Chief Executive Officer, YouTube, YouTube, LLC
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan & Creators Talk Emmys, Streaming & Creator Power | Deadline Cover Story
COVER STORY: In an interview with Deadline, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) sat down with some of the platform’s key creators — ‘Huge* If True’s Cleo Abram (@CleoAbram) , Michelle Khare (@MichelleKhare), creator and host of ‘Challenge Accepted’; Julian Shapiro-Barnum (@recesstherapy), who hosts series including ‘Celebrity Substitute’ and upcoming late-night show ‘Outside Tonight,’ and ‘SubwayTakes’ host Kareem Rahma (@SubwayTakes) who just launched travel series ‘Keep the Meter Running.’
In a discussion ranging from why YouTube’s business philosophy works for creators, to how th...
About Neal Mohan
Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, has been discussing the platform's relationship with creators, artificial intelligence, and content moderation. In a February 2024 interview, Mohan stated that YouTube paid out over $70 billion to the creator economy over the previous three years, calling it "the original and world's largest creator economy." He also addressed past criticism of the platform's content moderation decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the company's approach "has to be flexible to the environment and the context of it." Regarding AI, Mohan said YouTube is working on "likeness detection" technology that would allow creators to control whether AI-generated content featuring their image remains on the platform. Mohan has also spoken about YouTube's cultural influence and his personal background. At the 2026 TAAF Heritage Month Summit, he described his father's immigration from India to the United States and his own experiences feeling like an outsider, which he said led him to value storytelling as a universal connector. He said YouTube's mission is to "give everyone a voice and show them the world," adding that the platform has "no gatekeepers" and allows anyone to share their story. In a May 2026 interview with Deadline, Mohan said YouTube aims to be "the best place where they can build their fandom and their audiences, but also to grow their businesses," and described the platform as "the leading streaming platform."
Transcript (24 segments)
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Neal Mohan0:31
Hi, I'm Neal Mohan. I'm the CEO of YouTube and we're all here in New York for Upfronts Week including YouTube Brandcast. So, super excited to be here with these amazing creators to showcase all of their amazing talents for the 2 billion people that come to YouTube every single day.
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Jacklyn Shrubar0:47
Hi, I'm Jacklyn Shrubar, I'm the host and creator of Celebrity Substitute, a show where the biggest stars in the world teach at public elementary schools.
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Neal Mohan0:54
Amazing.
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Cleo Abram0:55
Hi, I'm Cleo Abram. I'm a video journalist and the host of Huge If True, which is an optimistic, cinematic, science journalism show.
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Michelle Khare1:04
Hey, I'm Michelle Khare and I'm the creator of Challenge Accepted, a docu-series where I attempt the world's toughest stunts and professions ranging from recreating Mission Impossible-level stunts to attempting seven marathons on all seven continents in one single week.
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Karim Rahma1:19
Hi, I'm Karim Rahma, host and creator of Subway Takes, which is the most sophisticated show about the stupidest subjects.
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Unknown1:25
Ooh. I love that. I never heard that.
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Neal Mohan1:29
Yeah, look, our mission statement is to give everyone a voice and show them the world, and so our platform is literally a stage for these amazing creators and many more like them. We're very proud of the fact that we're the world's original and largest creator economy. We want to be the best place where they can build their fandom and their audiences, but also to grow their businesses.
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Jacklyn Shrubar1:54
You know, I've had dreams of making TV ever since I was a kid. When I was in college, I started putting videos on YouTube and it was really just a place to test things and try things. The idea behind it was one day that would lead to TV, one day that would lead to the entertainment industry. And then at some point I looked up and realized that I was making the things that I dreamed of making and I was working with the people I always wanted to be working with, and all the things that I was dreaming of doing were happening right now. And I really believe that that could only happen on YouTube. There are no gatekeepers. There's nobody holding me back. Everything that I make, Celebrity Substitute is an idea that I had with my friends and we built it ourselves. And I feel like YouTube empowers the individual, the artist, to bring their dreams to fruition, which is amazing.
