Thomas Sanders

Thomas Foley Sanders (born April 24, 1989) is an American singer, actor, comedian, After the shutdown of Vine, he continued releasing videos across various social media sites. Sanders creates long videos on YouTube, while simultaneously posting shorter videos in the style of Vine to Instagram, Tumblr, TikTok and Twitter. His work consists of comedy sketches, pranks, stories, singing and civil rights activism.

Sanders is mainly known for the Vine series Narrating People's Lives, also known as Storytime, for the prank series "Disney Pranks with Friends," and on YouTube for the series Sanders Sides. He reached over 7.4 billion loops and 8.3 million followers on Vine, On YouTube, he has two channels, "Thomas Sanders" and "Thomas Sanders and Friends", with the latter being discontinued in November 2021. his main channel has over 4.1 million subscribers and his second channel has 379,000 subscribers. Sanders has won two Shorty Awards and co-hosted a special episode of the Disney XD show Walk the Prank alongside David Lopez. He has worked as a voice actor in the movie Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe, He has three brothers. His great-grandfather on his mother's side was born in Ireland. His great-grandmother was a Ziegfeld Follies girl, something Sanders called his "ancestral connection to the stage". Sanders started singing and acting at Kanapaha Middle School in Gainesville, where he was part of the school's choir and theater club. At Buchholz High School, he started doing musical plays. Later, Sanders combined his studies at the University of Florida with community theater, joining the Gainesville Community Playhouse from 2006 until 2015. he combined his daytime job as a manufacturing engineer at a pharmaceutical development company in Alachua with his night-time job in theater. When he became successful on Vine, he left his job as an engineer to pursue Vine and theater full-time.

Career

Vine and Sanders Shorts Thomas Sanders made his debut on Vine on April 14, 2013, as "Foster Dawg", named after his first dog, Foster. An impression of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy in a drive-thru was his first Vine to go viral, leading to continued success on the app. He later rebranded his channel to "Thomas Sanders". His channel reached 1 million followers on Vine in October 2013. Other Vine series he is known for are Disney Pranks with Friends, Pokémon Pranks, Misleading Compliments, and Shoutout Sunday, among others. By April 2015, Sanders' Vine account had over 5 million followers, which made Thomas Sanders the 17th most followed Viner at the time.

When Twitter announced that it was closing Vine down at the end of 2016, Sanders announced that he would continue making Vines until the app's last day. When Vine was shut down on January 17, 2017, Sanders had reached 8.3 million followers. Since that date, his short videos, now known as the Sanders Shorts, are first released on his Instagram, where he has 2.5 million followers.

On February 24, 2015, Sanders appeared as a guest on The View in a segment featuring Vine stars, where he was interviewed about his popularity on Vine, Sanders has collaborated with Viners such as Vincent Marcus, Brandon Calvillo and Amymarie Gaertner, and featured cameos and appearances from figures such as Sean Bean, Nicolle Wallace, Stacy London, Nick Pitera (with whom he did a series of Vines, Unexpected Duets), Brizzy Voices, Tara Strong, E. G. Daily, Jim Cummings, Dan and Phil, Adam Pascal and the main actors from Hamilton, Teen Titans Go! and Steven Universe, among others.

YouTube Sanders opened his official YouTube account on March 15, 2009. After amassing a following through Vine, he started publishing more frequently through YouTube. He had his first YouTube collaborations throughout 2015, consisting of pranks, games and challenges. Up until 2014, his subscriber count grew at a lower rate, with around 80,000 subscribers at the end of that year. From that date, his user count growth started progressively accelerating, having 200,000 subscribers by April 2015 and more than 700,000 subscribers at the end of 2015.

From the second half of 2016, at the same time his Vine activity slowed following Twitter's announcement of Vine's forthcoming closedown, Sanders announced he would be focusing on his YouTube content from then on to create more diversely formatted content. his channel has 4.82 million subscribers.

On October 29, 2018, he debuted a second YouTube channel called "Thomas Sanders & Friends", which would be dedicated to the monthly Sanders Shorts compilations and the unscripted, guest-oriented shows he had done previously on his main channel. The main channel would thereafter be dedicated exclusively to scripted series and shows as well as his music videoclips. His second channel had 396,000 subscribers In November 2021, Sanders published the last content in this second channel, which has since been quietly discontinued, with its kind of content being brought back to the first channel ever since.

Sanders Sides

Since October 19, 2016, Thomas Sanders has run a YouTube web series called Sanders Sides, formerly co-written with Joan S., It is a spin-off from the Vine/Sanders Shorts series, as the characters Patton, Roman and Logan are inspired by characters that had previously debuted on Vine in 2014, as the "Dad Guy", the "Prince Guy", and the "Teacher Guy," respectively. The Sanders Sides are usually all portrayed by Sanders himself. Sanders Sides has featured guest stars such as Lilly Singh, Leslie Odom Jr., or Butch Hartman who, apart from appearing as himself, created an animated sequence exclusively for Sanders Sides. Tara Strong, who had already appeared in several Vines and Sanders Shorts, also made a voice cameo in Hartman's episode. On November 22, 2019, a companion series titled Sanders Asides was premiered, featuring the Sides in lighter stories in shorter episodes designed, in Sanders' words, to feature stories not directly linked to the main narrative.

The Sanders Sides are "physical-mental projections" of Thomas' mind, and represent different aspects of Thomas' personality. Thomas usually starts each episode as an ordinary vlog about a certain topic or dilemma. The series is mostly comedic, with some more dramatic elements and several ongoing plots.

