Do we like Michelle Khare?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record with no harmful words or acts found, but little public record on people and the planet, so we've held back from the top end.
Michelle Khare is the YouTuber who hangs off planes and escapes Houdini's water cell so you don't have to. She grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, with a father who immigrated from India. She qualified for the Junior Olympics in fencing, then raced bikes at Dartmouth.
After a full-time job at BuzzFeed she quit pro cycling to build her own channel, which now has more than 5 million subscribers. She has said the family ritual was Friday-night movies and ticking off the AFI Top 100, a “homegrown little film school”. She has also said she started as a BuzzFeed intern and worked her way up to producer.
Challenge Accepted has her trying out hard jobs and stunts, such as a butler academy, an 18th-century sailing ship and a Mission: Impossible plane stunt run with FAA permissions and a team of more than 50. It won Show of the Year at the 2023 Streamy Awards. Her husband, Garrett Kennell, directs most videos and is chief creative officer.
On the harm check, we found nothing. No remarks about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the climate, no conspiracy talk, and no tabloid-territory gossip either. We also found no sign of her making content with anyone pushing harm. Her sponsors include Red Bull and McDonald's, which is ordinary commercial stuff. That's a thin record rather than a glowing one, because she mostly keeps to stunts and storytelling.
On how she treats people, her own account is encouraging, though it's her account. She says she learned every production role so she can talk to each department. She says she breaks for lunch every six hours. She also says the channel started by featuring stunt performers, whose work is rarely seen. The Ankler reports a small team of six full-time staff, and it says nothing either way on pay or conditions.
The recent push is the Emmys. She petitioned to get an independent YouTube series onto the Primetime ballot, arguing a win would bring in crew, viewers and “the ad dollars to keep it going”. Whether you read that as a smart fight for creators or a savvy business move, it's out in the open.