Casey Owen Neistat (; born March 25, 1981) is an American YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and co-founder of the multimedia company Beme, which was later acquired by CNN. In 2018, he founded 368, a creative space for creators to collaborate with each other.
Neistat was born in Gales Ferry, Connecticut, to Barry Edward Neistat (b. 1953), then a commercial kitchen appliance salesman, and Amy Louise (née Bickford; b. 1956). They later operated the Muddy Waters Cafe in New London, Connecticut. His paternal grandmother Louise Neistat (née Grossman; 1919–2011) was a professional tap dancer and instructor who primarily worked at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
He was brought up in Reform Judaism. He dropped out of high school during his sophomore year at the age of 17. He eventually left his family and had a son named Owen, at age 17, with his then-girlfriend Robin Harris, in 1998. Between the age of 17 and 20 (from 1998 to 2001), he lived in a trailer park with Harris and Owen. It was during this time that Neistat decided to move to New York City.
Before moving to New York City, Neistat worked as a dishwasher at a seafood restaurant and was a short-order cook in Mystic, Connecticut.
In 2001, Neistat and his brother Van began working with artist Tom Sachs, ultimately making a series of films about the artist's sculptures and installations.
Neistat first gained international exposure in 2003 for a three-minute film titled iPod's Dirty Secret, criticizing Apple for not having a battery replacement program for their iPod line of portable media players. The film received national media attention and brought broad attention to the company's policy towards iPod battery replacements. The film was posted to the Internet on September 20, 2003, and quickly attracted media attention. The film was praised as "wonderfully renegade" by The Washington Post.
Apple announced a battery replacement policy on November 14, 2003, and also announced an extended iPod warranty program on November 21. Fox News set the date of the policy change at "two weeks" after the posting of the clip and Neil Cavuto called it a "David and Goliath story" on Fox News's Your World. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Sequeira denied any connection between the film and the new policy, stating the policy revision had been in the works for months before the film was released.
In 2004, Neistat and his brother produced a film series titled Science Experiments. The 15-minute series featured a number of short films documenting various experiments. The series was included in the 26th São Paulo Biennial in São Paulo, Brazil. The work was popular, and was eventually featured in Creative Time's 59th Minute program showing a one-minute excerpt from Neistat's film every 59 minutes on the Panasonic Times Square Astrovision.
In July 2008, HBO purchased an eight-episode television series, The Neistat Brothers, for just under $2 million. The series was produced by Casey and Van Neistat, and Tom Scott. Independent film producer Christine Vachon served as consulting producer. Written and directed by Casey and Van, the show is autobiographical and told in the first person. Each of the eight episodes is made up of short stories about the brothers' lives. The show premiered June 4, 2010, on HBO.
The Hollywood Reporter likened the brothers' charm, wit and simplicity to that of Dr. Seuss. Hank Stuever of the Washington Post praised the brothers' joie de vivre.
On February 17, 2010, Neistat uploaded a video about when to use the emergency brake cord on train cars in the New York City Subway. Neistat criticized the way that the MTA did not make it clear when the emergency brake cord should be pulled. According to the video, one should only use the emergency brake system when the motion of the train poses an imminent threat to life or limb.
On February 23, 2010, Neistat released a six-minute film on Vimeo about the Internet site Chatroulette. It explained what the Chatroulette site is, how it works and why people use it. Various experiments are conducted in the video, with the findings presented in stop-frame animations. One experiment found that people on Chatroulette are much more likely to talk to a woman. While 95% "nexted" Neistat, his female friend Genevieve was clicked away by only 5%.
On June 7, 2011, Neistat criticized the New York City Police Department's ticketing of cyclists in New York City for riding outside of the marked bike lanes. In a video titled Bike Lanes, Neistat encounters an officer and receives a $50 ticket for not riding within the lanes. Neistat then proceeds to comically ride his bike in the lane crashing into various obstructions, supporting the argument that lanes aren't the safest at all times and are even sometimes unusable. In response, New York Magazine called Neistat a "Bike-Lane Vigilante" and the film was covered by most mainstream media outlets. Additionally, Time named Bike Lanes number eight on their Top 10 Creative Videos of 2011 list. In 2022, Neistat uploaded a YouTube video titled NYC BIKE LANE BOUNTY, discussing a proposal in which New York City residents can report cars illegally parked in bike lanes for a percentage of the violator's prospective fine. In the opening of this video, Neistat pays homage to Bike Lanes by abruptly crashing his bike into an illegally parked van while stating statistics about bicycle accidents in NYC.
In 2014, Neistat was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #82.
Neistat started to post daily vlogs on YouTube on March 26, 2015. Neistat stated that he sees his vlogs more as a forum as opposed to a daily journal. On January 19, 2016, Neistat posted his 300th vlog, although between November 2016 and March 2017 Neistat stopped making vlogs to focus more on short films.
Particularly popular videos have included snowboarding on New York City streets during the January 2016 United States blizzard. The video had 6.5 million views on YouTube within 24 hours.
On September 6, 2016, Neistat won GQ's "New Media Star" Man of the Year Award.
In October 2017, Neistat met with Indonesian president Joko Widodo.