Where Are They Now? Here's What Controversial YouTuber Onision's Been Up To Since He Was Exposed By Chris Hansen

James Jackson, born Gregory Daniel, but better known by his online moniker "Onision," is an infamous YouTube personality who rose to prominence during the site's early days.

He gained the attention of a largely young female audience through his comedy skits and "lol so random" songs like "I'm a Banana," all while secretly taking advantage of his fans by leveraging his niche fame.

But as Onision's audience grew up, many realized how much of a problematic figure their favorite YouTuber actually was. His need to record every aspect of his life turned him from a minor internet celebrity into one of YouTube's most reviled figures. From his troubling interactions with young fans to serious allegations of grooming and abuse, Onision's internet history ultimately ended with a visit from Chris Hansen himself.

Or did it? In recent months, Onision has been flooding his YouTube channel with AI-generated videos and songs in what seems like a low-effort way to revive his bygone fame. Worst of all, just earlier this week, he posted a video hinting at his comeback.

Here's a look back at Onision's rise and fall as a YouTuber, as well as a gander at what he has been up to after he was outed as a predator.

Who Is Onision and How Did He Rise to Fame?

Born Gregory James Daniel on November 11th, 1985, Onision grew up in Auburn, Washington before serving in the United States Air Force at the age of 20 from the year 2005 until his honorable discharge in 2008. In 2006, he launched his YouTube channel, initially producing quirky comedy sketches and music videos. His first hit on the platform was his song "I'm So Emo," an over-the-top parody of the emo subculture that has racked up over 4 million views since it was first posted in 2008.

But Onision didn't see what "viral" really meant until 2009 when his video "I'm a Banana" exploded online, racking up over 95 million views over the past 15 years.

The viral video showed Onision wearing a banana suit to sing the phrase, "I'm a banana," over a quirky video game soundtrack. It was the kind of holds up spork content that was huge in the late 2000s, and by the early 2010s, Onision had carved out a sizable following — many of which were young, impressionable women.

When Did People Start To Realize That Onision Might Be A Terrible Person?

Onision may have first gone viral for his catchy and le random-type content, but the cracks in his wacky facade began to show when he switched to a more interactive and vlog-based video style.

One of his earliest controversies involved a video series in which he rated photos of his young followers posted by them to his personal forums, ostensibly critiquing their appearances. This was a grown man in his 20s rating women much younger than him, something everyone but his impressionable followers seemed to understand was objectively problematic.

In 2011, he drew further ire for his treatment of fellow YouTuber Eugenia Cooney, known for suffering from an obvious eating disorder. Onision was accused of launching a hate campaign against Cooney in which he publicly harassed her by making constant unsolicited comments about her health and appearance.

Perhaps most shocking was his behavior toward his then-partner, Shiloh. Shiloh was only 17 when she contacted a 25-year-old Onision, a relationship that culminated in a deeply disturbing incident where Onision filmed her experiencing a seizure and uploaded the footage online.

The video was met with outrage and his fans criticized him for exploiting a medical emergency and a vulnerable moment for clicks. Shiloh told her fans that the seizures were caused by the stress of dating Onision and that her medical issues eased up when she left him.

These incidents marked the beginning of a dark chapter in his career as fans and critics alike began to really question the ethics of his content.

When Did Chris Hansen Pay Onision A Visit?

Onision's controversies reached a boiling point in 2019 when Sarah, a woman who had lived with Onision and his partner, Kai Avaroe, accused them of grooming her from a young age. Sarah claimed that she was manipulated and coerced into an inappropriate relationship with both Kai and Onision, allegations that were later backed by several other women who shared similar experiences of predatory behavior.

The story quickly gained traction, drawing the attention of Chris Hansen, the former host of NBC’s To Catch a Predator series. Hansen's involvement brought renewed scrutiny to Onision’s actions, as he interviewed several of the accusers and investigated the couple’s troubling history.

The fallout was swift: Onision faced widespread public condemnation, the demonetization of his YouTube channel and his Patreon, and bans from various platforms.

Chris Hansen even went on to produce a reality documentary series about him for the streaming network Discovery+ in which he interviewed many of Onision's accusers and delved into his history of leveraging his fame to reel in vulnerable women.

Once a prominent figure in the YouTube community, he became a pariah, his legacy overshadowed by the allegations against him as he largely dropped off people's radars.

So Where Is Onision Now?

Onision was banned from his original Twitter / X, Instagram and Facebook accounts during the height of his controversies, but he still managed to hold on to his (demonetized) YouTube channel after being suspended from the Partner Program, where for the past year or so, he's been pumping out a steady stream of AI slop content.

After posting a three-part, multi-hour-long YouTube series defending himself from all the accusations of harassment and grooming, Onision settled on posting AI-generated parody songs that only accrue a thousand or so views each.

He appears to embrace his new content strategy proudly in his new YouTube bio, which reads, "AI is taking over the world, so what I used to be able to do in a day, I can now do in an hour… crazy right?"

One of his first AI-generated songs was a "musical" number titled, "No One Will Remember Your Name," seemingly directed at all the "haters" he has accumulated over the years.

A more recent song is credited to "Onision Bot," which one can only assume is the name he's given to his AI helper. This song is titled, "L O L," and features the catchy refrain, "Onision did nothing wrong, and a music video shows that AI-generated Onision look-alike walking away from giant explosions.

Sometime around September 2024, Onision also began posting sporadically to TikTok across three different channels, although his like-to-view ratio shows that he's arguably more of a lolcow figure than a notable internet personality these days.

@onisionspeaks really #genz #dating #relationships #love #onision ♬ original sound – Onision

More worryingly, he also posted a video to his YouTube channel just a day ago, on January 21st. The 19-second long clip is titled, "I'm back…" and only seems to show his depressing attempt at cracking a joke at his viewers' expense.

It's safe to say that there is almost no way Onision will be bouncing back to making creepy and hateful content about his impressionable fans or using his public platform to reel in vulnerable women anytime soon, but it's anyone's guess as to what his attempt to return to the internet space will look like in the near future.

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For the full history of Onision, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information. To see the rest of our "Where Are They Now" series, you can find them all here. Stay tuned for next week's editorial!

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