Disney kicked off its first “Created in L.A.” event last night at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. Over 350 content creators, innovators, and industry leaders came together for the two-night event to brainstorm and build relationships with each other.
‘Created in L.A.’ Event
The evening was opened by popular creator Jon Youshaei, who has worked in leadership roles at YouTube and Instagram, as well as hosted interviews with celebrities like Kevin Hart, MrBeast, and Mark Rober.
Youshaei highlighted the diverse backgrounds of the creators, many of whom had traveled from Australia, England, Netherlands, Georgia, and more countries to attend. He also noted the social media followings of the people in the room: “The creators at this event have over 800 million subscribers on YouTube, 80 million followers on Instagram and over 350 million followers on TikTok, which altogether makes over 1.6 billion followers combined.”
After explaining the storied history of the El Capitan Theatre, Youshaei shared his original pitch to Disney about showcasing the work of creators. “I said, ‘Hey, I have this crazy idea. What if we premiere videos from creators on the big screen? I’m talking about the same videos we usually watch on our phones and our laptops, but have recently gotten so damn good that they deserve to be played in a theater, that deserve to be premiered on a red carpet, that deserve to be celebrated with 350 of the most creative people in the world?’”
The creation of this two-day event, which included keynote speakers and conversations, was a result of Disney executives saying yes to Youshaei’s pitch.
Dana Walden, Disney’s President & Chief Creative Officer (CCO), was also present during the first night of the event. Walden reports to Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s newest CEO, and she first took the reins as President & CCO in March 2026. She oversees seven executives, including Adam Smith and Joe Earley, who were previously co-presidents of Direct-to-Consumer.
Walden shared how important the El Capitan Theatre is to Disney for launching the premieres of movies like The Lion King, Frozen, and Coco, as well as the vital role content creators play in Disney’s ecosystem.
“What strikes me about this room is the instinct so many of you have for your audience. You know them intimately. You hear from them constantly, and you adjust in real time based on what they want. And that is very different from the kind of content that we produce.”
She further explained, “It can take years for our films and series to reach their audiences and for you it could be seconds. And there’s something that we can learn from that immediacy, from treating the audience as a true collaborator. My hope for these two days is that we’ll exchange ideas and learn from each other — that some of what makes your storytelling so special rubs off on us, and that some of what we’ve learned about telling stories over many decades will be useful to you.”
Walden expressed hope that the “Created in L.A.” event would begin to build incredible relationships — “Maybe we can tell stories together.”
The evening concluded with Youshaei introducing the Golden State Award, which recognizes strong filmmakers or subscriber count. The first award went to Lucas and Curtis Nicotra (known as Sticks) for their film, “The Technoblade Movie.” Zach King’s Star Wars parody, “Cardboard Strikes Back,” received the second Golden State Award.
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