Julie Marie Nolke is a Canadian comedian, actress, writer, and YouTuber. She is best known for her comedic YouTube series Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self.[3][4][5]
Career
Nolke initially started her YouTube channel Feeling Peckish in May 2015 as a hobby with her boyfriend Sam where she uploaded cooking videos.[6] She was then hired by Tastemade to make videos, develop ideas for content, and to produce branded content.[7][8] She has also starred in the Tastemade show One for the Road with Andrew Gunadie.[9] She later changed her YouTube channel name to Julie Nolke, where she now uploads skits, parodies and vlogs.
According to Nolke, the inspiration for her channel is: "I want to debunk this idea that women aren't funny. I think you can not only be a funny woman, but you can talk about things from a woman's perspective and have it be funny. That's the main mantra of the channel."[10] Her YouTube video Are We Bad Feminists? won the "Excellence in Writing" award at the 2019 Buffer Festival.[11] She also directed, wrote, and starred in a YouTube video When you buy ADULT TOYS online, which was nominated for the 2020 Outstanding Comedy Short at the Toronto Sketchfest "Best of the Fest" award show.[12]
In April 2020, Nolke uploaded the first episode of Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self to YouTube, a comedy sketch depicting her time-traveling to talk to her past self before the COVID-19 pandemic[13][14] where she vaguely discusses various social and political issues that have arisen in the future with her past self,[15] such as the pandemic,[16][14] the George Floyd protests,[17] and the 2020 Beirut explosion.[5] The first several videos in the series collectively had more than 25 million views by October 2020.[4] By January 2022, she had uploaded seven videos in the series.[18]Explaining the Pandemic to My Past Self was nominated for a 2021 Webby Award in the Viral, General Video category.[19][20] Nolke won 2021 Webby Awards in Best Individual Performance and two Audience Choice Awards for best viral video and best writing.[3]
In addition to her YouTube channel, she has had roles in movies, short films, and television shows, including Oil Men, What We Do in the Shadows,[6]TallBoyz, Workin' Moms,[21] and Run the Burbs.[22] She starred in the comedy short Hashtag Apocalypse, which received an award of distinction at the 2019 Canada Shorts Film Festival.[23] Nolke had a small role in Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, but has said her part was cut in the final version.[24]
In September 2022, she founded YouTube comedy group Pulp Comedy which features six Canadian comedy actors and writers.[25]
