DC Young Fly

Comedian · Verified

Comedian and actor known for Wild 'N Out and viral roasting videos.

#98Hub rank

1.05MYouTube followers

About DC Young Fly

DC Young Fly — born John Whitfield on May 2, 1992 in Atlanta, Georgia — is the rare entertainer who conquered every medium he touched. Vine star, Instagram roaster, Wild ’N Out veteran, television host, film lead, R&B singer, and podcast mogul: the man built a career the hard way, joke by joke, on the West Side of Atlanta, and ended up one of the most versatile performers in Black entertainment.

The origin story is pure internet-era mythology. Growing up in Atlanta, Whitfield found his gift early — roasting. His “bring dat ass here boi” roasting sessions on Vine and Instagram in 2013 and 2014 were viral before virality was an industry: quick, savage, musical, and impossibly funny. The clips earned him co-signs from Kevin Hart, Chris Tucker, and LeBron James — the kind of cosign money cannot buy. He was, as BET later put it, one of the first comedians to blow up because of the internet, and his roasts are now considered cult hood classics, the main source of comedy for an entire corner of the culture circa 2014.

Wild ’N Out made him official. Joining Nick Cannon’s improv comedy show in its seventh season (2015), DC quickly became the show’s most electric cast member — named Rookie of the Year in 2017 and, in the years since, the most sought-after veteran on the roster. His Wildstyle battles, his hooks, his impossible energy: he did not just survive the show’s freestyle gauntlet, he redefined what it looked like. A decade later, he is still there — the anchor of the show’s modern era.

Television hosting followed. MTV tapped him to host the rebooted TRL from 2017 to 2018, betting that a Vine-era star could speak to the network’s target demo better than any traditional host. He held down Hip Hop Squares on VH1 as a regular. Then came the big stage: hosting the BET Hip Hop Awards in 2020 and 2021 alongside his 85 South Show co-hosts Karlous Miller and Chico Bean — back-to-back years of the culture’s biggest night in comedy’s hands.

The acting career is the third act, and it is legitimate. He starred as the lead in Universal’s How High 2 (2018) alongside Lil Yachty, stepping into a stoner-comedy franchise with decades of legacy. He played the historic musician Sly Stone on BET’s American Soul, showed up on 50 Cent’s BMF, starred in Kenya Barris’ Grown-ish on Freeform, held a role on Fox’s REL, and led Will Packer’s feature Almost Christmas. In 2019, Variety named him one of its 10 Comics to Watch — the industry’s formal acknowledgment of what the internet had known for years.

And then there is the music — the unfair part. DC Young Fly does not just rap; he sings. Properly. He has been releasing music since 2011, with full projects including Curb Music (2018), Trap Soul (2019), and Fly Womack (2020), crooning unashamedly vulnerable R&B about real life, love, and the grind. He plays the drums, a skill from his church days that threads through his performances. The music is not a comedy side quest; it is a parallel career with genuine range.

The 85 South Show is the empire. The podcast — DC, Karlous Miller, and Chico Bean talking culture and comedy every week — has grown into a global phenomenon: over 2.1 million subscribers on YouTube, more than 550 million views, and 100,000-plus live tickets sold. The live shows are legendary — arena-scale comedy events where three of the funniest people alive riff for hours. It is the rare podcast that became a touring institution, and DC is its engine.

The personal chapter has been the heaviest. His longtime partner, Jacky Oh — the former Wild ’N Out model and mother of his three children — died in May 2023, and DC grieved in public with a grace that moved millions. He has continued working through it, raising his kids and carrying the show forward — the kind of resilience that turned a fanbase into a family.

From the roasting sessions to the award-show stages, from the Vine loops to the arena tours, DC Young Fly’s career is the blueprint for the internet-to-everything generation: start with what you are great at, take every door it opens, and never stop being funny. Atlanta made him; the internet discovered him; and he made himself undeniable.

His comedy style is its own school: high-energy, church-inflected, deeply Atlanta. The singing sneaks into the stand-up, the drums sneak into the hosting, and the roasting — always the roasting — underpins it all. It is observational, Black, surreal, and sharp, moving from everyday absurdity to race and culture without ever losing the laugh. A generation of young comics now works in the lane he carved: social-media native, musically gifted, and fluent in the improv chaos that Wild ’N Out demands. DC Young Fly did not just join the culture’s comedy lineage. He extended it — and he is still writing new chapters.