Dr Disrespect - Wikipedia

Start as a YouTuber

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On January 12, 2010, Beahm published his first YouTube video on the "Dr Disrespect" channel, which is a variation of then-popular Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 commentary videos. It mixed clips of Beahm trash talking over footage of gameplay with real-life footage of him in costume as Dr Disrespect, his persona of a bombastic and body-armored "champion".[7][8] He had purchased the character's signature wig, mustache, and glasses from a costume shop. The video's success led to Beahm becoming a partnered creator with Machinima, which was then a prominent gaming network on YouTube.[6]

In February 2011, Beahm announced that he was taking a hiatus to be hired, on March 16, as the community manager of Sledgehammer Games.[6][9] At Sledgehammer, he expanded his role to include level designing for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in 2014.[6]

Early livestreaming career

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He joined Justin.tv (which later became Twitch) while he was working at Sledgehammer, and quit the studio at the end of 2015 to focus on a full-time live streaming career.[6]

Under his Dr Disrespect persona, Beahm gained a significant following for playing battle royale games, starting in 2016 with H1Z1 before switching to PUBG: Battlegrounds and then Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout mode; he had also livestreamed gameplay of Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, Fortnite Battle Royale, and Fall Guys.[10] His stream of PUBG: Battlegrounds on February 5, 2018, reached a total of 388,000 concurrent viewers, nearing Tyler1's record of 410,000.[11][12][13][14] His high viewership numbers led to sponsorship deals with Gillette, Asus, Roccat, and Game Fuel, among others.[15] On January 10, 2019, Creative Artists Agency signed Beahm as a client.[15] According to a June 2024 Rolling Stone report, he had not been a client since at least months prior.[16]

Beahm has faced controversy for various on-stream comments. One significant incident involved his uses of caricatured Eastern Asian accents and language. Musician Jimmy Wong compiled a series of clips highlighting these instances during his livestreams, accusing him of racism. He responded by stating that he has Asian friends and dismissing the criticism as "laughable".[17]

On June 11, 2019, Dr Disrespect's Twitch channel was suspended as he was livestreaming while attending the 2019 edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Beahm and his cameraman went into a public restroom (he re-entered the restroom on two occasions, with filming still going on) at the venue in violation of Twitch's privacy rules.[18][19] E3 organizer Entertainment Software Association revoked Dr Disrespect's E3 pass, banning him from the event.[18][20] Twitch reinstated his channel on June 25.[21][22]

Permanent ban from Twitch, move to YouTube, and fallout

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Dr Disrespect (@drdisrespect) tweeted:

Listen, I'm obviously tied to legal obligations from the settlement with Twitch but I just need to say what I can say since this is the fucking internet.I didn't do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid.Elden Ring Monday.

June 22, 2024[23]

Beahm signed a multi-year deal with Twitch in March 2020.[24] On June 26, his account was indefinitely banned from Twitch for violating their Community Guidelines.[25] That same day, Discord removed Dr Disrespect from their partnership program, citing violations of their Code of Conduct.[26] He tweeted that he was not informed of Twitch's "specific reason behind their decision".[27] A month later, in interviews with PC Gamer and The Washington Post, he insisted that he did not know why Twitch banned him and debunked "crazy speculation" and conspiracy theories over it.[26][28] On August 7, he started a livestream on YouTube at 12:00 pm. PDT (8:00 pm. UTC); the next day at 4:00 pm. PDT (12:00 am. UTC), he appeared on-stream and briefly addressed his ban.[29][30][31] Beahm claimed in August 2021 that he knew the reason and sued Twitch.[32] The legal dispute was eventually resolved in 2022, with neither party admitting wrongdoing and "moving on".[33] Beahm later claimed his contract was paid out in full.[34]

Beahm criticized Twitch for banning him, claiming that it cost him "a lot of sponsorships".[35] He also claimed that he declined a "gracious" $10 million annual offer to stream on Kick, an alternative platform known for hosting controversial content creators,[36] because his demand for $50 million was not met.[37] Allegations eventually emerged in June 2024 that Beahm had sent sexually explicit messages to a minor. Former Twitch director of strategic partnerships Cody Conners tweeted on June 21 that he "got caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product" in 2017.[38][39]

 

Beahm denied the allegations, stating that he did "nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid".[40][41] On a livestream of Elden Ring, he considered leaving his business ventures, saying that he was "burnt out" by the allegations.[42] He later acknowledged that some of his messages could be loosely deemed "inappropriate,"; that statement was removed in August, and he tweeted afterwards that "we have lots to talk about".[43]

An additional former Twitch employee came forward and alleged to Rolling Stone that Beahm's statement the messages were not sexually explicit was inaccurate, characterizing the messages as "sexually graphic" and that Beahm kept sending these messages even after being made aware the individual was underage.[16][44][45]

In response, YouTube temporarily suspended Beahm's access to YouTube's monetization features.[46] His partnerships with FanDuel, Midnight Society (a game studio he helped found),[47] Turtle Beach and other sponsors were also suspended.[48] Just prior to YouTube’s suspension of monetization on Beahm’s channel, the platform’s former global head of gaming partnerships at Google, Ryan Wyatt, confirmed to Rolling Stone that Beahm was not offered a contract due to internal discussions about the circumstances of his Twitch ban. Wyatt stated that a Twitch employee and journalists investigating the situation had informed YouTube staff that the ban allegedly involved inappropriate messages to a minor.[49]

On September 6, 2024, Beahm returned to streaming on YouTube, denied the allegations and stated that neither he "nor the Twitch user exchanged any sexually graphic messages or images".[50] He claimed that Conners does not participate in Twitch investigations, "didn't have any firsthand knowledge about my dispute with Twitch," and was thus lying. Beahm additionally noted he never intended to meet anyone at TwitchCon, did not go to TwitchCon, and further accused the former Twitch community manager of targeting him.[51] Later that month his remonetization request to YouTube was denied but was eventually re-monetized in early 2025 after moving to Rumble.[52]

On January 30, 2025, Beahm's YouTube channel was reinstated for monetization. In a statement provided to PC Gamer, YouTube said, "Dr Disrespect was previously suspended from the YouTube Partner Program for violations of our Creator Responsibility policies. Creators who are suspended from this program can reapply for access, and after careful review of the channel's recent activity, we've reinstated it."[53]

Rumble deal

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On November 25, 2024, Beahm announced that he had signed a deal with streaming platform Rumble that included equity in the company and a role as the head and advisor of its Rumble Gaming category. The contract required Beahm to produce exclusive content for Rumble Premium for his Champions Club community as well as streaming free content on the site starting in early December. Beahm also made a social media post on his personal account claiming that he was a victim of cancel culture based on falsehoods.[54][55][52]