Todrick Hall facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Todrick Hall
Hall in 2019
Born	(1985-04-04) April 4, 1985 (age 40) Plainview, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Singer rapper choreographer YouTuber actor dancer
Years active	2008–present
Television	American Idol RuPaul's Drag Race The Greatest Dancer The Masked Singer
Musical career
Genres	R&B pop hip hop neo-soul
Labels	Planet Hype FrtyFve
Associated acts	wiidope Jeeve Jordin Sparks Joseph Gordon-Levitt RuPaul Bob the Drag Queen Tamar Braxton Taylor Swift Nicole Scherzinger Amber Riley Vonzell Solomon Jay Armstrong Johnson Ciara Pentatonix Colleen Ballinger Beyonce Brandy Norwood
YouTube information
Pseudonym	Toddler, Qing Toddy
Years active	2008–present
Subscribers	3.61 million
Total views	891.78 million
Subscriber and view counts updated as of December 15, 2022.

Todrick Hall (born April 4, 1985) is an American singer, rapper, choreographer, and YouTuber. He became well-known after appearing on the ninth season of the TV singing show American Idol. After American Idol, he gained many followers on YouTube. He created popular videos with his own songs, funny parodies, and skits. A TV show about how he made his videos, called Todrick, was shown on MTV in 2015.

Later, Todrick became a choreographer and sometimes a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race, starting with season eight. In 2017, he began performing as Billy Flynn in the musical Chicago on Broadway and in London.

Hall has released four studio albums. These include the visual albums Straight Outta Oz (2016) and Forbidden (2018). In 2020, he released an EP (a short album) called Quarantine Queen. This album was made during the COVID-19 pandemic and included the song "Mask, Gloves, Soap, Scrub". He also hosted Global Pride 2020 internationally.

Early Life and Education

Todrick Hall was born on April 4, 1985, in Plainview, Texas. This was a farming town in the part of Texas called the panhandle. He grew up with his mother. When he was a teenager, his mother got married, and he gained a brother and a stepfather. Later, his family moved to Dallas.

As a child, he loved the movie The Wizard of Oz. When he grew up, he created many projects inspired by it. These included Oz, the Musical, a pop song called The Wizard of Ahhhs with the group Pentatonix, and a visual album and tour called Straight Out of Oz. An elementary school teacher in Dallas helped Todrick discover his love for the arts. This included theater, the orchestra, and ballet.

At age 16, he started performing on weekends at the amusement park Six Flags Over Texas. This was his first time combining singing and dancing. He also performed on cruise ships for companies like Royal Caribbean and Holland America Line. He also performed at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Hall has shared that he developed a strong work ethic because he faced challenges in the entertainment industry.

Todrick's Career Journey

Early Career: Broadway and YouTube

When Todrick was twenty, he tried out for the Broadway show The Color Purple. Famous people like Oprah Winfrey and Fantasia Barrino were in the show. He got a part in the group of performers and was a backup for the role of Harpo. Fantasia Barrino became famous after winning American Idol. Working with her inspired Todrick to try out for the show later. After The Color Purple, he performed in Memphis: The Musical. He also went on tours for Beauty and the Beast, Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes, and Hairspray.

Hall moved to Los Angeles and started using YouTube in May 2006. He made over 300 videos in the next five years. His first video was a funny clip of him singing his order at a McDonald's drive-through. This video has been watched over ten million times. In 2008, he uploaded a video of him singing "Hard to Say Goodbye". This helped him get two million subscribers. By 2011, YouTube became his full-time job. He says YouTube lets him show how he can write songs, create ideas, direct, choreograph, and perform.

In August 2009, Hall tried out for the ninth season of American Idol in Dallas. He sang a song he wrote himself that mentioned the judges. All four judges, Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, and Joe Jonas, approved him. He made it to Hollywood week and then to the semi-finals. He was eliminated in the Top 16 on March 11, 2010. This happened after he sang Queen's "Somebody to Love." He was one of four people eliminated in that round.

