Draft:Forrest Starling

KreekCraft

Forrest Starling (born January 28, 1997), known professionally as KreekCraft, is an American YouTuber, creative director, and e-sports athlete renowned for his Roblox content. His channel, launched in April 2014, initially gained traction with Roblox games such as Jailbreak but saw a significant rise in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic with the release of the game Piggy. His engaging and consistent content has amassed over 9.3 million subscribers and more than 3 billion total views as of 2024.

Starling has been recognized for his influence in the online gaming community. In 2020, he was acknowledged as one of YouTube's breakout gaming creators. He has also collaborated with other prominent figures, including a notable partnership with Dhar Mann in 2023. Moreover, he joined Misfits Gaming as a creative director and co-founded the Roblox-based game development studio, Pixel Playground, alongside Karl Jacobs.

Throughout his career, Starling has been nominated for several awards, including the Roblox Innovation Awards (formerly known as Bloxy Awards), where he won the Best Video Content Creator award in 2021. His channel continues to be a significant source of entertainment and information for the Roblox community.

Personal life
Starling was born on January 28, 1997, in Jacksonville, Florida, and later grew up in the small town of Macclenny, Florida. Raised as an only child, Waldron developed an early interest in video games, particularly enjoying titles such as Minecraft and Roblox, which would later become central to his YouTube career. His passion for gaming and content creation was evident from a young age, leading him to start his YouTube channel, DaKreekCraft, in April 2014. His first video featured a Minecraft mod spotlight, showcasing his early interest in the game.

Waldron's journey into video editing began in school, where he took every computer class available. This led to his initial interest into video editing on YouTube. Influenced by popular Minecraft YouTubers at the time, he started his gaming channel in 2014. "I pretty much played video games all day long, so gaming and doing gaming videos was a natural thing."

- YouTube Official Blog

The origin of his username, KreekCraft, comes from the game "World of Warcraft," where he used the random name generator to create the name "Kreek." When he started playing Minecraft, the name "Kreek" was already taken, so he added "Craft" to the end, forming the name "KreekCraft"​.

One of KreekCraft's signature elements is his hat. Initially, he started wearing it to keep warm after washing his face with cold water to wake up for early morning streams. Over time, the hat became a recognizable part of his persona. The design, by the artist Deadmau5, was mistaken by his mother for a Mickey Mouse hat. He has since acquired three of them from a Kohl's in Jacksonville, Florida​.

Career
Initially, Waldron focused on Minecraft content on his YouTube channel, influenced by the big Minecraft YouTubers he grew up watching. His channel gained significant traction with the release of popular Roblox games like Jailbreak and Piggy, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

KreekCraft's career highlights include being recognized as one of YouTube's breakout gaming creators in 2020 and winning the Best Video Content Creator award at the Bloxy Awards in 2021. In addition to his YouTube success, KreekCraft played a crucial role in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) discussions. He met with the FTC alongisde TechFreedom and other YouTubers to discuss the implications of COPPA on content creators, and helped raise awareness about the potential impact on the YouTube community.

In 2023, KreekCraft joined Misfits Gaming as a creative director and co-founding the Roblox-based game development studio, Pixel Playground, alongside media personality Karl Jacobs.