Meet Lauren Francesca, YouTube’s Stunning Diva of Parody

If you’re reading this there’s no question you’ve seen Lauren Francesca before, you just might not have known her name. She’s a chameleon of parody, morphing from pop-sexy to nerdy-cute almost effortlessly. It was Lady Gaga who really put Lauren on the map in late 2009, after her Key of Awesome parody of Bad Romance broke through with a polished, fantastical interpretation, featuring the fictional “Lord Gaga” as the true impetus for the song. (The full video, which now sits at over 32.7 million views on YouTube is embedded below.)

Her follow-up performance as Ms. Gaga in March of 2010, this time re-imagining the Telephone video with Beyonce

, proved she wasn’t a one-and-done performer, even scoring Entertainment Weekly’s best web moment in 2010. What’s remarkable is that the native New Yorker has become one of YouTube’s top performing stars—videos in which she’s featured have grossed over 200 million views—without herself even having her own major channel.

Lately, she’s been building up her channel, iwantmylauren, with more personal looks at one of the most recognizable figures on YouTube.

The best advice my sixth grade English teacher ever gave me was show, don’t tell. So here’s our recent video interview with Lauren when she dropped by the Tubefilter office in LA to talk about how she’s launched an impressive acting career off of YouTube. She also shares some advice on getting started, talks about her charity work in Tanzania and tells us about that new show—Space Girl—she’s working on with The Key of Awesome guys.

Highlights from Lauren Francesca’s YouTube career…

The Key of Awesome: Lady Gaga: Bad Romance parody (feat. Lord Gaga)

The Key of Awesome: Lady Gaga Telephone Parody (ft Beyonce)