Alumnus Becomes Youtube Sensation

With more than 258,122 subscribers and 28 million views, Nicola “Nick” Foti ’08 has become something of a YouTube sensation. Foti started posting short comedy sketches with a friend on his YouTube channel, youtube.com/soundlyawake, regularly in October of 2008 and had about 1,000 subscribers. But word soon spread, and by 2009, 10,000 subscribers were regularly watching his antics.

Last year, Foti videotaped his mom sleepwalking and posted it to his second YouTube channel – youtube.com/stillsoundlyawake. By the end of the day, it went viral, and before he knew it, he and his mom were featured on Jimmy Kimmel, The Ricki Lake Show, Dr. Oz and Cougartown, and he was interviewed on NBC, News 12 and shows in Australia, Japan, Peru and the United Kingdom.

“It was definitely more attention than I’m used to getting,” says Foti of the video that now has more than 6.4 million views. “For my mom, she ate it up. She’s the more outgoing one of the two of us!”

Foti knew he was on to something at a YouTube convention in 2009 in New York City. “It was the first place I got recognized, took a picture with someone and signed an autograph. It was pretty awesome.”