What Happened to Star Wars Kid?

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The Star Wars Kid became a meme legend before memes even had a name, and now, 20 years later, he’s taken back the narrative.   Check out our new MEME STORE: https://thememestore.com/  Subscribe to our channel to learn more about trending memes, hear interviews from meme personalities and more! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbrPqq29C9Q_TQP7OFFRzcw?sub_confirmation=1

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00:00Before going viral meant anything beyond catching the flu,

00:06a Canadian teenager unknowingly became one of the internet's first main characters.

00:16Armed with a golf ball retriever and a whole lot of theatrical energy,

00:20Ghislaine Raza's infamous recording would eventually be known as the Star Wars Kid,

00:24and it would change his life forever.

00:30In November 2002, 14-year-old Raza hit record on a VHS camcorder at his high school in Quebec

00:39and launched into a chaotic Darth Maul-inspired lightsaber routine using a white rod as his

00:44weapon. The tape was never meant to leave the media studio, but his classmates found it,

00:48digitized it, and uploaded it online. First, to peer-to-peer networks with file names like

00:53Star Wars Funny and eventually to forums and YouTube. The video blew up in April 2003 under

00:58the name Star Wars Kid, coined by blogger Andy Baio, and it spread like wildfire. At one point,

01:04it was estimated to have been viewed more than 900 million times, an unimaginable number in the

01:09pre-social media era. The clip spawned countless edits, like Drunken Jedi Master, and got referenced

01:14on shows like South Park, Arrested Development, and The Colbert Report. But while the memes were

01:18thriving, Raza was not. He was relentlessly bullied, both online and in real life. His school asked him

01:24not to return, reporters showed up to his house and his mental health suffered. In July 2003,

01:29his parents filed a lawsuit against four classmates for uploading the tape without consent,

01:33alleging lasting psychological damage. The case was settled out of court.

01:36Not everyone watching the video was out for blood. Blogger Andy Baio, who had initially shared the

01:41video online, felt remorse for how widely it spread. He launched a fundraiser to gift Raza an Apple iPod,

01:47raising over $4,300. Supporters also sent in gifts, including a Darth Maul lightsaber replica signed by

01:53Ray Park, and several video games. Raza used the accompanying gift cards to purchase an iMac G4.

01:58Nearly two decades later, Baio and Raza met in person. So, whatever happened to the Star Wars kid?

02:04For a long time, Raza kept quiet, but in 2013, he gave his first public interview with L'Actualité,

02:09describing the experience as violent and opening up about how he became a global punchline.

02:14The same year, he co-founded Foundation Ekitation S, a non-profit focused on youth well-being,

02:19digital literacy, and online citizenship. He later earned a law degree from McGill University,

02:24and currently works as a civil lawyer in Montreal. In 2022, Raza appeared in the Canadian documentary,

02:30Star Wars Kid, The Rise of the Digital Shadows, which chronicled the emotional aftermath of being

02:34turned into a meme. The film was nominated in 2024 for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Biography or

02:40Arts Documentary Programmer Series, and gave Raza a platform to share a new message.

02:44You'll survive. You'll get through it. You're not alone. You're surrounded by people who love you.

02:49These days, Ghislaine Raza keeps a low profile, but his real legacy isn't the viral clip,

02:53it's the way he turned one of the internet's earliest meme tragedies into a force for good.

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