In August 2010, Hall returned to Broadway in the musical Memphis. Hall feels that working on Broadway was less stressful than producing his own shows. As a Broadway performer, he just did his job. As a producer, he was in charge of everything.

YouTube Fame and New Projects

Todrick's audience grew a lot. By June 2019, he had 3.1 million subscribers on YouTube. His videos have been watched over 531.9 million times by March 2018. His videos include his own original songs and music videos. He also created choreographed flash mobs for Ariana Grande and Beyoncé in a Target store. Beyoncé even thanked him for the flash mob. He also made music with Pentatonix and shared personal updates.

In May 2011, he released a video called "I Wanna Be on Glee." It was an audition for the third season of Glee. The video was popular, but Todrick was not chosen for the show.

In November 2013, Virgin America made a pop-music safety video. Todrick wrote the song and sang in the video. In December 2013, Hall released a Christmas album called Dear Santa. It had covers of "This Christmas" and "Sleigh Bells". It also had new songs like "So Cold" and "SplitsOnXmasTrees."

Hall did a choreographed flash mob in a Target store to Beyoncé's "End of Time." This led Beyoncé to hire him as a choreographer for her music video, "Blow," which came out in November 2013.

Pop Star High and Todrick TV Show

From April 1 to May 13, 2014, Hall released an eight-episode web series called Pop Star High on his YouTube channel. The series imagined a world where famous pop stars went to high school together. It made fun of pop stars like Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, and Taylor Swift. It also used common ideas from high school comedy movies. The music from the series was released on April 1, 2014.

On October 22, 2014, MTV announced a TV show called Todrick. This show followed Hall and premiered in 2015. Eight episodes of the show were ordered and aired throughout 2015. The soundtrack for the show was released on October 13, 2015. In October 2015, he was chosen as Elvis Duran's Artist of the Month. He was featured on NBC's Today show, where he performed his song "Wind It Up" live.

In February 2015, he was the first artist featured on VH1's Huge on the Tube series.

Straight Outta Oz and Broadway

Hall performing in a 2017 concert for the Straight Outta Oz tour in Cologne, Germany

Hall first appeared as a guest judge on the eighth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. This episode had a Wizard of Oz-inspired challenge and aired on April 11, 2016. Hall returned as a full-time judge for RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars 3 later in 2016. He was also a judge for the ninth season in 2017. Besides Drag Race, Hall often appeared on Logo TV's game show Gay for Play Game Show Starring RuPaul.

On June 23, 2016, Todrick released his second album, Straight Outta Oz. This album is a concept album that uses ideas from The Wizard of Oz to tell Todrick's own life story and how he became famous. He was inspired by movies like Disney's Zootopia and musicals like Hamilton. He was also inspired by Beyoncé's visual album Lemonade. The album has seventeen songs, and the tour had over twenty. It took about six weeks to write, and filming the videos took two weeks. The first video was posted to YouTube on June 23, 2016. The videos included appearances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nicole Scherzinger, Pentatonix, and Amber Riley. The album reached the Top Ten Pop Album Chart on ITunes after its release.

The Straight Outta Oz Tour was paused because Hall was cast in the Broadway musical ... Boots. Hall's performance was well-liked by critics. He performed 155 shows from November 1, 2016, to March 1, 2017.

The Straight Outta Oz Tour started again in 2017. It ran from March 30 to June 5 in North America, Europe, and Australia. A special deluxe edition of the album was released with more songs. In August 2017, he appeared as a backup dancer in the music video for Taylor Swift's song, "Look What You Made Me Do." They became friends in 2015 and have worked together on several projects.

From November 30, 2017, to January 14, 2018, he played Billy Flynn in Chicago. During his time, the show had its best-earning week in its 21-year Broadway history.

