Most people might use flour and yeast to make a bagel. This UCLA alumnus uses leftover sushi instead.
Brad Brady, a home chef and content creator who has amassed over 150,000 followers on TikTok, started posting cooking videos while studying theater at UCLA. His videos feature outlandish dishes made from unexpected ingredients, from a cake made with just peanuts to a seafood boil entirely made with gas station ingredients. What began as a creative outlet, Brady said, has evolved into a calculated approach to content creation that combines his theater background with an understanding of what keeps viewers watching.
“My cooking videos are just a kind of platform for which I can deliver my personality in an extended format,” Brady said.
Brady said even though sticking to popular trends may make his videos more successful, it does not build a dedicated audience. He decides to focus on what he calls evergreen content – videos that may not be relevant to current trends but are still attention-grabbing, he said.
Brady has carved out a niche not many other creators have explored, said Jiya Singh, a fourth-year cognitive science and communication student and Brady’s friend. She added that Brady’s eccentric ideas exemplify his sense of humor.
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“It’s calculated,” Singh said. “He knows what kind of image of himself he wants to put out, which I think comes a lot with that improv, that theater background.”
Brady leverages his performing arts background in his content creation, said Nick Alcorn, a fourth-year theater student and Brady’s former roommate. He said at UCLA, Brady was part of Rapid Fire Improv and he has extensive training in comedy, which informs many of his creative endeavors. His experience acting out scenes has taught him how to engage his audience online, Alcorn said.
“I really hope that my social media is a culmination of myself, and my friends are such a big part of my life that I would want them to be a big part of my social media,” Brady said. “They’re there for me every step of the way, helping me along, talking me through the editing process, coming up with ideas with me.”
One of Brady’s most popular videos is eight minutes long and has close to 20 million views. Brady said long-form content might seem like it should only belong on a platform like YouTube, but by using quick cuts and attention-grabbing clips throughout videos, he captures the attention of TikTok viewers.
“If I can have a question that you had never thought of in the first place, and I could present you with that in the first couple seconds with a good visual, and then make you drag along for a couple minutes of a journey, then you might watch that video,” Brady said.
However, Brady said his most viral TikTok videos aren’t always his favorites. One video, he said, began as a short clip of a spoiled egg he sent to a friend. The egg became a strange plastic-like texture, Brady added, and his friend urged him to post a video of it. Though hesitant, the content creator said his friend’s suggestion made him see it as more than a random clip: It had an interesting hook and premise, and if his friend found it funny, maybe a larger audience could too. Brady said the video now has nearly five million views.
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After graduating this summer, Brady said comedy and content creation are two careers he may want to explore, especially because a social media presence has become a requisite for many comedians these days. Now that Brady has found success in social media, he said the shift towards content creation within the comedy industry is exciting.
“The skills of authenticity, promoting myself and just generally being a fun person, hopefully, to be around are the most important skills I can develop through social media that will help me later on in my career, regardless of what field I go into,” Brady said.
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