Theater

Apart from his Internet-based career, Sanders has worked in musical theater at the Gainesville Community Playhouse Singin' in the Rain (2009), The Producers (2010), Anything Goes (2011), Into the Woods (2014), and Les Misérables (2014). In 2015, Sanders did his first professional theater work starring in Heathers: The Musical as J.D. in a production performed in Orlando. From August 8 to September 2, 2016, Sanders went on a stage musical tour, Ultimate Storytime, written by him with songs composed by Jacob Fjeldheim, and based on his Vine series Narrating People's Lives, performing in 17 cities in the US and Canada, including Toronto and New York City. In 2019, Sanders was cast as the understudy for The Beast in Beauty and the Beast In 2022, he joined Heathers The Musical in Concert, a benefit concert reunion of the 2015 Orlando cast of Heathers: The Musical, portraying again J.D., which earned him a nomination to Best Performer in a Musical in the 2022 BroadwayWorld Orlando Awards, as well as another nomination together with the rest of the cast to Best Ensemble Performance. From 2023 onwards, he returned to the Gainesville theater scene, in 2023 in "Sweeney Todd" portraying the titular character, the Emcee in "Cabaret" in 2024, and Frank 'N Furter in the "Rocky Horror Show" in 2025.

Music

Though critics often classified Sanders as a baritone, he considers himself a bass singer. He has sung primarily on Vine and YouTube. He has performed songs in a wide variety of genres but has personally showed a preference towards jazz music, mentioning Nat King Cole as one of his favorite singers. He has musically collaborated with dodie, Jon Cozart, Ben J. Pierce, Deedee Magno Hall, Adam Pascal, and AJ Rafael. He released his first EP, titled Merry Christmas, on Bandcamp on December 21, 2013; the EP consisted of Christmas songs. In 2016, he released the soundtrack of his Ultimate Storytime stage musical, recorded alongside his co-stars, Terrence Williams Jr., Nicole Visco, Jay Harper (also known as JayIsJo) and Leo Anderson (also known as Leo the Giant). On July 22, 2017, Sanders released on YouTube a new original song titled "The Things We Used to Share", inspired by real events in Sanders' life. It was followed by more singles in 2018 and the announcement of a new EP.

EPs and albums Merry Christmas (EP) (2013)

"Vine vs YouTube" Jon Cozart Song based on "Anything You Can Do" from the musical Annie Get Your Gun. "Middle of a Moment" Cover from the musical James and the Giant Peach. "Freeze Your Brain" Cover from Heathers: The Musical starring Sanders in 2015. "What You Own" Adam Pascal Cover from the musical Rent. "The Internet is Down" AVbyte Original song by AVbyte. "RIP Vine: A Song" Jon Cozart Song nominated to a Streamy Award, "Tomorrow Never Came" Miss Benny Cover of a song by Lana Del Rey. "12 Days of Christmas" Christmas song performed on Sanders Sides.

"Rear View" Foti Original song by Foti. "Disappear" AJ Rafael Cover from the musical Dear Evan Hansen. "I Won't Say I'm in Love (mash-up)" Terrence Williams Jr., Jamahl Rawls & Foti Single, cover of a song from Hercules mashed up with several Disney songs. "Crofter's: The Musical" Single, performed on Sanders Sides. "On the Borderline" Single, original song written by Joan S. "breathin" Foti Single, cover of a song by Ariana Grande. "Incomplete (The Puzzle Song)" Single, original song performed on Sanders Sides.

"Seasons of Love" A chorus with several of his friends Single, cover of a song from the musical Rent. "Friends on the Other Side – Disney Villain Mash-Up" Brittney Kelly, Valerie Torres-Rosario, Foti, Jamahl Rawls, Terrence Williams Jr., & Leo Anderson Single, cover of a song from The Princess and the Frog mashed up with several Disney songs. "Forbidden Fruit (The Duke's Theme)" Single, original song performed on Sanders Sides. "A Gay Disney Prince" Jon Cozart Single, original song mashed up with several Disney songs. "Recipe for Me" Single, original song written by Joan S. and Jamahl Rawls. 2020 "Rhythm Redux" Single, original song performed on Sanders Sides.

"Seventeen" Nicole Visco Reunion cover from Heathers: The Musical which Sanders and Visco starred in 2015. "Hallellujah" Caleb Hyles, Jonathan Young, Dan Vasc & Colm McGuinness Single produced by Caleb Hyles, cover of a song written by Leonard Cohen. "Landslide" Thomas Sanders' father (guitar) Single, cover of a song by Fleetwood Mac.

"Trying Too Hard" Single, Cover from a song from Central Park. "Stranger Things Mash-Up" Single, mash-up of the songs "Running Up That Hill", "The Neverending Story" and "Time After Time". "Into the Unknown" Single, cover of a song from Over the Garden Wall performed for a Sanders Sides short.

"Disney Friendship Mash-Up" Joseph Fote, Jay Harper, Terrence Williams, Valerie Torres-Rosario, Quil Darling Single, mash-up of several Disney songs.

"Yours" Terrence Williams Jr. Single, first song fully composed and written by Thomas Sanders.

"The Elements (updated)" Single, cover of a song from Dr. H Musics, an updated version of the song originally composed by Tom Lehrer. "Talk Shit" PEGGY Single, original song cowritten by Thomas Sanders and PEGGY among others. "Sally's Song" Leo Anderson Single, cover of a song from "Nightmare Before Christmas".

"Passing Through (Can't The Future Just Wait)" Single, cover of a song by Kaden MacKay

Filmography 33 episodes

Awards and nominations