| John Campea | |
| Birth Name: | Giovanni Bertone Campea |
| Birth Date: | 1972 2, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada |
| Occupation: | YouTuber, film critic, media host, writer, producer, editor |
| Alma Mater: | Niagara College Tyndale University |
| Years Active: | 2003–present |
Giovanni Bertone "John" Campea (born 26 February 1972), is a Canadian YouTuber, film critic, media critic, director, writer, producer, and editor. Campea founded and ran the film website, The Movie Blog from June 2003 to December 2009. He then went on to become the editor-in-chief of AMC Movie News from September 2008 to June 2015. Shortly after that he was hired by Complex to run Collider Movie Talk beginning in July 2015. During his time there, he served as senior producer, host and showrunner of all of the programs. He resigned twice, once in January 2016, but returned in September of that year, and left permanently in June 2017. After he resigned, he began to release videos on his YouTube channel. As of December 2022, he has over 316,000 subscribers and over 265,000,000 total views.
Campea started his career for Beagle Productions and later as client services director for Satellite Studios, a visual effects and 3D animation studio whose work appeared in a number of films, including , The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The One, and Frank Miller's Sin City.[1] Then after his time working as visual effects artist, he began to work at a law firm for three years.
In 2003, he founded The Movie Blog, a film website offering daily editorials and commentary on current movies, movie news, and the film industry. The Movie Blog eventually became a full-time occupation for Campea.[2] In 2006, Campea and then-co-host Doug Nagy won a Bloggie for "Podcast of the Year" for The Movie Blogs podcast show Uncut.[3]
He quit The Movie Blog in late 2009[4] to focus on developing the news site for AMC called AMC Movie News,[5] but returned for a short time in 2012.
In 2008, Campea released his first documentary film, Prince of Peace: God of War, that examined the stark contrasts between the pro-war and pro-pacifism movements within the Christian church.[6] [7] It played at several film festivals[8] in North America and received favorable reviews.[9] [10] He completed filming his first feature film, The Anniversary, in 2009.[11] Campea now runs his own production company, Carson Drive Media (named after his childhood street in Hamilton, Ontario), and released his second documentary in November 2020, titled Movie Trailers: A Love Story.
In 2011, Campea took over the annual "Masters of the Web" panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. The panel serves as a discussion on the film industry and the world of film blogging and journalism online. Each year Campea hosts the panel with major online film personalities. The panel has also had several special celebrity guests over the years including Stan Lee, Edgar Wright, Karl Urban, Roberto Orci and others.
Campea was Editor-in-Chief of AMC Movie News and the creator and host of such shows as AMC Movie Talk, AMC Jedi Council (an all Star Wars talk show), AMC Mail Bag, AMC Versus, AMC Coming Soon and AMC Spoilers. Their main show, AMC Movie Talk, won the 2014 International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) award for "Best News Series". The AMC Movie News YouTube channel has its videos viewed over 5 million times per month and continues to grow. Campea announced his resignation as editor-in-chief of AMC Movie News in May 2015, but continued to appear on the show through the subsequent few weeks of June 2015.
In July 2015, Campea announced that he had joined Collider, and that most of the previous web shows that aired on AMC's YouTube channel, would end their association with AMC and transition to Collider's channel, with AMC Theatres remaining as a sponsor.[12] On February 17, 2016, Campea had announced on that day's episode of Collider Movie Talk that he had resigned from Collider, and explained his future plans in the industry.[13] Campea continued to be a guest on both Collider Jedi Council and Collider Heroes, returning as host and showrunner of Collider Movie Talk in September 2016. However, Campea left Collider once again in June 2017, citing creative differences in the direction of the channel, to work on other projects, including his personal YouTube channel.
On September 4, 2015, Campea launched a Kickstarter campaign to publish a book he wrote called The Pride.[14] The campaign met its goal several days later. On February 13, 2016, Campea announced through the book's Kickstarter page that the novel was finished.[15] The Kindle edition of The Pride was released on February 29, 2016, with a physical copy going on sale at a later date.[16]
After leaving Collider, Campea started his own independent film talk and news show, similar to Movie Talk on Collider, on his own personal YouTube channel that airs weekdays, as well as companion videos answering missed fan questions and live streams. Until November 2021, Robert Meyer Burnett and Erin Cummings appeared as co-hosts on the show on most weekdays and Thursdays, respectively.[17] As of September 2022 he is joined weekdays by Burnett (most weekdays), Cummings (on some Wednesdays), voice actress Kris Carr (on Wednesdays and Fridays), actress Amy Newman (on Thursdays and Fridays) and Ray Ora who is his brother-in-law and a graphic designer. Jonathan Voytko rejoined the show in May 2022 as a producer, having previously worked as an editor/technical director on AMC Movie Talk and Collider projects; in his time with Campea, he earned the nickname "Fact Checker Jonathan". By July 2022, his own channel has amassed over 296,000 subscribers.[18] In November 2021, Campea received criticism after accidentally leaking alleged photos from . The film's release has since confirmed the validity of the images.[19]
In February 2022, Campea revived the Mailbag feature, effectively replacing the previous TJCS companion videos. The format is similar to the companion videos, however, the show takes questions submitted 24/7 from fans tipped via Streamlabs, as opposed to the main show’s questions being taken exclusively from YouTube’s Super Chat function. As of March 2022, the show is hosted by Campea or Burnett 2–3 times a week, with the first edition of Mailbag airing on February 1, 2022 and ended in August 2022.[20] Campea also co-hosts a weekly show with Burnett and competitive swimmer Cody Miller titled Best Movie Worst Movie, focusing on a different topic each week.
In May 2023, Campea decided to end the live-streamed aspect of TJCS (except for channel members) and turn the podcast into an audio-only podcast, drawing criticism from other critics, fans, and viewers. Campea later reversed this decision, making the show initially available to non-members with a delay from June 2023 and live again from October 2023.[21] [22] .
As of 2018, in addition to The John Campea Show, Open Mic was also included as a daily, live, viewer submitted question forum. Described by Campea as a "virtual watercooler", it focuses on wide-ranging live chat discussion. On the October 29, 2020 episode of The John Campea Show, Campea announced that Open Mic was moved to a podcast exclusive, available with the flagship program on any podcasting network. In August 2022, it was announced that Open Mic would be returning to the John Campea YouTube channel.
Campea has been married to his wife Ann Ora Campea since 2010. The couple met at a wrap party for the Neveldine/Taylor-written film Pathology in 2007. As of 2021, they both reside in Corona, California. They have two dogs named Lily and Shadow. Campea also attempted a career in MMA but suffered two heart attacks during his first training session.
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The One | Visual effects artist |
| 2002 | Visual effects artist | |
| 2003 | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen | Visual effects artist |
| 2005 | Sin City | Visual effects artist |
| 2007 | Prince of Peace: God of War | Director, producer, writer, editor |
| 2008 | The Incredible Hulk | Extra (uncredited) |
| 2009 | The Anniversary | Director, producer, writer |
| 2020 | Movie Trailers: A Love Story | Director, producer, writer, editor |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003–2009 | The Movie Blog | Himself | Editor |
| 2011 | For Your Consideration | Himself | Host |
| 2012–15 | AMC Movie Talk | Himself (host) | Executive producer |
| 2015–17 | Collider Movie Talk | Himself | Senior producer |
| 2015–17 | Collider Heroes | Himself (guest) | |
| 2015–17 | Collider Jedi Council | Himself (guest) | |
| 2016–17 | Movie Trivia Schmoedown | Himself (contestant/commentator) | |
| 2017–present | The John Campea Show | Himself (host) | Executive producer[23] |
| 2017–2019 2022–2023 | The Weekly Hero | Himself (host) and Robert Meyer Burnett (2018) and onto just Burnett, with new co-host Kris Carr (2022) | |
| 2018–2020 | Open Mic | Himself (host) | Moved to podcast exclusive in October 2020 |
| 2018–2020 | Play and Chat | Himself (host) | |
| 2019 | Dark Side Light Side | Himself and Kristian Harloff (host) | |
| 2022 | The John Campea Show Mailbag | Himself (host) | Started February 2022 |
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Podcast of the Year | The Movie Blog | ||
| 2014 | International Academy of Web Television[24] | Best News Series | AMC Movie Talk | |
| 2014 | Best Host (Live) | AMC Movie Talk | ||
| 2014 | Geekie Award[25] | Best Podcast | AMC Movie Talk | |
| 2015 | International Academy of Web Television[26] | Best Live Series | AMC Movie Talk | |
| 2015 | Best Live Host | AMC Movie Talk | ||
| 2015 | Best Pre-recorded Host | AMC Mailbag | ||
| 2018 | Best Live Series | The John Campea Show | ||
| 2018 | Best Host | The John Campea Show | ||