Higa and Fujiyoshi’s YouTube channel, nigahiga, was created on July 20, 2006. By December 21st, 2010, it had surpassed 3,000,000 subscribers, making it YouTube’s most subscribed channel of all time ahead of such prominent YouTube users such as Shane Dawson and Fred. By November 2010, their comedy videos had been viewed over 630 million times.

Higa and Fujiyoshi

Japanese-Hawaiians Ryan Higa, 19, and partner Sean Fujiyoshi, 18, started making humorous videos and posting them on YouTube four years ago to cope with boredom, never expecting themselves to become an Internet sensation.

Nigahiga is a popular YouTube channel created by Japanese-Hawaiian Ryan Higa and friends Sean Fujiyoshi, Tim Enos and Tarynn Nago (known collectively as “The Yabo Crew”)’. Since relocating to Las Vegas to study filmmaking at UNLV, Higa’s videos are usually solo efforts except during school breaks when he sometimes visits Hilo and collaborates with the Yabo Crew.

Ryan Higa and Sean Fuliyoshi and a lady friend

Ryan Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi started posting YouTube videos of themselves lip synching to songs in mid 2006 while attending Waiakea High School. They quickly expanded beyond songs, with a variety of other comedic pieces. Occasional guest appearances are made by Tim Enos, Ryan Villaruel, Kyle Chun, and Tarynn Nago, collectively known as the “Yabo Crew”.

In 2008, Los Angeles producer Derek Zemrak offered to help them create their first feature-length film. The resulting film, Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure, was directed by Richard Van Vleet and released on November 14, 2008. It was shown in sold out theaters in Hawaii and California. The DVD was released on July 14, 2009 in the USA and grabbed the iTunes No. 1 spot for independent films.

Ryan and Sean Not So Excellent Adventure

Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure is about a down on his luck movie producer, played by Michael Buckley, who is seeking out famous celebrities in order to make a hit movie in 30 days or risk being fired. He chooses Ryan Higa and Sean Fujiyoshi after discovering the popularity of their YouTube videos.

Higa�s latest video online is the 25-minute film �Ninja Melk,� where he shows off his martial arts skills. He has a black belt in judo and was also on the wrestling team at Waiakea High School.It was the last video Fujiyoshi and Higa made while on summer vacation in Hawaii and was released in August 2009.

A new independent 35 minute film he created with Wong Fu Productions called “Agents of Secret Stuff” was uploaded on Ryan’s channel on November 24, 2010. It features some other popular YouTube users as well as actors such as Aki Aleong. “Agents of Secret Stuff” is about a teenage A.S.S. (Agent of Secret Stuff) (Higa) who is sent undercover to a high school to protect one of the students, a girl named Taylor (Arden Cho) from the A.S.S.’s enemy, the S.I.N.S. (Society Involving Not-So-Good Stuff).

Short videos like “The iPod Human”, �How to Be A Nerd�, “How To Be Ninja” and �How To Be Gangster,� (Fujiyoshi�s favorite) are some of the JA duo�s popular films, which millions have viewed. Fujiyoshi and Higa have also enlisted their friends and family to don wigs and costumes for their viral spoofs.

The buzz about their YouTube videos caught the attention of celebrities like Cash Warren and Jessica Alba. Higa made a promo video for the couple�s Web site www.ibeatyou.com and since then they have remained friends.

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, Higa was invited to spend the weekend at the couple�s house. Higa, sporting dark sunglasses, was snapped by the paparazzi with the celebrities.

�Ryan has a lot to be thankful for,� said his mother Luci Higa. �His friends, his fans and YouTube have given him many experiences and opportunities we never imagined.�

Tarynn Nago, Higa�s girlfriend of three years, is also a regular in his sketches. She has played various characters such as Hermione in a spoof of �Harry Potter.�

Tarynn Nago

Higa is now majoring in film at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He lives with his 23-year-old brother Kyle in Nevada. Being separated from his YouTube co-stars was difficult at first, explained Higa. A ring on his finger reminds Higa of his commitment to his girlfriend, who is a high school senior in Hawaii.

�A lot of people think we�re married,� Higa said. �I guess you could say it�s a promise ring.� He said comments from admiring fans do not bother his girlfriend since she receives her share of adoring messages. But for all the positive comments, Higa also receives negative feedback.

�There are a lot of racists ones,� Higa said about the messages he receives. �In every racist comment there are three recurring themes: one mentions my eyes, another mentions �Chinks.��

The third most common theme in the racist messages is a variation of �Asians don�t belong on YouTube.�

To address racism in a light-hearted manner, Higa teamed up with �What The Buck,� a.k.a. Michael Buckley. They made the video commentary in response to actress Miley Cyrus allegedly making an anti-Asian gesture.

�My parents are still helping me out,� Higa explained. �It�s definitely good money to have on the side. If I weren�t on YouTube, I�d just be studying.�

Ryan Higa

His film classes are helping Higa fine-tune his technique. People on campus sometimes stop him to snap photos. Those in his film class seem to be unaware of his YouTube status.

The 19-year-old attends college part-time, so he can dedicate more time to making films. Attending college part-time will likely lead to a delayed graduation, Higa said. He knows fame can be fleeting, so he wants to take advantage of his YouTube success now.

Fujiyoshi started college at the University of Portland where he is studying engineering. Being separated from the Nigahiga crew was difficult at first, Higa said. Now he makes videos from his home in Vegas, carrying his arsenal of costumes in a bag when he films outside.

His next project is a rap video.

�It�s pretty much like spoofing really bad gangster rap,� Higa explained. �The beat is really hardcore, but the words are going to be really kind, like, �I love my dog. I love my cat!��

Fans of Nigahiga need not worry about the fate of the YouTube channel. Going off to college will not stop these YouTubers from making videos.

To watch Nigahiga�s videos, visit www.youtube.com/user/ryanhiga.

Paris Hilton is at it again. She got arrested on the Las Vegas strip a little before midnight on Friday night for possession of cocaine found in her purse. And her boyfriend Cy Waits was booked on charges on DUI.

Paris Hilton & Cy Waits

Paris was released on her own recognizance shortly after her arrest and has insisted that the purse was not hers. She hired powerful Vegas lawyer David Chesnoff to handle the case … and he already got her sprung without posting bail.

Hilton was arrested this summer after the Brazil-Netherlands World Cup match in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on suspicion of possession of marijuana. Paris used the “the-drugs-weren’t-mine” defense and no charges were filed against her, with the case dropped at a midnight court hearing.

It was smoke wafting from a Cadillac Escalade on the Las Vegas Strip that set off Paris Hilton�s latest legal troubles when a motorcycle officer , suspecting that the smell was marijuana, stopped the vehicle. �As more police arrived and a crowd started to gather on the busy neon-lit strip, Hilton asked� to go into the Wynn resort for privacy. As the 29-year-old socialite was pulling out a tube of lip balm, a bindle of cocaine in a plastic bag dropped out of her purse in plain view of police in the room. This time, the hotel heiress was with her boyfriend, Las Vegas nightclub mogul Cy Waits, who manages a club inside the Wynn Las Vegas and was driving the black SUV that the officer stopped nearby at 11:22 p.m. Friday.

The cocaine was a �small amount,� or a package of the size usually associated with personal use. Police would not specify the weight of the cocaine or whether any marijuana was confiscated.

Hilton was arrested on suspicion of felony cocaine possession. If convicted of the low-grade felony, she would get probation, but any violation of that probation would be punishable by up to one to four years in Nevada state prison.

Paris Hilton arrested for cocaine possession - Photo from TMZ.com

Waits, 34, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Misdemeanors are punishable by up to a year in county jail. Police said he owned the 2009 Cadillac.

Hilton and Waits were booked into the Clark County jail, where Hilton was kept handcuffed on a booking room bench, fingerprinted, photographed and released without bail about 2:45 a.m. Saturday.

Waits� lawyer, Richard Schonfeld, said Waits posted $2,000 bail Saturday. Waits was released Saturday afternoon.

Hilton�s attorney, David Chesnoff, told The Associated Press on Saturday morning that he was still gathering facts about the arrest.

�This matter will be dealt with in the courts not in the media and I encourage people not to rush to judgment until all of the facts have been dealt with in a court of law,� Chesnoff said later in a statement. �There will be no interviews and no more comments at this time.�

Court dates for Hilton and Waits were not immediately available. Clark County District Attorney David Roger declined to comment Saturday about the case.

Cy Waits and his twin brother Jesse are fixtures in the Vegas night life scene. The brothers are managing partners of the Tryst Nightclub inside the Las Vegas Wynn, Drai�s at Bill�s Gamblin� Hall & Saloon, and XS The Nightclub at Wynn Encore Resort. Cy and the clubs have received numerous awards and accolades, one might call him a night club mogul! Clearly Waits has a eye for business and the night life party scene, no wonder Paris was attracted to him. Cy is a California born and raised guy who has worked hard to earn the amazing reputation that he has in the ritzy night club industry.

Tryst Nightclub

Drai's Hollywood's The Private Lounge

XS Nightclub at Wynn Encore Resort

It certainly doesn�t seem like Cy Waits, Paris Hilton�s boyfriend, is using her to gain fame. Nope this guy has his own claim to fame and famous people if you will. What is such a clearly smart man is doing with the likes of Paris Hilton.

Earlier this week, Hilton was in the news when 31-year-old Nathan Lee Parada allegedly tried to break into her Los Angeles home. �It was Cy Waits who got knife wielding intruder Nathan Lee Parada to drop the two knives during the awful incident at Paris�s house. According to the NY Daily News and multiple other sources, Waits pulled a gun on Parada and got him to drop the knives. Nathan Lee Parada faces a felony burglary charge.

Hilton pleaded no contest in 2007 to alcohol-related reckless driving and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. After spending about 23 days in jail, Hilton told CNN host Larry King that the experience caused her to re-evaluate the role partying played in her life. She said she wanted �to help raise money for kids and for breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.�

What happened to her self-evaluation?

International Man of Mystery Low Taek Jho, who parties with Hollywood celebrities and is now Malaysia�s most famous socialite, has aroused so much worldwide curiosity that there has been a lot of online searches about him.� He recently granted an exclusive interview to The Star, the leading English daily in Malaysia, to shed some light into his background, his life, his career and a whole range of other points.

The Star...The People's Paper

Jho Low, aged 28, was born in Penang where he lived till he was 16. At 16, his parents sent him to Harrow School in England. He is the third and youngest child in the family of Datuk Larry Low, the founder of the engineering company MWE. He can speak English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Hokkien, Teo Chew and Basic Arabic.

Low attributed his success to being in the right place at the right time and going to the right schools � Harrow School in England (A-Levels) and The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, in the United States (Bachelor of Science in Economics majoring in Finance). Harrow had lots of children of prominent European, Asian and Middle Eastern families, enabling him to build the core foundation of contacts for the future. At Wharton, he expanded his network , further cementing his relationships with Arab royalty and well-connected Middle East friends especially those from Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.

Harrow School

Wharton School of Business

Jho Low made his first million � in US dollars � when he was barely 20 years old when he took a semester off from The Wharton School of Business to set up an investment fund called The Wynton Group with US$25mil from family and nine South-East Asian and Middle Eastern friends. The company started out by dealing mainly in portfolio investments around the world. It later moved from just buying and selling public shares to private equity. The company, in which he owns a stake, now has offices in Malaysia, Singapore and headquarters in British Virgin Island and is now worth in excess of US$1bil.

Wynton is planning to launch a new US$1 billion real estate and hospitality fund sometime in October, mainly for investing in real estate, hotels and hospitality projects around the world.

A US$250 million entertainment fund is also in the pipeline because Wynton believes there is some synergy between real estate and entertainment. This fund covers the whole spectrum from fashion to movies and so forth. Shooting Hollywood movies in Malaysia is a vital part of Jho Low�s plans to help attract investments to the country. He has been trying to convince his Hollywood friends like Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx and Leonardo di Caprio to use Malaysia as a location for movies.

The third fund will be a US$250 million general fund.

All these fund sizes are the initial first phase equity commitment that the company is securing which means that actual fund sizes and purchasing power could be much larger. An equity of US$1 billion could have a potential purchasing power in excess of US$2 billion or more after leverage. The new headquarters will be a 20,000sq ft office in Sowwah Island in Abu Dhabi.

An impression of Sowwah Island

Jho Low was appointed to the board of UBG Bhd as group adviser and non-independent & non-executive director in 2008. He is also group adviser to several international corporations involved in global private equity, M&A and buyouts.

He lives a globe-trotting life covering Los Angeles, New York, London, St Tropez, Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur. He parties with Paris Hilton, Megan Fox, Jamie Foxx, Lindsay Lohan and Usher but claims that news reports about the parties are exaggerated. His Arab childhood friends and investors are actually the spenders, not him. He is the person who calls to make the reservations on behalf of his Arab friends and investors.� His name is thus all over the place, putting him under the global spotlight.

On that particular occasion when the New York Post ran the article about him and his lavish spending, it was in reference to a party that was thrown for a friend�s engagement. He was just helping to coordinate the party arrangements as usual. Even his lavish 28^th birthday party in Las Vegas was a surprise party thrown by a group of his close friends.

He is not going out with Paris Hilton but they have been to several parties together because he is a friend of her parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton. Things had been blown out of proportions by the media according to Jho Low.

Low vehemently dismissed talk that he was �wasting a lot of money partying�.

�For me, we all work very hard. Of course, we have a disadvantage where at our age, people may perceive it differently. At the end of the day, I handle the investors� money prudently. I generate returns for them.

�I am not an excessive person. Excessiveness with alcohol is just not me.�

On the home front, Jho Low dispelled talk that he is involved in the controversial redevelopment of the TUDM Sungai Besi airbase. He denied the allegations that he had received a RM500 million contract for the project. He stressed that he has no involvement whatsoever.

Jho Low thinks Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had great vision when he was Prime Minister with big spending in Malaysian infrastructure which resulted in Malaysian-based construction companies becoming leaders in the global construction arena. Many Malaysian companies are now doing sophisticated construction work in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and all over the Middle East.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

He talked about his superstar friend � Usher � who wants to help him start a charity programme for children here to learn the business part of the entertainment industry. He has known Usher for a long time. He met Usher in New York when he was working with Usher on Usher�s New Look Foundation, a charity assisting children who want careers in the business side of the entertainment industry. He mentored these kids, advising them on writing business plans.

Usher

Usher's New Look Foundation

With this interview by The Star, we get a glimpse into the life of this international man of mystery and Jho Low achieved his objective of de-mystifying himself. No more “Jho Who?”. He is Low, Jho Low….licensed to kill invest your money.� May the force be with Jho!

The Malaysian press and the local internet scene were reverberating with intense curiousity over the identity of the young Malaysian millionaire friend of Paris Hilton, a mystery man by the name of Low Taek Jho.

Paris Hilton participated in a mini photo shoot on a boat in Paris� on July 15 2010. She adorned a bright pink dress with a large diamond snake bracelet, tights and high heels as she posed on the water with the Eiffel Tower in the background. She was spending the day on the boat with her sister Nicky Hilton and Malaysian millionaire Low Taek Jho.

Paris Hilton

Paris Hilton

Low has been spending very lavishly at clubs around the world and is rumoured to be an adviser to some international corporations involved in oil, gas and construction and is on the board of Malaysian bank UBG Berhad. �His name has been linked to the controversial redevelopment of the military airport in Sungei Besi in Kuala Lumpur.

Low Taek Jho

Low is a baby-faced 28-year old Wharton graduate who loves Cristal. Tales of his largess are swirling about and frequently as he has been dropping tens of thousands of dollars at hot spots around the world.

He celebrated his 28^th birthday with a four-day bash at Caesar�s Palace in Las Vegas. Megan Fox was flown out to Vegas to hang out with the birthday boy. The hotel pool was surrounded by caged lions and tigers and filled with girls in bikinis. Later, at a nightclub, Low bought 120 bottles of Cristal for the revelers. It was said that Jamie Foxx gave him a red sports car as a present and Paris Hilton and Usher also attended the party.

Caesars Palace Las Vegas

Low with Usher

New York Post ran the following article on Low on 8^th November 2009 which offered insights into the lifestyle of the rich and wealthy! Here is the said article:

A fleet of black Cadillac Escalades hums outside Chelsea hot spot Avenue — the A-list watering hole of such celebrities as Justin Timberlake and Lindsay Lohan.

A black Cadillac Escalade

As the car doors open, a dozen men emerge and a bouncer whisks them over the club’s threshold, past a group of shivering models behind the velvet rope.

“Who is it?” one of them wonders out loud. “Is it P. Diddy?”

But the man at the center of the entourage isn’t a celebrity. He isn’t even a mogul. He’s Taek Jho Low, a 20-something Wharton grad from Malaysia who has burned through hundreds of thousands of dollars at the city’s hottest nightspots in the last three months — and shows no signs of stopping.

The nightlife scene is abuzz with tales of this international man of mystery — who goes by the name Jho Low and whose chubby, bespectacled appearance hardly meets the image of a wealthy gadabout.

In September, during Fashion Week, sources said, Low helped rack up a $160,000 bar tab at Avenue, including several $900 bottles of Cristal champagne.

Cristal champagne

One month later, Lindsay Lohan was belatedly celebrating her 23rd birthday at downtown drinking den 1OAK when 23 bottles of Cristal suddenly appeared. They were reportedly paid for by a “mystery Malaysian,” who, sources claim, was Low.

At chic 27th Street hangout Pink Elephant, Low routinely spends $50,000 to $60,000, according to the club’s owner, David Sarner. One night, at the Pink Elephant outpost in Southampton, Low enjoyed himself so much that he kept the revelry going — all the way to Malaysia, Sarner said. “He ended up flying eight of our waitresses to Malaysia for a party,” he added.

Waitresses

Strangely, for a man attracting so much attention, very little is known about Low. According to his official biography, he currently serves as a group adviser of several international corporations and was appointed to the board of UBG Berhad, a financial-services group in Kuala Lumpur, last year. But when The Post interviewed Malaysian experts at such think tank as the Council on Foreign Relations, no one had ever heard of Low.

According to inside sources, Low lives at a $100,000-a-month apartment in the Park Imperial, on West 56th Street, home to James Bond actor Daniel Craig and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs — and he won’t go anywhere, not even on the elevator, without at least one bodyguard.

Park Imperial

Some of Low’s entourage of eight to 12 people also reside in two other apartments at the Park Imperial — a $30,000-a-month pad and a 2,200-square-foot loft with Central Park views that costs $20,000 a month, according to real-estate investor Michael Hirtenstein, who used to live in the latter.