9 Web Video Series Started By Hollywood Celebrities

As web video grows in popularity, more and more celebrities are jumping from the silver screen and turning to the Internet to star in their own web series. Here at Social Times we’ve put together a list of ten of the most influential celebs that have ventured into the world of Internet video. Find our web series stars after the jump – some of them may surprise you!

Lisa Kudrow

Lisa Kudrow infiltrated the world of web video in 2008 with her hit series Web Therapy. Web Therapy is an improvised comedy show in which Kudrow stars as Fiona Wallace, a therapist who conducts her sessions over webcam using iChat. A number of celebrities have been featured on the show including Courtney Cox, Molly Shannon and Jane Lynch.

In April of this year, Showtime announced that they would be picking up the series, converting it into 30-minute episodes. Lisa Kudrow has also received two Streamy Award nominations for Best Female Actor for her performance in Web Therapy. Check out the most recent episode of Web Therapy below, featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris, most known for his roles on Doogie Howser, MD and How I Met Your Mother was also one of the first celebrities to get into web video. Harris played the starring role, along with Felicia Day, in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. This three-act web series was created in 2008 during the WGA writers strike and was an instant success. At the inaugural Streamy Awards in 2009, Dr. Horrible took home seven awards, including Best Male Actor, which went to Harris. You can watch Act 1 below.

Will Ferrell

Comedian Will Ferrell has been one of the biggest innovators in the web video arena. In February of 2008 he launched the website Funny or Die, a comedy video website in which users are encouraged to rate content as “Funny” or “Die”. There are many famous contributors on the site including Zach Galifianakis, James Franco, Judd Apatow and Will Ferrell himself.

The first video that launched on the site was The Landlord, a funny video starring Will Farrell in which he is confronted by his drunk landlord Pearl, who just so happens to be a baby. The video, which you can watch below, has been viewed over 70 million times.

Zach Galifianakis

Zach Galifianakis, who is best known for his role in The Hangover, has one of the most hilarious web series I’ve ever seen. In Between Two Ferns, Galifianakis interviews popular celebs while sitting in between two ferns in the style of a low budget, cable access television show. Galifianakis has interviewed a number of huge stars including Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Michael Cera and more.

Galifianakis took home the Streamy Award for best comedic actor, as well as best comedy series in this year’s awards show. Watch his hilarious interview with Jimmy Kimmel (or is it Timmy Kimbles?) below on Funny Or Die.

Felicia Day

Felicia Day got her start on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but her real claim to fame lies in web video. She starred with Neil Patrick Harris in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, but is best known as the star, writer and producer of The Guild. The Guild is an original web series about an online guild known as ‘The Knights of Good.’ The series has been hugely popular, especially among online gamers. Watch the most recent episode of The Guild below.

Jaleel White

Jaleel White, also known fondly as Steve Urkel from Family Matters, got his start in web video with the series Road To The Alter, a 10 episode mockumentary that stars White as a 30-something year old man who is getting ready to tie the knot with his girlfriend, who is Jewish, and realizes he is in over his head.

Last week, it was announced that White is starring in his second Web series – Fake It Til You Make It. Check out the video below.

Ashton Kutcher

Ashton Kutcher has taken the Web by storm, from Twitter to Facebook and beyond. Through his production company, Katalyst, Kutcher launched Blah Girls, an animated series in which the Blah Girls talk about pop culture, movies, celebs and more.

However, the real fun lies in Kutcher’s web series Katalyst HQ, an original series about life in the corporate headquarters of Kutcher’s production firm. The series mainly consists of the people who work at Katalyst playing tricks on each other. Check out the episode below, in which the Katalyst HQ team turns off a Twitter-obsessed co-workers access to the social media site.

Kevin Pollak

Actor Kevin Pollak partnered up with Jason Calacanis and Mahalo.com to host Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, a weekly interview program in which Pollak talks with actors, comics and writers. Guests have included Kevin Smith, Jason Lee, Matthew Perry, Adam Carolla, Dana Carvey and more. The show is broadcast live on Ustream, Sundays at 5 pm PST. Watch Pollak’s interview with Matthew Perry below.

These are only a handful of the celebrities that have jumped on the web video bandwagon, and more and more are trying to get into web series. At this year’s Digital Content NewFront 2010 (DCNF) a number of celebrities pitched original ideas for web series. Among the celebrity pitchers were Seth Green, Amy Brenneman, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. Even Shaq offered up some ideas for web series in a promo for the DCNF conference.

As web television becomes more mainstream we expect to see more and more celebs appearing in their own Web series. What do you think of celebrities taking starring roles on the Web? Do you think that an increase in celebrity web series will make it harder for the average Joe to succeed in web television?

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