Oobah Butler facts for kids

Oobah Butler is an English writer and filmmaker. In 2017, he created a fake restaurant called The Shed at Dulwich. This pretend restaurant became the top-rated place in London on TripAdvisor, even though it never actually served any food! In April 2019, Oobah's first book, How to ... Your Way To Number 1, was published and became a bestseller for the LA Times. Later, in 2021, he started co-hosting Catfish UK. In 2023, his documentary The Great Amazon Heist was shown on Channel 4.

Oobah Butler's Career

Oobah Butler started writing for Vice Magazine in October 2015. He got his first article published by suggesting a challenge: he wanted to see if he could be a better door-to-door salesman than a Jehovah's Witness. For the next two years, he wrote many articles for Vice. He also began making short films that were shared on the magazine's social media pages.

The Shed at Dulwich: A Fake Restaurant Story

In April 2017, Oobah had a clever idea. Years before, he had been paid to write fake good reviews for restaurants on TripAdvisor. This made him wonder if he could get a restaurant that didn't even exist to be listed and highly rated on the travel website.

He created a website for his pretend restaurant, which he called The Shed at Dulwich. For the fake food pictures, he used everyday items like shaving foam and dishwasher tablets. After buying a phone for the "restaurant," it was officially accepted and listed on TripAdvisor.

For six months, Oobah asked his friends to post fake reviews. His goal was to make The Shed the highest-rated restaurant out of 18,149 places in London.

On November 1, 2017, The Shed actually became the number one restaurant in London! It opened for just one night on November 17. Ten guests were served simple microwave meals, disguised to look fancy and based on different "moods." The meals were free.

After Oobah released his article and a documentary called How to Become TripAdvisor’s #1 Fake Restaurant, the story became super popular. Vice magazine says the story has been viewed over 100 million times around the world.

Media Attention and Lookalikes

Oobah suddenly found himself very famous, appearing on TV stations worldwide. People had different reactions to his story. For example, the government in Singapore used it to help create new laws about fake news. The Washington Post even called Oobah "the Donald Trump of TripAdvisor."

After many interviews, Oobah realized that it didn't always have to be him answering the questions. He said, "Every interviewer has asked me the same questions about the shed. It's not really me being interviewed; what I did has some recognition, but I don’t.”

So, he started sending different people who looked like him to do interviews instead! These lookalikes appeared on shows like Breakfast Sunrise in Australia, WION in India, NOVA television in Bulgaria, and BBC Radio 2 with Vanessa Feltz.

Oobah Butler's Films and TV Shows

Oobah made a video about The Shed at Dulwich for Vice Magazine's YouTube channel, titled How to Become TripAdvisor’s #1 Fake Restaurant. He also created a short video about sending his lookalikes to interviews, called I Sent Fakes of Myself to Be on TV Around the World.

In June 2018, Oobah released a seven-minute film called How I Faked My Way to The Top of Paris Fashion Week. In this film, he pretended to be a made-up fashion designer named “Georgio Peviani.” The film was very popular, getting over 30 million views worldwide. It was also chosen for the 2018 LA Fashion Film Festival.

In 2021, Oobah became a host for the UK version of MTV's Catfish: The TV Show, working alongside Julie Adenuga. In May 2022, a second season of Catfish UK was announced. YouTube star Nella Rose joined Oobah as a new co-host.

The Great Amazon Heist Documentary

In October 2023, it was announced that Oobah had a new documentary on Channel 4 called The Great Amazon Heist. This film is all about the company Amazon.

In the documentary, Oobah performs a stunt where he collects empty bottles from Amazon delivery drivers. He then fills them with a "bitter lemon" drink and sells them online. He cleverly changed the listing to make it a number one bestseller! The film also shows Oobah working undercover at an Amazon warehouse in Coventry, England, until he is discovered.

The documentary received good reviews. Daily Telegraph gave it five out of five stars, and The Guardian gave it four out of five stars. Oobah was interviewed by comedian Tim Heidecker on his podcast, Office Hours, while promoting the film.

Oobah Butler's Book

In December 2018, Oobah announced his first book, How to ... Your Way To Number 1, in an interview with Forbes. When the book was released, Oobah told Robin Young on NPR that the book was not just about success. It was more about helping people to feel confident and not hold themselves back.

The book became very popular in the US. It reached first place in a US book chart and was the #1 Humor book in USA TODAY for the week of April 29, 2019. It also reached #8 on the Los Angeles Times paperback non-fiction chart in July 2019.

Awards and Recognition

Oobah Butler received three awards in 2018. He won "Best Content Idea 2018" from the British Society of Magazine Editors, "Video Project of the Year" from the British Media Awards, and "Content Creator of the Year 2018" from the DRUM Agency. For the last award, he sent a Norwegian stand-in to accept it, and no one even noticed!

Oobah also won a 2019 Webby Award. For his acceptance speech at the ceremony in New York, he used an artificial intelligence (AI) program to write it for him. In July 2023, he won "Best Male Personality ‘23" at the National Reality TV Awards (NRTAs) for his work on Catfish UK.