John Campea facts for kids

Giovanni Bertone "John" Campea (born February 26, 1972) is a Canadian YouTuber, film critic, and media host. He is also a writer, producer, and editor. John Campea is well-known for talking about movies and the film industry online.

He started his career by creating a website called The Movie Blog in 2003. Later, he became the main editor for AMC Movie News. He also worked for Collider Movie Talk, where he was a senior producer and host. After leaving Collider, he started making videos on his own YouTube channel. As of January 2025, his channel has more than 344,000 subscribers and over 365 million total views.

John Campea's Career Journey

John Campea began his career working with visual effects for movies. He helped create special effects for films like Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Frank Miller's Sin City. After this, he worked at a law firm for three years.

In 2003, he started The Movie Blog. This website shared daily articles and comments about new movies and film news. It became so popular that it became John's full-time job. In 2006, John and his co-host Doug Nagy won an award called a Bloggie for "Podcast of the Year" for their show Uncut.

He left The Movie Blog in late 2009 to work on AMC Movie News. He did return to The Movie Blog for a short time in 2012.

Making Movies

In 2008, John Campea released his first documentary film, Prince of Peace: God of War. This film looked at different views on war within the Christian church. It was shown at several film festivals and received good reviews.

He finished filming his first feature film, The Anniversary, in 2009. John now runs his own company called Carson Drive Media. He released his second documentary, Movie Trailers: A Love Story, in November 2020.

Comic-Con and Film Discussions

Since 2011, John Campea has hosted the "Masters of the Web" panel at San Diego Comic-Con. This panel is a discussion about the film industry and how people talk about movies online. John hosts the panel with other big names in online film. Famous guests like Stan Lee and Edgar Wright have also joined the panel.

Working at AMC Movie News

John Campea was the main editor for AMC Movie News. He also created and hosted popular shows like AMC Movie Talk and AMC Jedi Council, which was all about Star Wars. Other shows he hosted included AMC Mail Bag and AMC Versus.

His main show, AMC Movie Talk, won the "Best News Series" award in 2014 from the International Academy of Web Television. The AMC Movie News YouTube channel had its videos watched over 5 million times each month. John announced he was leaving AMC Movie News in May 2015.

Time at Collider

In July 2015, John Campea announced he was joining Collider. Many of the web shows from AMC's YouTube channel moved to Collider's channel. John left Collider in February 2016 but returned in September of that year. He then left Collider for good in June 2017. He said he wanted to work on other projects, including his own YouTube channel.

Becoming an Author

On September 4, 2015, John Campea started a Kickstarter campaign to publish a book he wrote called The Pride. The campaign quickly reached its funding goal. The digital version of The Pride was released on February 29, 2016.

John Campea's Own Shows

After leaving Collider, John Campea started his own independent film talk show called The John Campea Show. It is similar to Movie Talk and airs on his personal YouTube channel on weekdays. He also makes companion videos and does live streams to answer fan questions.

Until November 2021, Robert Meyer Burnett and Erin Cummings often joined him as co-hosts. As of September 2022, he is joined by Burnett, Cummings, voice actress Kris Carr, actress Amy Newman, and his brother-in-law Ray Ora. Jonathan Voytko also rejoined the show as a producer in May 2022. By July 2022, his channel had over 296,000 subscribers.

In February 2022, John brought back the Mailbag feature. This show answers questions submitted by fans. John or Robert Meyer Burnett host it a few times a week. John also co-hosts a weekly show with Burnett and swimmer Cody Miller called Best Movie Worst Movie. This show focuses on a different movie topic each week.

In May 2023, John decided to change The John Campea Show to an audio-only podcast for most viewers. However, he later changed his mind. The show became available to non-members with a delay from June 2023 and then went back to being live for everyone in October 2023.

Open Mic

Since 2018, John Campea has also hosted Open Mic. This is a daily live show where viewers can ask questions. John described it as a "virtual watercooler" for wide-ranging discussions. In October 2020, Open Mic became a podcast only. However, in August 2022, it was announced that Open Mic would return to the John Campea YouTube channel.

John Campea's Personal Life

John Campea married Ann Ora Campea in 2010. They met in 2007 at a party for the film Pathology. As of 2021, they live in Corona, California. They have a dog named Dune. John also tried to become an MMA fighter but had health issues during his first training session.

Film and Web Work

Films John Campea Worked On

Web Shows John Campea Was Part Of

Awards and Nominations

John Campea and his shows have won several awards: