Why is Kwite Hiding His Face? His Age, Allegations, Height
Contents
The multi-faceted content creator Kwite is celebrated for his unique approach to online commentary and gaming content. He shrouds himself in mystery by concealing his face in his videos, adding a layer of intrigue to this influential online personality. Beneath his enigmatic persona, Kwite has his fair share of controversies. While he’s garnered a dedicated fan base for his wit and versatility, his journey through the internet landscape has been marked by allegations of emotional and physical abuse.
Early Life
Kwite, born Tyler Gadner Wirkz on 30 March 2000, is of Filipino and American descent. He’s kept his identity well-guarded, resulting in limited information about his family.
Career
The American YouTuberhumorously characterizes his online presence as a ‘sentient floating hoodie.’ On his commentary channel, he delves into a wide array of subjects, including memes, current trends, and everything happening in the world of YouTube and the internet. In these videos, he offers his unique perspectives and humorous take on the topics at hand, often interjecting with jokes and witty commentary.
A childhood dream realized
As a young child, Kwite found inspiration in the content of Ryan Higa, an iconic figure in YouTube’s early years. Ryan’s channel, ‘nigahiga’, was a dominant presence on the platform, featuring comedy skits and claiming the title of the most subscribed to channel from 2009 to 2011. It ignited a passion in Kwite, who said that he was drawn to the platform because he genuinely enjoyed it – the idea of making a career out of this never crossed his mind at that time. Kwite considers himself fortunate that his passion has led to a successful path, enabling him to fulfill the dreams he held as a child, now that he’s an adult.
Banned from YouTube by his mom
During his early years, there was a time when he was restricted from using YouTube. Back then, he was in elementary school, and the family shared a single computer. Unfortunately they didn’t have headphones, which meant that whatever was playing on the computer was audible to everyone.
As a kid, he was well acquainted with what he considered the ‘cool swear words.’ His mother, who’d had a stricter Filipino upbringing, naturally had strong opinions about such language. On one unfortunate occasion, as he was engrossed in YouTube content, his parents walked in at the most inopportune moment, and his mother heard some of those undesirable words, which she referred to as the ‘devil’s language.’ Although he can’t recall how many times this happened, it eventually led to his mother imposing a temporary ban on his computer usage, and later on, he lost the privilege of accessing YouTube for years.
However, he was determined to find ways to circumvent this restriction, and continued watching videos online, just not directly from the YouTube website. His dad was aware of this, but he chose not to say anything. It wasn’t until right before high school that his mother finally allowed him to use YouTube again. He’d assured her that he’d matured and could handle things more responsibly.
His road to YouTube fame
There was a period of exploration and discovery before Kwite found his niche. Although he launched his YouTube channel back in 2012, initially called “The Central Carnage,” it wasn’t until mid-2016 that he truly immersed himself in the YouTube community as Kwite. His channel gained significant traction in 2018, when he started posting videos more regularly. His pivotal moment came with the release of a video entitled “Why You Can’t Win Against A Content Cop” in October 2017. Four months later, this video unexpectedly went viral, causing a ripple effect across his content. Other videos started to gain visibility as they became integrated into YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, surfacing on viewers’ feeds and contributing to his channel’s growth.
For his meme-centric content, he’d compile or gather all the memes from the previous month and provide his take on them. Typically, he highlighted the ones that had evoked laughter or piqued his curiosity, often describing them as ‘horribly morbid and abstract things.’ During these reviews, he not only shared his thoughts on the memes but also delved into their origins.
In addition to his meme reviews, his content also includes reactions to unusual videos. This has naturally evolved as he scoured platforms such as YouTube, Reddit, or Twitter, from which he’d catalog intriguing content for future reference. Providing commentary gave him a wide array of topics to explore, enhancing the versatility of his content creation.
Kwite has expanded his YouTube presence by launching additional channels, including Kwote in 2018 and Kwate in 2021. In his most recent venture, Kwyte, which debuted in March 2022, he talks about random things while a game plays in the background. Although this channel had attracted nearly 150,000 subscribers and accumulated close to three million views, it wasn’t monetized. He mentioned that creating content for this channel served as his way to relax and decompress, dubbing it his ‘source of comfort.’