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Cleo Abram2:46
Yeah, I make a show that is at its core optimistic science journalism. So, I'm looking for the stories of people solving hard problems, presenting visions of the future that are better than today. And the reason that I make the show is that I think that if people see better visions of the future, they're going to help build them. And so, I was a science journalist, I am a science journalist. I was working at a large traditional media company and I was looking for this show. I wanted to watch it. And I couldn't find it and I decided to go independent, as they say, and start it myself. And the feeling of putting something out there into the world, of having this really specific mission that wasn't happening anywhere else and in my opinion couldn't happen anywhere else, and then having hundreds of millions of people say, 'I have that feeling, too. I also want that show. I also believe that if people see better visions of the future, they'll help make them and I want to be one of those people,' is the best feeling in the world. This is a really creatively empowering time. And I'm just so proud to be a journalist right now. I'm proud to be a creator and I'm really proud to be a YouTuber.
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Michelle Khare3:58
Challenge Accepted is a show that honestly, I don't know would have gotten greenlit at a major studio. It's made by a crew of people, myself included, who are lovers of television. And when you watch it, it is absolutely a traditional television experience in the level of quality and story. But the production component is actually very non-traditional. Unlike most television shows, one episode of Challenge Accepted can take up to 18 months to produce. And that flexibility to lean in further to a story, to decide to spend more time with it, not only allows us to make a better story, but also allows our non-fiction pieces to be more honest because we're really following the story where it takes us, rather than trying to hit a deadline of making a season in one month.
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Karim Rahma4:46
You know, from a more practical level, the fact that it's international and it's free and it's open allows for the content to be distributed to more places than a traditional streamer might allow it to. And then with Subway Takes, it's all dialogue-driven and conversation-based. And I think it's really important to have that same dialogue and relationship with your audience. Whereas on a regular streamer, you don't really have that two-way communication, but on YouTube you do. So I can do posts and community building and actually have this one-to-one relationship. And honestly, just decide to shoot a finale after I've already published six episodes based on what has already happened in those six episodes. So it's more nimble, it's more freeing, and the ability to make decisions when you feel like it, as opposed to having to make those decisions, allows for a greater freedom of expression.
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Cleo Abram5:44
Every other service said, 'We think the best way to make the best stuff is to have a small group of really talented people say, here's what's going to get greenlit and here's how much money gets spent on it and here's what people are going to want to watch.' And YouTube, over the course of the last several decades, said, no, it's actually that we're going to let everybody all around the world make what is in their mind, and all of these creative people in aggregate, big and small, if we make sure that they can reach people who might be interested in what they want to make, will result in the best, highest quality creative work over time.
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Michelle Khare6:15
So, I would say we bet on ourselves. We bet on YouTube and YouTube in turn bet on us. And also on human creativity. As, you know, maybe cheesy as it sounds, it really is true. If you look at any of our first videos, which I'm not necessarily suggesting, you'll see a massive evolution in our shows to the point that now all of us are so lucky to submit to the Primetime Emmys this year. But, I think it's beautiful that that's actually not where these shows started. We started in a place of actually being able to hone the craft as we went. I love being able to have the experience of knowing what it's like to operate the camera, to run sound, to edit myself. So, now that when we're commanding teams of 10, 20, even 50 people on set, we can empathetically lead those teams and have deeper understanding of the material we're putting out.
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Neal Mohan7:06
You know, we fundamentally do two things. One is we help amazing creators like this build an audience, no matter where they are in the world, all over the world. And that takes an enormous amount of investment in the technology and the capabilities to do that. And then the second thing we do is we help them build businesses, connecting them with advertisers or brands that support the vision that you see up here. Building out subscription businesses, building out other ways for them to turn what they love and what they're talented at into full-fledged careers. It's a different business model, but it is a very big bet on the success of, as Cleo was saying, human creativity.
