Zach King Interview Highlights: How He Makes Six-Second Magic

Zach King makes videos that look like magic tricks and are often over before you’ve worked out what happened. He has been making them for more than a decade, moving from YouTube editing tutorials to Vine, Instagram and TikTok, and one of his illusions holds a world record on TikTok.

This post is for short-form creators who want to know how the illusions are planned and shot, for marketers weighing a creator with a young, global audience, and for fans who have always wondered how he does it.

Most of his detailed comments on craft date from 2020 to 2023, so every answer is dated. Where his scale makes something hard to copy, we say so.

Who is Zach King?

Zach King is an American filmmaker and internet personality, raised in Portland, Oregon, who makes short visual-effects videos that look like magic tricks, a style he has described as “digital sleight of hand.”

He began teaching the editing software Final Cut Pro online in 2008, broke through on YouTube in 2011 and became one of Vine’s best-known creators from 2013. He has been on TikTok since it was Musical.ly, and Guinness World Records lists his 2019 broomstick illusion as the platform’s most viewed video. He has also written a children’s trilogy and won the 2023 Streamy Award for visual and special effects.

How did Zach King get started?

“It was really nerdy. I was screen recording … and putting it out on YouTube. And the comment that changed my whole career was, ‘Hey, you should show us a short film — a demo. So if you’re teaching [about] lightsabers, show us that.’”

— Zach King, The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes, October 2020

Biola University’s film program turned him down at first, he told Esquire Middle East in 2019, so he took other classes and kept making videos. In 2008 he started FinalCutKing.com to teach Final Cut Pro, because he couldn’t find good tutorials online, and the training he sold helped pay his tuition.

The comment he describes led to “Jedi Kittens”, a 2011 short of two kittens fighting with lightsabers that passed a million views in three days; his parents called to say it had been on Good Morning America. That year he was also one of the winners of YouTube’s NextUp creators contest, which came with $35,000, according to Business Insider.

The lesson is easy to miss: he spent about three years teaching a skill before he entertained anyone, and the audience that trusted his craft told him what to make next.

How did Vine shape Zach King’s six-second style?

“…I was doing YouTube and having a six second limitation just switched my mindset. I just think I needed a little change of format … and it flipped it on its head for me”

— Zach King, Colin and Samir Creator Roundtable (transcript), August 2023

He joined Vine in September 2013 because its visual effects and magic category looked like a home for his work, he told Locale Magazine in 2020, and challenged himself to post one video a day for 30 days. The six-second limit, he said, forced him to sharpen each idea. As a child he had performed magic, reverse-engineering tricks he couldn’t afford to buy, before giving it up around 16 for film, he told Esquire Middle East; on Vine, those tricks came back as edits.

Business Insider, citing People, said he had more than 3.4 million Vine followers by mid-2015. But Vine offered no built-in way to earn money, he told Locale, and it shut down in late 2016, just as he was hiring a team. The part any creator can copy is the discipline: six seconds leaves room for one setup and one surprise, so every shot has to earn its place.

How does Zach King decide what to make next?

“…usually what we do is follow curiosity. Last week, I was fascinated with my kids’ sandbox, and I was like, ‘What if I could go inside like it was quicksand?’”

— Zach King, Digital Trends, April 2021

He told WIRED in 2020 that his team will sometimes start from a universal fear and write toward a funny twist ending, so the video works on any platform. In a TED talk published in 2022 he said children see a cardboard box as a rocket ship or a castle because nobody has told them what it’s for, and that adults regain that wonder when they drop their assumptions.

“One of our check boxes that we try to ask is, is this gonna make sense and be viewable in 10 or 20 years? … That’s a general cue of like, it’s probably a good story. Now we just need to match a really good trick with that.”

— Zach King, Colin and Samir Creator Roundtable (transcript), August 2023

His examples of experiences that won’t date were waiting in line and getting through airport security. He added that the crazier ideas, the ones that make people uncomfortable, usually hold something better than the easy options, and that saying yes to them is braver than saying no. For creators, the order is the point: story first, trick second.

How does Zach King make a video?

“My favorite videos are the ones that don’t actually require editing. They’re the ones where you actually take that post-production and put it up front”

— Zach King, WIRED Tech Support (transcript), September 2020

His example was a camping video with his kids: to move from a blanket fort in the living room to a mountain view, the team built a copy of the set on top of a mountain, so the shot needed no editing. He told Digital Trends in 2021 that ideas are pitched in a writer’s room on Mondays, then go to what he called trick engineers, who work out the physical effect. Most videos take about two weeks.