Personal Life
Many aspects of his personal life that he’d intended to keep private were exposed to the public by a former friend named Orion, who held a grudge against him and made serious allegations. As he sought to explain himself and set the record straight, Kwite also discussed past relationships, and his personal struggles.
Controversies
Orion with the Twitter handle, @Nyasputiin, has accused Kwite of rape, deadnaming, gaslighting, and emotional abuse. These serious accusations were detailed in an extensive Twitlonger post, in which Orion shared his painful experience, asserting that he’s endured these circumstances in silence for six years. Orion claimed that Kwite, who was 17 at that time, assaulted him in his car outside of a theater in Orlando before they went inside to watch “Black Panther.” He alleged that he’d asked Kwite to stop, expressing that it was causing him pain, but Kwite refused, and throughout the act, Kwite continuously told Orion that this was what Orion had wanted. Kwite stopped only because he got bored of the sex and then exited the car.
Kwite vehemently denied the allegations in a YouTube video entitled “For the record” and said, ‘This is patently false and completely untrue. Not only did I not assault Orion, but I never had any sexual contact with him in any way, shape, or form.’ He went on to assert that he possesses substantial evidence, including a recording of Orion providing testimony about the very interaction in question. According to him, this recording directly contradicts Orion’s accusation.
Kwite’s account of what happened
Kwite explained that he was in Florida on a family vacation, and planned to meet Orion in Orlando because he knew that he lived in that area. They met on 18 February 2018, and while they were at a shopping center, they stumbled upon a store that sold plushies, and Kwite found one that caught his eye. Orion, offered to pay for it, but Kwite insisted on covering the cost himself. In a playful exchange, Orion proposed that he’d allow Kwite to pay if Kwite agreed to give him a kiss later on. Kwite, seeing this as a way out of an awkward situation, agreed to Orion’s condition. However, he didn’t take it seriously and believed he wouldn’t need to follow through.
— Comment Cop (@CommentCopped) March 12, 2023
While in the car, Orion broached the subject of the kiss. It was then that Kwite came to the realization that he had misinterpreted the situation, as Orion was genuinely serious about the request. Kwite felt obliged to follow through, as he had initially agreed to it, and reluctantly, he kissed Orion once. He emphasized that this was the extent of their interaction; they did not engage in any sexual activity. Following the kiss, Kwite felt uncomfortable and uneasy. He hadn’t been enthusiastic about it in the first place, and had no intention of pursuing anything further.
Kwite said that both he and Orion could only give their personal accounts of what happened that day as there was no camera in the car.
Short but not so simple relationship
Kwite and Orion, who are approximately the same age, met online when Orion reached out to Kwite, offering to create artwork for his online persona. They quickly became friends, and it appeared that their relationship took a significant turn when Kwite confessed to having a crush on Orion during their initial meetup in June 2017.
Orion asserted that he and Kwite had engaged in an on-and-off flirtation, during which they discussed that if both were single at that time, they would take each other’s virginity. Kwite clarified that, from his perspective, this was not a fully or formally agreed-upon arrangement. He recalled that the topic of losing their virginity was first broached during a phone call in August 2017 when Orion initially proposed the idea. Kwite mentioned that he needed some time to consider it further.
Orion inquired about who they could share news of their dating with. Kwite responded that it could be people Orion trusted to keep it a secret, those known by both of them, or individuals with whom Orion had a particularly close relationship. Interestingly, this “dating” phase lasted only two days, and Kwite promptly explained why he decided to end it. He expressed his concerns that he had made a hasty and misguided decision, fearing it might have been a rebound after a recent breakup, which occurred just a week prior to Orion and Kwite’s first meeting.
Cutting Orion off from his life took longer than Kwite had initially wanted due to Orion’s codependency on him. He felt trapped, deeply concerned about Orion’s declining mental health as indicated by the messages he received. This was especially challenging because, at that time, Kwite was also grappling with his own mental health issues. Thankfully, Kwite managed to break free from this highly toxic relationship. However, rather than moving on, Orion attempted to ruin his reputation, livelihood, and relationships with his other friends.
