Maya Higa

Maya Elaine Higa (born May 24, 1998) is an American conservationist, falconer, wildlife rehabilitator, Twitch streamer, and YouTuber. She is the founder of Alveus Sanctuary, a non-profit exotic animal sanctuary and virtual education center based in Austin, Texas.

Higa started streaming in 2019 and gained popularity for her content related to animals, conservation, and education. In 2021, she held a 21-hour charity stream that raised over $500,000 to establish her non-profit exotic animal sanctuary and virtual education center, Alveus Sanctuary. Higa also co-hosted the Wine About It podcast with fellow Twitch streamer QTCinderella. Higa has also collaborated with various conservation organizations, such as the American Eagle Foundation and Whale and Dolphin Conservation. As of April 2024, she had over 796,000 followers on Twitch and 867,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Early life
Maya Elaine Higa was born to a Japanese-Okinawan father and an American mother in Northern California on May 24, 1998, and grew up there on a farm as the youngest sibling with her parents, two brothers, and a sister.

She attended California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, graduating with a bachelor's degree in agricultural education and communication in June 2020. During her time at college, she worked for Zoo to You Conservation Ambassadors, Charles Paddock Zoo, and Free Flight Exotic Bird Sanctuary as an intern, doing outreach education and exotic animal husbandry. She was also a 4-H county All Star ambassador in June 2016.

2019–2020: Early career and initial popularity
Higa began streaming on Twitch in February 2019, after her streamer friends encouraged her to do so after they saw a clip of her singing on her Instagram. She originally started streaming in the music category on Twitch and does mainly singing content. She said that the reason she started doing singing streams was because she wanted to get more comfortable singing in front of people. Early in her streaming career, she saw significant growth after a falconry livestream clip with her juvenile red-tailed hawk named Bean went viral on Reddit around April 2019. In May 2019, she gained media attention from local news after she celebrated her 21st birthday by holding a charity stream for the 5 Cities Homeless Coalition, a local homeless coalition that she previously volunteered for. As her fame grew, her streams evolved to encompass a wider range of activities other than music, such as falconry, along with spreading conservation awareness. In July 2019, Higa started the Conservation Cast, a podcast where viewers learn about animals and gather information from experts such as conservationists, wildlife enthusiasts, and scientific communicators. The first episode of the podcast raised US$3,000 for the American Eagle Foundation. The podcast has also featured speakers from organizations such as Save the Rhino, the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Conservation Cast has raised more than US$92,000 with 63 episodes for wildlife protection organizations around the globe.

Higa created her YouTube channel, Maya, on August 8, 2019. At the beginning, she mostly uploaded her Twitch livestream highlights, such as her IRL streams and vlog content.

In October 2020, Higa became a part of the board of directors for a wildlife rehabilitation center in Central Texas. Her role focuses on raptor rehabilitation and husbandry.

2021: Founding of Alveus Sanctuary
On February 10, 2021, Higa held a 21-hour charity stream for her newly founded non-profit exotic animal sanctuary and virtual education center known as Alveus Sanctuary. The stream was highlighted by an auction that sold off items such as a golden shovel owned by Sodapoppin, Gucci loafers owned by T-Pain, and a signed jersey from xQc. The most expensive item auctioned off was a 1-hour gaming session with streamer and former professional CS:GO player Shroud, purchased by fellow streamer Ludwig Ahgren for US$53,000. Shortly after reaching her goal of US$500,000, Higa shaved her head, fulfilling a promise she made a few weeks prior. All together, she raised US$573,000.

In February 2021, Higa officially joined the Make-a-Wish Foundation in Central and South Texas as a governing board member.

2022: Streamer Awards, controversy, and hiatus
On March 1, 2022, Higa was featured in the second annual World Woman Hour, a digital series presented by the World Woman Foundation dedicated to highlighting 60 inspirational stories of women from all walks of life. On March 12, 2022, Higa co-hosted the first Streamer Awards show with QTCinderella at The Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, California. On March 30, 2022, Higa started Conservation Uncharted, a travel series of livestreams focused on different aspects of wildlife conservation, with a whale-watching trip joined by Whale and Dolphin Conservation, raising over US$4,000 in under two hours.

On September 19, 2022, Higa and Mizkif were accused by fellow Twitch streamer Trainwreckstv of downplaying and covering up an incident where fellow streamer CrazySlick allegedly sexually assaulted female streamer AdrianahLee. Higa released a public statement on Twitter via twitlonger apologizing for her involvement and stating that she did not cover up sexual assault and would take leave from streaming.

After a two-month hiatus, Higa returned to streaming in November 2022. Higa stated her intentions to stream less on her main channel and reorient efforts into producing educational conservation content for Alveus Sanctuary.

2023: Collaborations
As of January 2023, Higa has raised over US$1,000,000 collectively from viewer donations using Twitch. On January 21, 2023, Higa was announced as an ambassador for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

On April 4, 2023, Higa collaborated with Twitch and hosted Nerve Center presented by Ally, a sponsored education show based around Alveus Sanctuary with several online creators, including Daily Dose of Internet, Lacari, Dareon, and Caroline Kwan.

On October 1, 2023, Higa co-hosted The Gala for Good charity auction stream with QTCinderella. Over US$250,000 was raised for rainforest conservation at the event, with donations going to five non-profit environmental organizations, including Rainforest Alliance, World Wildlife Fund, Rainforest Foundation US, and Rainforest Trust.

2024–present: Continued growth
According to Stream Hatchet, a data intelligence company focusing on live streaming analytics, Higa was the 10th most watched female streamer across all platforms for the month of April 2024, with an average minute viewership (AMA) of 7000. She later appeared again as the 5th most watched female streamer across all platforms for the month of May 2024, with an AMA of 8000.

Wine About It Podcast
In November 2021, Higa began to co-host the Wine About It podcast alongside her friend and fellow Twitch streamer, QTCinderella. Wine About It went on hiatus in September 2022 after Higa announced her "indefinite" break from online content creation, a decision which stemmed from the backlash she received for her alleged involvement in covering up a sexual assault scandal. On March 11, 2023, the duo announced the return of the podcast alongside the launch of the Wine About It Patreon.

Personal life
Higa previously lived in California before moving to Austin, Texas, in May 2020. She currently lives in a custom-built 390-square-foot tiny house on site at Alveus Sanctuary.

Between 2019 and 2021, Higa was in a relationship with fellow Twitch streamer Mizkif. On September 14, 2021, Mizkif announced on Twitter that he and Higa had ended their relationship. Since 2022, Higa has been in a relationship with someone outside of the online entertainment industry.

In April 2023, Higa uploaded a video on YouTube titled "meet my pets" showcasing her collection of animals. At that time, Higa had 12 pets, including a Kiger mustang horse named Acero, a Weimaraner dog named Bella, and a Chihuahua-pit bull mix dog named Maverick.