Hank Green

William Henry Green II (born May 5, 1980), known universally as Hank Green, is an American author, entrepreneur, and science educator who co-founded what has become one of the most significant science communication enterprises on the internet. Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and later Orlando, Florida, he earned a BS in Biochemistry from Eckerd College and an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. Together with his brother, author John Green, he launched the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel in 2007, pioneering a new model of intellectually engaged, community-oriented YouTube content that became foundational to the platform's educational culture.

Green's most enduring science communication contributions are the CrashCourse and SciShow channels, both produced through his production company Complexly. CrashCourse—originally funded by YouTube's $100 million original channel initiative and later supported by PBS Digital Studios—has produced thousands of educational videos across biology, chemistry, physics, history, literature, and dozens of other subjects, becoming a widely used supplementary resource in high schools and universities around the world. SciShow, with over eight million subscribers, publishes regular explainers on current science news and topics, consistently presenting accurate, well-sourced science content on subjects ranging from vaccines to climate change to evolutionary biology. Green and his brother also co-founded VidCon, the world's largest conference about online video, and the Project for Awesome, an annual online charity event.

Beyond platform-building, Green has been a vocal advocate for science literacy and evidence-based policy. His own biochemistry and environmental science background informs a consistent emphasis on accuracy in Complexly's productions, which employ teams of researchers and fact-checkers. As a novelist (his debut An Absolutely Remarkable Thing was published in 2018), public speaker, and entrepreneur, Green has demonstrated that science communication at scale requires organizational innovation as much as individual expertise. His ecosystem of science education channels represents one of the most durable and widely accessed science communication projects in the history of online media.