Sexual anxiety
When it comes to physical intimacy, it was frequently Kwite who voiced his reservations, backing out because he got cold feet or simply didn’t want to engage in intimate activities with Orion. In contrast, Orion was consistently more eager to be physically intimate. Even in lighter or playful situations, Orion sometimes seemed to overlook Kwite’s personal choices and boundaries, which Kwite had clearly communicated.
Kwite’s uneasiness regarding sexual contact extends beyond his relationship with Orion. At the time of recording his rebuttal video in March 2023, he openly admitted to still being a virgin, and this had been a persistent source of insecurity for him. This continued to be a topic of casual discussion with his friends nearly a year and a half after Orion’s accusations came to light.
He admitted that while he was able to pleasure himself, he was unable to do so when with another person. It has reached the point in which every time he has been in a sexual scenario, whether with a girl or a boy, he’s had to end it before it progressed to intercourse. He shared this insecurity with Orion. Kwite claimed that he was a virgin teenager who was anxious and embarrassed about his performance problems, so he practically pleaded with Orion not to divulge what he had told him.
Kwite said that part of this anxiety was due to being sexually assaulted when he was 17 by a co-worker at a fast food restaurant, who was over twice his age and the other was when he was 19 by someone in a club who thought he was more into them than he was. He said, ‘Pain is not meant to be compared but I do know what it’s like to have your agency taken from you and to feel helpless,’ so to be accused of doing much worse to somebody else was emotionally devastating.
Self-harm
Orion revealed that Kwite had struggled with self-harm, a deeply personal and private issue Kwite had never discussed publicly, nor had any intention of doing so. It was a significant and intimate struggle that Orion was willing to expose to the public, using it as a tool to harm Kwite and gain leverage over him, without any consideration for the sensitivity of the matter.
Why hide his face?
Kwite clearly preferred not to reveal his face, and as a result, he adopted the online persona of wearing a face mask, sunglasses, and a hoodie; this persona became his trademark over the years. When questioned about his somewhat edgy appearance, he explained that he didn’t intend to come across as edgy; it was simply a facet of his sense of humor.
In the past, Kwite used to wear a turtleneck hoodie that he’d pull up to conceal his face. However, this method resulted in poor audio quality. He experimented with various microphones, but the audio issues persisted. Eventually, he made the practical decision to switch to a thin surgical mask, which resolved the audio problem.
Kwite expressed his belief that this look wouldn’t change significantly, because he values his privacy. He admitted to contemplating the idea of revealing his face, knowing that it would eventually become inevitable, but he remained uncertain about when that transition might occur. When asked whether he ever feels pressured by fans, given that the concept of a face reveal or face leak is quite popular in the YouTube community, he responded that if he were to decide to reveal his face, it would be entirely on his own terms. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen that way because Orion shared photos of them together with others, and one of them posted it online.
His legs have also been a subject of much speculation, mainly because they were rarely visible in his videos. As a ‘faceless’ figure donning a green hoodie, he once hinted at having prosthetic legs without further explanation. However, in a later video, he delved into the topic of his legs at length. On Twitter, he playfully mentioned, ‘I legit haven’t decided what the lower half of my hoodie dude’s body looks like, I’m leaning towards him just floating or something.’
He also provided insights into the props he incorporates into his videos. Frequently, you’d find him holding an object, whether it be a block of wood or a light stand, throughout the entire video. He explained that this habit had developed organically. It all began with a specific prop in mind for one video, then another for the next, and before he knew it, he’d adopted the practice of using them regularly. While it wasn’t a constant feature, whenever he did employ props, it became something that his hands could fiddle with. According to Kwite, this tactile engagement with props sometimes helped him focus.
Appearance
Kwite stands at 5ft 5ins (168cms), and he talked at length about his insecurities or struggles with being short in one of his videos. He seems to be in good physical shape, despite his claims of losing in the genetic lottery. As he puts it, ‘I am horrendously balding. I am proportioned more like a stick figure than a real person, but in a cool and charismatic way.’ Perhaps it’s his sense of humor or his inclination to self-deprecate that plays a role in this perception.
Net Worth
Kwite’s main channel has amassed over two million subscribers, with more than 200 million views of his videos. With his success as a YouTuber, it wasn’t a surprise to fans that his net worth as of November 2023 is estimated at $500,000, according to authoritative sources.