“Most people would pop up a green screen and animate the person falling into the sand and add a dust particle at the end. But our videos are very practical. Part of the magic is when you watch them, you know there’s something real about it.”

— Zach King, Digital Trends, April 2021

For the quicksand video, the team dug an 8-foot hole under the sandbox and covered it with rubber that gave way when he stepped on it. He told WIRED that one video might use a dozen software programs, that he reshoots almost every video, and that production runs from two weeks to six months; a video about a miniature house took more than a year, mostly to find a lawn with exactly the right slope.

He hired his first employee, a producer, in 2014, according to Social Media Examiner’s write-up of his 2017 interview. In 2020 he told WIRED he worked with in-house staff and a big freelance team, and in 2021 he told Digital Trends he had 25 people on staff and that the team made two videos a week, whatever their quality, to keep its creative muscle working.

His studio has also faced a legal claim from a former employee. In December 2021 a former producer sued King and King Studio, alleging sexual harassment, gender discrimination, wage discrimination and wrongful termination, according to FOX 11 Los Angeles. King could not be reached for comment at the time, the station said.

What does Zach King say works on TikTok now?

“I remember that during one team meeting, we realized that Halloween was coming up and we thought of an idea that used mirrors to make it appear that I was flying on a broomstick … We filmed that video in one afternoon with just me and two other guys.”

— Zach King, Guinness World Records, November 2022

That video, “Zach Kings Magic Broomstick”, went up on December 9, 2019, with a caption joking that Hogwarts had rejected his application. Guinness lists it as TikTok’s most viewed video, with about 2.2 billion views as verified by TikTok in March 2022, and King told Guinness his most-viewed videos tend to be his most spontaneous.

“It was like being given a sandbox of limitations. Some creators don’t like limitations, they don’t want to play in the sandbox, they want to be out in the ocean, but I like having those rules because it guides me.”

— Zach King, Digital Trends, April 2021

He was talking about TikTok’s hashtag trends. Arriving early was deliberate: he told Guinness he is a firm believer in being on platforms early, and that his following on Musical.ly gave his team a head start when it became TikTok. Business Insider noted in 2021 that many of his videos loop so neatly they’re easy to watch again and again, and he told WIRED in 2020 that TikTok first shows a video to a small group, widening its reach only if people watch, like and share it.

In 2023 he told Colin and Samir that a big channel becomes known for one thing, which is why he likes starting new channels from zero. In January 2025, at the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai, he said success takes effort, study and constant attention to new trends, according to Gulf News. For a creator who grew up on TikTok, compare our Charli D’Amelio interview.

Why does Zach King keep his videos family-friendly?

“Early in the writing process, it’s easy to say ‘no, we can’t do this.’ But having kids has allowed me to say ‘yes’…and it’s led to some of my best ideas.”

— Zach King, Locale Magazine, November 2020

At a 2017 talk at Northeastern University, according to The Huntington News, he said he keeps his videos clean so all ages can watch, talks less on camera to avoid language barriers, and gets only about 20 percent of his audience from the United States. When the pandemic closed his studio, he told Digital Trends, much of his content turned to his wife and children.

The same audience explains his books. He wrote My Magical Life for children who were disappointed to learn he wasn’t really magical, according to Social Media Examiner’s write-up. HarperCollins bought it as a three-book series, which continued with The Magical Mix-Up in 2018 and Mirror Magic, and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment optioned the film rights before the first book came out, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

For brands, a clean, mostly visual format travels across countries without dubbing; compare our Khaby Lame interview.

What does Zach King say about working with brands?

“…if the integration is 15 seconds my videos are only 15 seconds”

— Zach King, Colin and Samir Creator Roundtable (transcript), August 2023

He was replying to the point that his videos stay entertaining throughout, instead of stopping for an ad read. When the whole video is the ad, the brand has to fit inside the trick.

Brands found him on Vine. At 500,000 to a million followers he was getting emails from companies such as Coca-Cola and Nickelodeon, and by 2017 sponsorships made up about 75 percent of his business, according to Social Media Examiner’s write-up. Wary of selling out, he made some commercials for a single country, such as Kellogg’s in Germany, rather than show every ad to his whole audience. His production company has made videos for Disney, Nike and Coca-Cola, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

If you’re a brand, plan how the product fits the illusion, and check how the creator labels it. Our guides to disclosing sponsorships and vetting a creator cover what to ask before you sign.

What advice does Zach King give new creators?

