Jenn McAllister

Jennifer Ann McAllister (born July 9, 1996), also known by her former pseudonym and YouTube username jennxpenn, is an American internet personality, actress and comedian. She is known for her work on YouTube, for which she has been nominated for a Shorty Award and four Teen Choice Awards.

McAllister made her acting debut with the GRB Studio film Bad Night (2015), which she also produced. She starred in the YouTube Red web series Foursome (2016–2018), which won her the Streamy Award for Best Actress, and the Hulu series All Night (2018).

Early life
McAllister was born on July 9, 1996, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where she attended Council Rock High School South in Holland, Pennsylvania, about 25 miles north of Philadelphia.

Career
McAllister created her YouTube channel jennxpenn at the age of 12 on January 15, 2009, but already had prior YouTube experience through a channel created beforehand with a friend. The channel has since amassed over 3.5 million subscribers, and her internet work has earned her nominations for the Shorty Award for YouTuber of the Year, and four Teen Choice Awards.

In March 2013, McAllister signed a YouTube partnership deal with AwesomenessTV; she appeared primarily in skits and segments on their YouTube channel. She also starred in the pilot episode of AwesomenessTV's sketch comedy series of the same name, which premiered on Nickelodeon on July 1, 2013.

Beginning in April 2014, she went on 16-city North American tour in celebration of reaching 1 million subscribers on YouTube with fellow YouTuber Tyler Ward, which took place at the beginning of May and the entirety of June. In June 2014, McAllister signed a YouTube management deal with Fullscreen.

At the 2015 Playlist Live convention, it was announced that McAllister and fellow YouTuber Lauren Elizabeth Luthringshausen would be starring in a film titled Bad Night, which serves as McAllister's acting debut. The film was produced by GRB Entertainment, McAllister, and Luthringshausen, among others. It was released through Vimeo on Demand in July of that same year. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she described the project as an "amazing experience" and that seeing herself on screen left her "cracking up at the fact that this is a real thing because I can’t take myself seriously. So we’re going to be hot messes, but I think we’ll make it through." Also in 2015, McAllister made her writing debut with the autobiography Really Professional Internet Person, which was released in August 2015 and became a New York Times Best Seller.

In February 2016, it was announced that McAllister would portray the leading role of Andie Fixler in the YouTube Red original series Foursome. In an interview with TheWrap, she described her relationships with the series' cast, stating that "I grew really close to everyone. It was kind of like a summer camp … I was on set for 12 and a half hours every day, so you’re really close with these people." She created content for her channel five to six weeks before production on Foursome began in order to exclusively focus on the series. The series was released in March of that same year, and ran for four seasons until 2018. For her performance, she won the Streamy Award for Best Actress at the 6th Annual Streamy Awards, which was presented to her by frequent collaborator Andrea Russett. She was also a part of an ensemble nomination for the cast of Foursome.

In 2018, McAllister was cast in the role of Deanna Hoffman in the Hulu series All Night, which was the second collaboration between AwesomenessTV and Hulu. The series premiered in May 2018, and ended after it was not renewed for a second season. In the year following, she competed in the first season of The Reality House, a web series inspired by Big Brother where several YouTubers compete for $25,000.

At the end of 2021, McAllister stopped posting on her YouTube channel jennxpenn, instead focusing her attention on live-streaming on Twitch. She quickly rose to the top 0.04% of streamers on the platform, streaming primarily in the Just Chatting category. She posts edited versions of her live streams on a second YouTube channel that has since amassed over 500 thousand subscribers.

Personal life
In July 2013, at the age of 16, McAllister moved from her home in Holland, Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, California. In September 2014, McAllister partnered with the nonprofit organization Our Time, releasing a video telling her viewers aged eighteen or above to register themselves to vote in the United States.

In November 2020, in a video titled "addressing your assumptions about me...", McAllister publicly came out as bisexual, saying she had been identifying as bi in her personal life since she was 19 years old.