Gigguk

Maneetapho began his YouTube career with his first anime review, Bleach, on 13 June 2007; the video, and subsequent YouTube career, is thanks to his procrastination from studying for math exams.[10][11] He used the online pseudonym "Gigguk," a combination of his family nickname "Gigg" and UK, his place of residence, and called his channel The Anime Zone.[12] In October 2009, The Anime Zone reached 1,000 subscribers, later 10,000 by June 2012, and 100,000 by May 2013.[13][11][14] It was around this time when Maneetapho expanded outside his channels into other projects, the first of which was dabbling into the anime music videos (AMV) in 2011.[15] This was followed in 2012 as being a producer in abridging popular anime, starting with Evangelion into the EvAbridged series.[16]

Also in 2012, Maneetapho joined with Tristan Gallant (Arkada), Holden Bremley, and Jeanne Jean for the PodTaku podcast. Described as a group of anime critics around an invisible table, the podcast was mostly freeform discussing anything and everything in anime and otaku culture.[17][18] It was joined with the J-Taku podcast in 2013, which a more focused discussion on a particular anime or manga. However, in January 2016 both podcasts ended to which Maneetapho did not agree with but accepted its finality.[19]

In September 2013, after graduating from the University of Bristol, Maneetapho started working for Atos as a subcontractor for the BBC.[20] For the next two years, new video uploads on YouTube dropped considerably as Maneetapho struggled with work–life balance. In early 2016, Maneetapho decided to cease work to attempt making content on YouTube full-time, declaring his intent to cease his endeavours if the results were insignificant.[21][22] Later that same year, he opened a Patreon account.[23] After returning from self-described hiatus, subscriber count on his main channel reached 500,000 subscribers in December of that year, reaching a million on 30 December 2017.[24][25]

During 2017, Maneetapho retired the Anime Zone moniker for his channel, using just Gigguk. An attempt was also made to go back into podcasting as a co-host for Anime no Yume, alongside Holden Bremley and Jeanne Jean; two episodes were done before it was unceremoniously ended.[26][27] In February 2018, Maneetapho presented the Best Comedy award at the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards, alongside YouTuber LilyPichu, at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre in Los Angeles.[28]

In November 2019, Maneetapho, along with YouTuber Sydney Poniewaz (Sydsnap), moved to northwestern Tokyo, Japan to begin working as an influencer for GeeXPlus. The effort was to help promote/introduce anime and Japanese culture to the rest of the world through his content.[9] In February 2020, Maneetapho joined alongside Connor Colquhoun (CDawgVA) and Joey Bizinger (The Anime Man) in creating and hosting a weekly audio and video podcast called Trash Taste, where they discuss anime, manga, otaku culture, and their experiences while living in Japan.[29][30][31][32] The first episode was released on 5 June 2020 with all episodes available on YouTube and major podcast platforms.[33][34] In August 2020 Maneetapho participated in a tournament hosted by Chess.com for anime YouTubers.[35] The tournament, called the Tournament Arc, was streamed on Twitch. Reaching the finals, Maneetapho beat fellow Trash Taste co-host Connor Colquhoun, the self-described antagonist.[36] In July 2021, Maneetapho successfully defended his title in Tournament Arc 2, hosted again by Chess.com.[37][38] In December 2021, Maneetapho created a third channel, GiggukVODs, which feature recordings of his Twitch livestreams.

Maneetapho's parents are from Thailand, and he was born and raised in the United Kingdom. He is a practicing Buddhist, and has served as a monk twice in his life.[39] Maneetapho became engaged to fellow YouTuber Sydney Poniewaz on 12 April 2019.[40][41]

• Gigguk on IMDb