Alejandro Hernández (director)

Alejandro Manrique Hernández Reinoso (born 28 November 1990 in Maracaibo, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan filmmaker. He achieved popularity in Latin America thanks to The Alejandro Hernández Show, a comedy web series which satirizes Venezuelan and Hispanic culture. Most of the content is in Spanish, although some sketches are recorded in English. Since 2009, his videos have reached a total of over 8 million views, which includes only those on his YouTube account.[1] In 2011 Hernández signed a contract with PlanetaUrbe.Tv. Since then, all of his episodes were uploaded to PlanetaUrbe's website instead of YouTube.[2] After the contract ended, he returned to YouTube through elmostacho.com.[3] Hernández is currently at number 148 on the most followed Twitter users in Venezuela, and is the most followed user in the state of Zulia.[4] He won the Celebrity award at the 2011 Twitter Awards held by El Nacional.[5]

For the man sentenced to death and later exonerated, see Jeanine Nicarico murder case. For the tennis player, see Alejandro Hernández (tennis player).

Alejandro Hernández
Born (1990-11-28) 28 November 1990
Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela
Alma materUniversity of Zulia
OccupationFilm director, writer, humorist, singer-songwriter, film score composer.
Years active2009–present
Websitealejandro-hernandez.com

Career

Filmmaking and comedy

Before creating the YouTube channel, Hernández made several short films in both English and Spanish, such as "Conditioned", a comedy-drama about a nerd who criticizes society and stereotypes.[6] After experimenting, he created his YouTube channel.

Hernández is the first successful Venezuelan YouTuber, given that the majority of successful YouTube comedians come from the United States.[7] His first episode, "Cita de salir + el @", which talks about "favorite quotations" on Facebook profiles and the use of the At sign, came to him while he was on Facebook and noticed how they were used the wrong way. Hernández said that the episodic content started with "a few short videos about Facebook and grammatical mistakes", but it later became a more elaborated program. His 18th episode, "Voz orgasmicangelical, profesores necios y la chama que no se calla la jeta", has been his most successful to date, reaching more than 1,000,000 views.[8]

In January 2015 his Sci-Fi short film Alt was released in theaters in Venezuela.[9] Several months after its initial release, it was uploaded to his YouTube channel. The film was subsequently released in other cities such as Argentina and Chile.[10] Alt won Best New Cinema Short at ELCO Film Festival in 2014, was an official selection at the Margarita Latin American and Caribbean Film Festival.[11][12]

Among his latest projects, The Duplicates is a potential web series shot entirely in Manhattan. After being the subject of human experiments, a man is programmed to live for 100 hours. The only way to reset the timer back to zero is to kill one of his clones. The first episode was uploaded to his official YouTube channel.[13]

Music and composing

"Tamos Ready", a parody song mocking the Reggaeton genre was released on 28 December 2010 along with episode 20. It showed Hernández's music producing and singing abilities. The 1-minute song became a local hit, reaching more than 20,000 digital downloads and positioning both "Alejandro Hernández" and "Tamos Ready" at Twitter's worldwide trending topics.[14]

Hernández generally composes music with mainstream appeal, such as "Take It to the Floor", which was featured on episode 29 as part of a sketch.[15] After many viewers wondered who sang the song, Hernández stated on his Twitter account that it was his own, and had to finish it to be available for download.[16] He also composes orchestral film scores which are usually made for his own short films and specific sketches of his show.[17]

Criticism

Despite the show's success, it has been criticized by the Venezuelan government.[18] Mario Silva, host of La Hojilla, an opinion program that airs on the government channel Venezolana de Televisión, harshly criticized Hernández, saying that he looked "apparently innocent" and labeled him "dangerous" and a bad influence to the Venezuelan youth. However, he pointed out his "perfect English" and "good editing". He even drew comparisons with another Venezuelan comedian, Luis Chataing, which Silva qualified as "stupid".

Personal life

Hernández is a native of Maracaibo, and currently resides in New York City.[19] Hernández came out as gay in early 2015 through an open letter on his blog,[20] causing diverse reactions in the Venezuelan media and becoming the first celebrity to publicly state their sexuality in the country.[21]

Filmography
Year Title Credit
director Producer screenWriter Actor Role
2009 The Alejandro Hernández Show Himself
2013 Alt
2015 The Duplicates

References
  1. "Humor maracucho 2.0". Archived from the original on 6 April 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  2. "Televisión+Internet = PlanetaUrbe.Tv". Archived from the original on 16 December 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  3. ""The Alejandro Hernández Show" llega a El Mostacho". Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  4. "Alejandro Hernández es el Twittero con más seguidores del Zulia". Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  5. "Ganadores de los Twitter Awards 2011". Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  6. "Conditioned: short film by Alejandro Hernández". Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  7. "Alejandro Hernández: De Maracaibo a YouTube y el Mundo". Archived from the original on 18 December 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  8. "The Alejandro Hernández Show 18". Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  9. ""Alt", cortometraje de Alejandro Hernández, llega a más de 150 salas de cine de Venezuela". Archived from the original on 17 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  10. "Comienza la segunda edición del Festival de Cine Venezolano". Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  11. ""ALT" de Alejandro Hernández triunfa en el Festival de Cine ELCO". Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  12. "Cortos dijeron presente en el VII Festival de Cine Latinoamericano y Caribeno". Archived from the original on 17 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  13. "The Duplicates: Episode 1". Retrieved 16 July 2015.
  14. "Tamos Ready – What The Trend". Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  15. "Take It to the Floor – Alejandro Hernández". Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  16. "Alejandro Hernández Twitter". Retrieved 3 July 2011.
  17. "Alejandro Hernández Music". Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  18. "Mario Silva vs The Alejandro Hernández Show". Archived from the original on 1 January 2011. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  19. "Como NYC me ha cambiado" (in Spanish). 10 November 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  20. "Aclarando dudas sobre mi sexualidad" (in Spanish). 1 January 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  21. "Youtuber Alejandro Hernández causa revuelo al declararse homosexual". El Universal (in Spanish). 2 January 2015. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
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