALING FOOD?! GROCERY SHOPPING WITH LIZZZA video. After saying she's lactose intolerant she continues with:
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In her "Googling Myself" video, Liza uses this trope by name when she interrupts the video to open her Streamy Award.
- Bollywood Nerd: She was born to Indian-American and Caucasian parents in Houston, TX. From kindergarten to 5th grade, she was placed in a dual language educational and cultural program, where she learned Spanish. After graduating from high school, she enrolled in the University of Houston, studying business marketing, leaving college to start her career in Los Angeles.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: She is talking to an audience, but this happens often when she does skits.
- Brief Accent Imitation: Frequently. Most notable is whenever she does any of her characters.
- Catchphrase: "Hey guys, it's your girl Liza; coming at you."
- Cloudcuckoolander: She is well known for portraying a dim witted persona at times.
- Crossdresser: Whenever playing any of her male characters.
- Crossover: Whenever she collabs with other popular YouTubers — though the most requested has been her collaboration with IISuperwomanII or Lilly; due to their similar personalities.
- Clothing Damage: Self-inflicted on Liza, in the Liza On Demand episode 'Naked'. Wearing just a brown bag over her naked body, Liza accidentally sets a bee free in a 'Bee-tox' shop, which then flies into her dress. Panicking, and thinking the bee is trying to get 'all up in [her] hive', Liza frantically rips the bag apart, rendering her naked.
- Double Entendre:Liza: How about you do your laundry?
[she then jumps onto the pile of clothes complete with a sexy song as background music] - Everything Is Racist:Questioning Viewer: Why is this video so short?
Liza: Yes, this video is short. But, so are babies. And, do you have anything against babies?... You racist. - Genki Girl: Quite energetic and confident.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: She never swears. She has either used a different word or cut herself off before saying the whole word.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: In the Liza On Demand episode 'Naked', she has to cover herself up with her hands, and later (briefly) a dirty blanket and two coconuts to preserve her modesty after she gets locked out naked, and is running around town in the buff.
- How Is That Even Possible?: In her BEING HOME ALONE! | PARODY video. After she accidentally making her meal catch on fire, she then proceeds to just eat cereal... only for the carton of milk to catch on fire.Liza: How is this even possible?!
- Hurricane of Euphemisms: Sometimes, especially with her Carlos character.
- Hurricane of Puns: Good god, when doesn't a Liza video have puns? Some good examples are videos where she goes to any shopping complex. All below are a few from the same video:
- "There's so much stuff you can buy here, it's nuts!" (She says this while moving in front of multiple nuts dispensers)
- (In front of a cart of potatoes) "I actually have so many jokes about potatoes but I don't know where to starch."
- (Driving cart past meat section) "I try my best to look nice because you never know who you're gonna meet."
- "Being around all this food has made me berry, berry, berry hungry." (She says as she walks in front of a berry section)
- Almost always doubles with Visual Pun.
- Improvised Clothes: After her robe gets caught in a door in the Liza On Demand episode 'Naked', Liza finds herself running around town fully nude, and later improvises two dresses, both of which she loses, rendering her naked again. The first is a brown bag dress, which Liza rips to shreds after a bee gets 'all up in [her] hive', and the second is a poster wrapped around her naked body, which gets torn off by an activist, which leaves her running down the street nude.
- Mistaken for Masturbating: In her BEING HOME ALONE! | PARODY video under the suggestion "Play with yourself", she does something under the cover of a sheet, with what at first sounds like moans - only to reveal that she was playing with a child's toy.
- Naked People Are Funny: The entire premise of the Liza On Demand episode 'Naked', in which Liza gets locked out naked and has to run around town searching for clothing.
- Naked People Trapped Outside: This happens to Liza in the Liza On Demand episode 'Naked', after her robe gets caught in a door.
- One Head Taller: Liza (5'0) and her (now ex) boyfriend David Dobrik (5'6).
- Parental Neglect: "My pants are making up for the lack of attention I had as a child!"
- Pungeon Master: Again; when doesn't a Liza video have puns?
- Rapid-Fire Comedy
- Running Gag: In most of her videos.
- One example in one of her Gosh Dang It to Heck! moments by using the word biscuit to cover "bitch". After that, she proceeds to use the word twice more — cutting in before she says the word 'bitch' again and the other cutting in trying to say 'bye'.
- Another is in her BEING HOME ALONE! | PARODY video. After making her meal catch on fire, she then proceeds to make a cartoon of milk ablaze. After that, she goes to open her microwave; but somehow it (and the pan for her meal from before) catches on fire when she hasn't even started microwaving it. Later on, even a tube of ice-cream catches on fire...in the fridge.Liza: Oh, come on!
- Signing Off Catchphrase: "Little brown girl is out. Bye-ee!"
- Streaking: Liza is forced to do this in the Liza On Demand episode 'Naked', and can be seen running fully nude covering herself with her hands after her robe gets caught in a door.
- Stripping Snag: Liza's robe gets caught in a door in the Liza On Demand episode 'Naked', meaning that she is forced to run naked through town to get more clothes.
- Subverted Catchphrase: In videos on her second channel: "Hey guys, it's your girl Liza; coming at two, because it's my second channel".
- Visual Pun: Pretty much all of her videos have visual puns and jokes.Liza: This... [she cuts to her in her closet] Is what your clothes say about you.
[voices, meant to be her clothes behind her, start speaking to the point where you can't make out what they're saying]
Liza: Can you please stop talking behind my back?