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Michelle Khare7:51
I feel like what makes YouTube so special is that the buy-in is so small. Yes, you have to take this bet on yourself, but also the bet you're taking initially is pretty small.
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Neal Mohan8:02
In that sense, it's a level playing field, right? The leg ups that might have existed sort of in that traditional media world don't exist in the context of YouTube and everybody is on a level playing field, and the beauty is the fans and the audience get to decide. We are just as good of a place for the incredibly successful creators to thrive, but also somebody, as Julian was describing, who hits that upload button today because they are just so insanely passionate about telling a particular story. Creators really view YouTube as their home. They don't leave it, not because they don't have plenty of choices, it's because that's where their most authentic audience is. That's where the actual fandom is, that interactivity that exists. It's not just about sitting on the couch and watching and sort of leaning back, it's really truly engaging with your favorite creators and creators engaging with their fans, and I think that's a lot of what the magic of YouTube is, and that's pretty hard to replicate.
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Jacklyn Shrubar9:05
I think it's really interesting. When I started, I was like, 'Oh, the dream of TV.' Right? This is a stepping stone. But now it's become the place that I want to be in, the place that I want to produce, and the place that I want to make stuff. It does feel like my home.
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Neal Mohan9:22
Every partnership, every approach around a live event, you know, you mentioned the Oscars, even with a partner like the NFL, or what we do with Coachella every year, it is through the lens of our creators, right? If there's not a mechanism there to have YouTubers be involved, not from a YouTube standpoint, but really from a culture and fandom standpoint, then it's not interesting. And so, that's one way that you can think about sort of the common thread in terms of our relationship with traditional media or some of the live sports leagues or other forms of linear television, that's really how we look at it. When we do a live event and it's actually consumed through the lens of a creator, through Watch With, which is one of the new formats we have, it oftentimes expands the audience and it certainly brings a new type of creativity to something that might have been in that same format for decades before then.
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Cleo Abram10:24
Think about the deal on YouTube. You can reach the widest possible audience in the most places around the world for free in any language. You can own all of your own work forever and not need to ask anyone for permission to be able to make the next thing.
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Michelle Khare10:42
I also think that something that any creator does is I don't really feel like there's necessarily a major inflection point from 'I'm starting to upload' to 'now I'm massively successful and comfortable.' Every time I upload, I don't know if you guys feel this way, I'm making a new bet on myself. Every episode of Challenge Accepted is completely bespoke and unique to its format, and I enjoy the opportunity to even win and fail in that and keep going as opposed to worrying about risking someone else's choice shutting that door for me. We are constantly in spaces with YouTube employees where they're asking for feedback. I actually can't necessarily say that about every other platform, and I think that's really special that Neal and his team are very focused on how can we renovate the house rather than telling us how to decorate our bedrooms. And to kind of tie it back to the conversation we're having today, I also have to hand it to Neal that three years ago when he came into office as CEO, I had an impromptu meeting with him and he asked me, 'What would your dream be as a YouTube creator?' And I just threw out this idea of I think it'd be incredible for a native content creator to win a primetime Emmy. So, to be sitting here with so many other creators in this fashion is a direct result of Neal and his team listening.
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Jacklyn Shrubar12:03
I do feel like three years ago mainstream media was not paying the same attention. Like even Netflix and stuff like that. They are trying to copy what YouTube is doing because what we're doing is being taken so seriously.
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Neal Mohan12:17
In some sense, it's not about what the media industry is talking about. It's fundamentally about what these creators are doing and more importantly how their fans are responding to that. You know, award shows pay attention because this is where the relevant conversation around culture is happening. And so, in some sense it's about relevancy for the industry in general because we're the leading streaming platform for a reason, and this is the reason up here, and all of their fans, all of us as consumers and viewers and fans, get to decide that.
I'm Neal Mohan and this is YouTube.