BGSU alumnus plays key role editing content for wildly popular YouTube channel MrBeast

Nolan Ritter ’16 is a lead editor at MrBeast, the most-subscribed channel on YouTube

For Bowling Green State University alumnus Nolan Ritter ’16, sculpting what will become some of the most-viewed content on the internet is all in a day’s work.

Ritter is a lead editor at MrBeast, the most subscribed channel on YouTube with 394 million followers to go with another 115 million on TikTok and 70 million on Instagram.

Prior to playing an imperative behind-the-scenes role for digital media known worldwide, Ritter was modeling what he wanted to be as a BGSU student.

As a child who often carried around a Handycam and made videos with his friends in high school, Ritter knew he was interested in some form of visual communication – and found exactly what he was looking for at BGSU.

Ritter said he clicked with the course content and faculty in visual communication technology at BGSU, immersed himself in the process of creating digital media as an undergraduate and never looked back, turning the discipline into his career.

“I wanted to impress people and do really well, which was the first time in my life that I had felt that way,” he said. “When you’re making something for somebody else, you have to do a good job, and the most important thing is liking the process and the people you’re working with.”

For Ritter, the chance to apply what he was learning in BGSU classrooms to workplaces as a student provided a runway to not only refine his abilities, but gain a clearer picture of what he hoped to do professionally.

At BGSU, students in the VCT program must complete two co-operative experiences prior to graduation.

Co-ops – which are paid, semester-long opportunities and counted for course credit – allow students to develop relevant skills within their major while making money to do so.

“The co-ops were absolutely crucial for me,” Ritter said. “Although I’m a person who is naturally driven, because I was required to do those, my drive was pushed in the right direction. Working in those roles and learning about the standards of what the job actually is was my introduction into losing your ego and using your skill to make the thing someone needs.”

During his time at BGSU, Ritter did co-ops with WBGU-TV, at Jerome Library and for Conference and Event Services, three different professional environments in which he learned three different avenues to apply his growing skill set.

By the time he graduated, Ritter said he was able to offer tangible skills that led to his ascent in the digital media field.

“At that point, I was doing a lot of things I could put on my resume: I was an Adobe rep and teaching classes on how to use Premiere, I was working at the library and I was also doing video for Conference and Event Services, which was a really fun job where I got a lot of experience,” he said. “It really emulated what an office doing digital media would be like, which was great for me.”

During his undergraduate studies at BGSU, Ritter said he was able to use his classes and co-ops to connect his interests and his work.

Naturally a creative person, Ritter said the VCT pathway allowed him to model the ways in which his creativity could be used in real-world applications.

“It sounds obvious now, but as a student, it lets you see it’s not all about you and your artistic sensibilities – it was about making a product,” he said. “That really taught me what I liked to do and what I didn’t like to do, what I’m good at and what I’m not good at. It taught me the technical side of so many things.”

Nine years after graduating, Ritter said he never envisioned playing a key role in one of the most popular video channels on the internet.

Nonetheless, he finds himself creating video content for large audiences, one of the things he set out to do as a BGSU student.

“Making videos was something I always wanted to do,” he said. “So I’m really happy with where I’m at now, for sure.”