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Howdy, ladies and gentlemen on the Behzinga channel.
— Ethan's intro.

Ethan Payne (born June 20, 1995 (1995-06-20) [age 28]), also known as Behzinga, is a YouTube personality and member of the Sidemen.

Background

Ethan was born in a hospital in London that was very close to Upton Park (the stadium in which his favourite football team West Ham United played at until 2016). In his official documentary, How to Be Behzinga, Ethan talks about how his biological father disappeared once his mother became pregnant with him. The current whereabouts of Ethan's biological father is unknown but he has often been joked about in Sidemen gaming videos. Ethan's mum Ruth has appeared in many of Ethan's videos and he bought her a brand new car when his YouTube career took off.

Ethan had a step-dad in his early years, but he left when Ethan was 13 due to drug addiction and debt. Ethan believed his step-father was his real father until he discovered his parent's divorce papers. During Ethan's childhood, his mum had cancer which ended up being one of the reasons he trained and ran the London Marathon in 2020 for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Early Life

Ethan went to a school called Marshalls Park in Romford in East London. He was once suspended for a week after getting into a fight and embarrassing himself after his trousers fell down when he stood on the teacher's desk. He admits he was always the kid in school who messed about and was constantly getting into trouble. In How To Be Behzinga, Ethan's old learning mentor described him as "a bit disruptive, destructive" and that "school didn't work for him." He gained a C in GCSE Applied Science, which he claims is "the only C he got" (implying that all of his other grades were below this). He confirmed in a video on his channel that was the only GCSE he didn't fail.[1]

Ethan has never had a "proper" job as YouTube is all he's experienced. After finishing school at 16 in 2011, Ethan moved to Essex and enrolled in South Essex College to study games development. He passed the course and has this qualification to fall back on should YouTube ever fail. As Ethan spent a lot of his early life in Essex, he has often been stereotyped as "the dumb Essex boy", as demonstrated by his poor performance during general knowledge games such as Trivial Pursuit.

YouTube

Ethan uploaded his first YouTube video on 5 May 2012. As mentioned in The Sidemen Book, the name "Behzinga" came from The Big Bang Theory - one of Ethan's favourite TV shows growing up. Sheldon Cooper often shouted "BAZINGA" when he was being sarcastic and Ethan took the name and altered the spelling slightly. The whole concept of creating the Sidemen group was originally Ethan's idea. He is one of the five original Sidemen (along with Josh, Simon, JJ, and Tobi), having been there since their creation in 2013. Ethan joined the others on Josh's 21st birthday, after they watched his stream and invited him to a voice hangout with them. The group officially formed the following month and Ethan came up with the name for their call group, which went on to become the name of their YouTube group and brand.

In the early videos of the Sidemen, Ethan was widely known for his uncontrollable high-pitched laughter. He was usually the butt of the many recurring jokes within the Sidemen, which in the past heavily involved homosexuality or his weight. Jokes centred around Ethan's missing father figure also cropped up in their regular group gaming videos in the mid-2010s.

Ethan created his second channel in late-2013 and called it Beh2inga. Like all the other Sidemen, their second channel was used to post regular gameplay videos. Ethan uploaded daily for many years until his schedule and interests changed in the late-2010s. He began posting to his second channel less often until it reached a point where he was only posting a few videos a year. In an interview in 2020, Ethan said that his second YouTube channel was to become a "relic" as he had pretty much abandoned it.[2]

From 2016, Ethan was earning enough money from YouTube to live in the Stratford Halo in his own flat. In September 2017, Ethan moved out of this flat and moved into a new apartment close to the O2 Arena. He stated multiple times that he lived with his friend Charlie who frequently assisted in editing his videos and filming for the Sidemen. In 2020, Ethan moved once again to another apartment in London, in which he filmed an apartment tour for.[3]

In the 2020s, Ethan's YouTube presence reverted to more of a hobby for him. He posts videos on his personal channel much more infrequently as his interests moved more towards fitness and lifestyle. Like all the other Sidemen, his YouTube presence is primarily in the videos across the main Sidemen channels.

2017 Disstracks

Main article: 2017 Sidemen War

In August 2017, after KSI's joke that he'd be leaving the Sidemen (and cited Ethan as his main reason for quitting), a "war" via social media began. On 6 August, Ethan uploaded a video titled "REPLACING KSI IN THE SIDEMEN HOUSE". Up to this point, this video was one of his channels most popular to date.[4] The following day, Ethan uploaded a "diss track" targeting JJ and RiceGum (whom Ethan has had previous disputes within the past).[5] This video became incredibly popular, ended up trending, and gained millions of views within days. It also received extensive criticism but was praised as good quality entertainment. Ethan's diss track was the first of the Sidemen War. Ethan's next 5 videos all focused on the "beef" with KSI and the fallout from his diss track. However, the whole "beef" between him and KSI was just a joke.

Personal life

In 2018, Ethan lost over 25 kilograms in weight. He stated in a podcast that he went through a period of depression and heavy drinking as a result of being seriously unhappy with his life and posting videos nearly every day. He went on to say that he no longer feels that way, is more content with himself and is in a better place now.[6] This was also discussed in How To Be Behzinga, and in a video on his channel where he talked about a time in his life in which he was depressed and had gotten to a point of having suicidal thoughts.[7]

Ethanwithisbaby

Ethan holding his newborn baby named Olive Ottilie Payne.

Ethan was in a relationship with Emily Geere from 2016 to 2018. He then began dating Faith Kelly in 2021. Ethan announced in 2022 that his partner, Faith, was pregnant. They held a gender reveal partner, which was filmed and uploaded to Behzinga's YouTube channel, and revealed they were having a baby girl. Their baby was due in October, 2022. She was then born on September 25 2022.[8]

Ethan has an XIX tattoo on one of his index fingers (XIX is the Roman Numerals for "19", which was the day in October 2013 when the Sidemen was formed). KSI also has an XIX tattoo on his wrist. Ethan got two full tattoo sleeves done in the late-2010s, which can be seen in the gallery below.

Trivia

  • He is an ambassador for Gymshark and Bulk Powders.
  • Ethan trained to run the 2020 London Marathon but instead ran the equivalent after the event was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • He is 5'8 ft.[9]
  • After prolonged teasing from the rest of the Sidemen and their fans, Ethan passed his driving test after numerous attempts. He is also a current owner of a Nissan GT-R (one of his dream cars). It is seen in various videos.
  • On some videos, he was shown to dress up in a Mr. Tumble costume due to being referred as similar looking to Mr. Tumble, a character from a CBeebies show.
  • "Emon" is the name that Josh gave to the fictional "relationship" between Ethan and Simon in the early days of GTA in 2014 and 2015.

References

External Links

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