Ilyssa Levy, Illymation Drama and Controversy Explained
Illyssa Levy, popularly known as Illymation is an American Youtuber who is a storytime animator. She was born on September 15, 1997. Her best-known video series is a trilogy recounting her experiences with her abusive ex-boyfriend. Her channel combined has over 94 million views, and her main channel has over 1.5 million subscribers.
Ilyssa Levy, Illymation Drama, and Controversy
In her early life, Illyssa Levy was born in North Carolina. She attended Franklinton High School, in North Carolina. When she was in her teens, she worked for Chic-Fil-A and an ice cream shop. At the age of 13, she entered into a relationship with a man named Haris, who was four years her senior. According to her, he was abusive and would force her to send underage nude pictures.
Levy always had the desire to go to East Carolina University, which was in her state, but due to pressure from her ex-boyfriend, she moved to California for higher education. She would be used to attending the Laguna College of Art and Design, studying animation, with initial expectations of working in an animation studio. This time around, she and Haris would continue to date, but after continuing abuse, she decided to break up with him. But, the damage had already been done as she said that it is hard for me to fall in love again, it’s hard to trust again and she found it difficult to understand the real meaning of relationships.
As per her career, she started a YouTube channel in 2018. She showcased the entire story of her abusive relationship through the trilogy of videos which turned out to be her most popular uploads. Her first video in the series gained over 12 million views as of 2018. These videos kickstarted her channel. She also got an opportunity to work with fellow YouTubers namely, Alex Clark, Emirichu, Wolfychu, and Something Else YT. She has also featured people like Katzun and Odd1Sout on her channel.
She has occasionally released music, ‘Zodiac Signs’ and ‘Beautiful’ from which she recounted her struggle with self-harm and suicidal ideation. Apart from her YouTube channel, she has appeared on Anthony Padilla’s series. She also appeared in FBE’s React series. She appeared on YouTube Rewind 2018. She also contributed to Embarrassing Times to get recognized, as a multi-artist project made for Odd1Sout’s channel. A tour with Emirichu, Ginger Pale, and Life Noggin had been planned but was later canceled.
At the personal level, she is a Democrat and has participated in activist issues. She is outspoken about her relationship abuse, having gone through an abusive one. She describes herself as either ‘bi or pan’. According to her Twitter bio, she uses she/they pronouns. Levy has a brother named Graham. She was in a relationship with a man named Calvin, and later with fellow animator Tanimayto, but have since broken up. She has two cats, one named Luigi and the other named Juniper. Sadly, her family cat, Cheeto, died.
