Cory Williams (born August 5, 1981), also known as “Mr. Safety” from SMP Films, is an actor and YouTube personality who lives in Thousand Oaks, California. His “The Mean Kitty Song” is Williams’s most popular video to date. He is in a relationship with Kathleen Elliot who features him in her daily vlogs.
Williams started streaming online video in March 2005 on Newgrounds. He then developed a following by posting original music tracks to his MySpace profile, leading MySpace to sponsor him on a cross-country tour. In September 2005, Golden Palace Casino sponsored Williams, making him the first video blogger to receive corporate sponsorship. Williams is the creator of SMP Films, which was named after his friends in his home town of Hilmar, California. The “SMP” stands for “Simple Minded People”.
Williams has made all of his newer videos available to view and download in 720p HD on Vimeo, another video-sharing website that obtained high-definition capabilities before YouTube added “high quality” and “HD” features. Williams has also admitted to artificially inflating the number of views on some of his videos.
Williams has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and MTV Scarred.
Outside of YouTube, Williams works for a viral video project called “I Got Shotgun” (which was created by General Motors) in which he interviews celebrities on the red carpet about their personal opinions on the future of new media.
On September 18, 2008, Williams was featured on The Tyra Show for his music video “The Mean Kitty Song”. In the episode titled “YouTube Made Me Famous”, Tyra Banks announced that Williams makes a monthly income of $20,000 (US). Williams’s response to Tyra’s comment about his income was, “The money I make each month isn’t from YouTube alone but through sponsorship, consulting, and acting gigs.”
On September 17, 2009, Williams was a guest on The Bonnie Hunt Show. This was also the first time his cats Sparta and Loki had been taped for television in front of a live studio audience. The topic focused on Cory’s ability to comfort animals in extreme situations which led him to performing “comfort tricks” with Sparta