“I don’t think you should be focusing on going viral or becoming famous. The people I meet doing that are usually making content that isn’t up to par … for a long-term career on the internet”

— Zach King, WIRED Tech Support (transcript), September 2020

Instead, he suggested sharing what you already do between 4 or 5 p.m. and the evening. He also said better planning makes for a better shoot and edit and cuts editing time significantly, and that editing suits people who are comfortable working alone; by then he had been editing for 15 years.

“I’m nervous for creators that only hop on trends, and it’s fine to get growth once in a while from a trend, but if that’s the only thing you do, it’s not going to be sustainable.”

— Zach King, Digital Trends, April 2021

His team does only three or four trends a year, choosing ones it expects to last, because a trend video takes one to three weeks to make. Vine’s short life taught him to diversify across platforms, he told Digital Trends. And in 2020 he told Lewis Howes he no longer spends much time in the comments: even if a video gets only 10,000 views, he is proud of it for what he learned making it.

What is Zach King working on now?

As of October 2026, his biggest recent project is Cardboard Wars, a 52-minute comic remake of the original 1977 Star Wars built almost entirely from cardboard and released on YouTube for Star Wars Day in May.

“As a nod to how groundbreaking those films were, we asked ourselves, what if we made a version out of cardboard and shot it in just five days? That’s exactly what we ended up doing.”

— Zach King, Space.com, May 2026

King plays Luke Skywalker alongside Randall Park, Michelle Khare and Airrack. He told Space.com the team filmed mostly in one warehouse, running several cameras and scenes at once and shooting model ships with motion control, and he has promised a cardboard Empire Strikes Back if the film reaches 350,000 likes, according to Boing Boing.

He was also announced as a guest on Dude Perfect’s 22-city Squad Games Tour, which ran from June to August 2026. In 2024 he made a short about porch pirates with Mark Rober; compare our Mark Rober interview.

His view of Hollywood has shifted over the years. In 2019 he told Esquire Middle East that he no longer saw his following as a stepping stone to Hollywood, but in 2022 he told Guinness he wanted to move toward directing action-adventure feature films, and in 2023 he told Colin and Samir that a studio or streamer is probably the only place he would find $50 million to make a movie.

What creators can learn from Zach King

Sources

• Amblin Options Debut Novel From Social Media Star Zach King, The Hollywood Reporter, October 2016
• Video Creator to Traditional Media Star: The Zach King Story, Social Media Examiner, September 2017
• Zach King speaks about creating his ‘magical’ videos, The Huntington News, September 2017
• Why YouTube star Zach King is ‘The Greatest Showman’, Esquire Middle East, March 2019
• Zach King Answers TikTok Questions From Twitter, Tech Support, WIRED, September 2020 (transcript via Rosetta)
• Build a Global Community, Leverage Viral Video and Change Lives with Zach King, The School of Greatness, October 2020
• Master Illusionist Zach King Discusses Humble Beginnings, Content Creation and the Future of Film, Locale Magazine, November 2020
• An interview with Zach King, the internet’s favorite illusionist, Digital Trends, April 2021
• Meet Zach King, TikTok’s 5th-most-followed creator, Business Insider (via AOL), August 2021
• YouTube personality Zach King sued by former producer, FOX 11 Los Angeles, December 2021
• The trick to regaining your childlike wonder, TED, September 2022
• Internet illusionist Zach King breaks record for most viewed video on TikTok, Guinness World Records, November 2022
• Creator Roundtable: Ryan Trahan, Zach King, Michelle Khare, Cleo Abram, Ammar Kandil, Colin and Samir, August 2023 (transcript via Rosetta)
• From zero to stardom: Zach King reveals social media secrets to going viral at Dubai Summit, Gulf News, January 2025
• A YouTuber just recreated the original Star Wars with cardboard, Space.com, May 2026
• Hilarious fan film recreates Star Wars with cardboard, Nerdist, May 2026
• Cardboard Wars is a loving parody of Star Wars all in cardboard, Boing Boing, May 2026
• Dude Perfect assembles 35+ athletes and creators for first-of-its-kind arena tour, GospelMusic.org, 2026
• Zach King, Wikipedia, October 2026
• Zach King on TikTok and YouTube, profile pages, October 2026

What to do next

If Zach King’s habit of solving the trick before filming appeals to you, study the creators who already do it well in your niche. Our methodology explains how we judge creators on recent work rather than lifetime follower counts, and our creator lists are a ready-made place to start.

For more answers to the same questions from other creators, browse the series on the Topfluencers blog.