In December, he released the documentary film Behind the Curtain. This film was about making Straight Outta Oz. It was shown in some theaters and later released for home viewing. Later that month, he appeared in the Bob's Burgers episode "The Bleakening" as a character named Miss Triple-Xmas. He also released a mix of songs from the Pitch Perfect movies. This was featured on the Pitch Perfect 3 Special Edition soundtrack.

Forbidden, Haus Party, and Quarantine Queen

In March 2018, he released his new visual album, Forbidden. This was a follow-up to Straight Outta Oz. To promote the album, Hall went on Forbidden: The Tour across the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

In May 2019, Hall announced he would release three EPs over the next six months. The first EP, Haus Party, Pt. 1, with its first song "Glitter," was released on May 16, 2019. This EP also had the popular song "Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels," which had a remix with Ciara. The EPs were supported by the Haus Party World Tour. Part Two was released on September 19, 2019. It included the songs "Wig" and "Dripeesha" (with Tiffany Haddish). Part Three was released in February 2021.

On June 17, 2019, Hall appeared in and helped produce the music video for Taylor Swift's song "You Need to Calm Down." Hall also helped find other famous people to appear in the video. In June 2019, Hall announced he would return to Broadway to play Ogie Anhorn in the musical Waitress. He performed alongside fellow YouTuber Colleen Ballinger. In August 2019, he joined the Dance Captains panel for the second series of The Greatest Dancer. He was with other Dance Captains like Cheryl and Oti Mabuse. From November 2019 to January 2020, Hall played the main role of Billy Flynn in the West End version of Chicago.

In February 2020, Hall released a song for Disneyland's new parade, called "Magic Happens." Hall has said he "learned to dance by watching Disney parades." On April 27, 2020, Hall announced he had spent a week writing and recording an EP called Quarantine Queen. This album was about the COVID-19 pandemic. The album was released on April 29, 2020. In May 2020, Hall signed with CAA Management. On November 26, 2020, Hall released a live album of the Haus Party world tour. It was recorded in Atlanta and a full video was released for free on YouTube.

Recent Works: Femuline and Algorythm

On February 12, 2021, Hall released the third volume of the Haus Party series. This was after a sixteen-month delay. On June 8, 2021, Hall released his fourth studio album, Femuline. This album was released after the songs "Boys in the Ocean" and "Rainin' Fellas." The album features appearances from Chaka Khan, Tyra Banks, Brandy, Nicole Scherzinger and Ts Madison.

In September 2021, Hall and Samsung worked together for a remix video of his song "Nails, Hair, Hips, Heels." The video was about the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 phone. The new lyrics, "Flip, Fold, Snap, Clack," refer to how the phone can flip open and fold closed.

In December 2021, Hall competed in season six of The Masked Singer as "Bull." He finished in second place.

In January 2022, it was announced that Hall would be on the third season of Celebrity Big Brother. He made it to the final three and finished as the runner-up.

On June 1, 2022, Hall released his fifth album, Algorhythm. This album was released after the song "Dance Forever."

Selected Videography

2010–11

2012–13

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

Filmography

Discography

• Somebody's Christmas (2010)
• Straight Outta Oz (2016)
• Forbidden (2018)
• Femuline (2021)
• Algorhythm (2022)
• Jim (2023)

Selected Tours

• Toddlerz Ball (2015)
• Straight Outta Oz (2016–2017)
• Forbidden: The Tour (2018)
• Haus Party Tour (2019 & 2021)
• The Femuline World Tour (2022)

Awards and Recognition

• 2014, named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list.
• 2016 Streamy Awards, Music Award for Breakthrough Artist, winner.
• 2019 MTV Video Music Award for collaboration on Taylor Swift's "You Need to Calm Down", winner as executive producer.

Images for kids

• 

  Hall in 2019

• 

  Hall performing in a 2017 concert for the Straight Outta Oz tour in Cologne, Germany

See also

In Spanish: Todrick Hall para niños