Advertisement

Arts & Entertainment

North Texas' most memorable viral stars

North Texas has had its fair share of viral stars, leading to appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, late night TV, a Los Angeles voiceover gig and a shout out from musician Bruno Mars.

Every week, someone else becomes a viral Internet star.

It's a type of fame accessible to anyone. Ordinary people -- some talented, some less so -- catapulted into the spotlight. In the past five years, North Texas has had its fair share of viral stars, leading to appearances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, late night TV, a Los Angeles voiceover gig and a shout-out from musician Bruno Mars.

Advertisement

Here are five of the most memorable North Texas viral stars in recent years.

News Roundups

Catch up on the day's news you need to know.

Or with:

'Tennessee Whiskey' Dad

We were attracted to his voice and her pride. In 2017, Kris Jones became a viral Internet star after singing the song "Tennessee Whiskey" for his daughter, Dayla, in a truck idling in a Home Depot parking lot. The Alvarado dad attracted more than 70 million views combined from Facebook and YouTube, leading to an appearance on The Ellen Show, a call from NBC's The Voice and a new purpose in life: Jones is trying to turn his viral fame into country music stardom.

Advertisement

Chewbacca Mom

All it took was a Grand Prairie woman laughing in a Chewbacca mask to captivate America. A whopping 181 million people—more than six times the population of Texas—have seen Candace Payne's video as she cracked herself up wearing a plastic Chewbacca mask. It's led to an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, Good Morning America, her own action figure and a book.

Advertisement

Alex from Target

Alex Lee was bagging groceries one day at Target in 2014. Then he became a viral sensation. The Frisco teenager became famous for his good looks, after some girls took a photo of him and posted it online. He quickly became a viral meme and a trending hashtag, #alexfromtarget. His Twitter followers went from less than 200 to half a million. He appeared on The Ellen Show, and as of 2015, is using his viral fame to kick-start a singing career.

Alex Lee, who became an Internet sensation after a picture of him working at Target went...
Alex Lee, who became an Internet sensation after a picture of him working at Target went viral, in his room in Frisco, Texas, Nov. 10, 2014.(COOPER NEILL / NYT)

Teacher, students dance to 'Uptown Funk'

Scot Pankey, a theater teacher at A. Maceo Smith New Tech High School in Dallas, wanted to make a music video to Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk" for his students' first project of 2015. What followed was an extremely well choreographed video of him and his students dancing throughout the school, earning more than 13 million views on YouTube and a shout-out from Mars himself.

The man of many Disney voices

Brian Hull, a Dallas Baptist University grad, is a man of many voices. He shares his spot-on Disney and Pixar impressions via YouTube singing videos. His 2014 version of "Let it Go" has amassed more than 28 million YouTube views. Since then, he's released many other videos that have gone viral. He even moved to Los Angeles, and is now a voice actor for video games, movies, theme park rides and commercials.

Advertisement