A deep dive into the career of Nick Uhas, an American presenter who was able to land a hit Netflix show through his social media. Nick offers genuinely unique insights into the media industry which can be applied to your own career.

If you’re waiting for someone in the entertainment industry to hand you your big break, Nick Uhas has a message for you: stop waiting, build your own.

Nick went from being a van driver and rollerblader to hosting Blown Away, a popular Netflix show about glassblowing. He has also hosted a Discovery Channel show, been on Big Brother and America’s Got Talent, worked at CollegeHumor and acted in a commercial shown in Times Square.

He said: “I didn’t even audition for the Netflix show. They just literally said, you’re the guy. Here’s the script. Show up in Canada we’re shooting this day.”

However not everyone can just suddenly join Big Brother to kickstart their career. I grilled Nick for the practical steps and skills that actually led to his success.

Step One: Make it before you’re paid to make it

He said, “the fastest way to get onto a project is to show that you’re already good at it. You need to literally just show them you can create the content they’re looking for.

“It doesn’t matter if the production value is bad, it doesn’t have to look like a TV show. It should just look like the digital version of that, like a pilot.”

Throughout his career Nick has been creating YouTube videos where he demonstrates his skills as a presenter. This led to him getting countless presenting jobs in traditional media.

Does this apply to roles other than presenter? Like video editors, cameramen, and so on?

“Yeah, it applies to absolutely every part of the entertainment industry. Because if you can prove what you do digitally, you cue yourself up to have success in that category,” he said.

His message was clear. If you want to be a presenter, make YouTube videos showing off your presentation skills. If you want to be an editor, make videos showing off your editing. Nick advised to treat a YouTube channel like a CV.

Step Two: Everything is Rocket Fuel

Throughout his career Nick has used every opportunity to propel himself to the next.

When he was at university he worked as a driver and assistant for a small movie being made by one of his teachers.

Nick asked everyone on set if they had any jobs for him. One of the actors was dating the founder of media company CollegeHumor, and was able to get Nick a PA job there.

Nick then spent three years in New York doing commercials and other traditional media work.

In this time Nick watched many of his friends become hugely successful online.

“They were making more in a month than I was making in a year. I thought ‘oh my god I need to get on that bandwagon’.

“I said okay, I am now a believer of social media. I need a way to get back in the game but really fast. So I decided I’m going to go on a reality TV show to gain enough clout to grow my social media, then I’m going to use my social media to build a career.”

Nick applied to as many shows as he could and managed to land a spot on Big Brother in 2013.

“Big Brother gave me that bump that I was looking for, which fell off really quick but gave me just enough grip to build a career.”

After Big Brother Nick launched ‘Nickipedia’, where he made explainer-videos on various science topics. This YouTube channel was only moderately successful to begin with, but that changed when Nick started trying something new.

Step three: Don’t miss the next wave

“In 2017 I realised the content we were creating for YouTube wasn’t really working well and there was a new style of content in the science world called ‘practicals’ which was doing really well.”

So Nick started creating this new style of content.

These videos started to get Nick millions of views and more opportunities. He made appearances on The Today Show, America’s Got Talent, and Dr. Oz.

Getting millions of views isn’t a realistic goal for everyone, but adapting your social media to fit the times should help you find more success.

“Right around 2018 my niece was like ‘hey you need to get on TikTok’ and I remember distinctly telling her ‘I don’t do dances it’s not for me’.”

“But later I thought back to the one biggest mishap I ever had. I spent 3 years trying to make it in traditional media and in that time I missed my window of when YouTube grew to become massive.

“Looked at TikTok and saw the exact same thing. I was like ‘oh my god here is my opportunity, YouTube 2.0, don’t miss it. So I jumped on TikTok really early.”

Nick’s TikTok quickly blew up, with his videos getting him millions of views and followers.

“In the same timeframe Netflix reached out to me and said, hey, I love what you’re doing on YouTube, would you be open to hosting Blown Away? We want a science angle.”

“I was like, I can handle this, this is a perfect fit. I didn’t even audition.”

“When I was there on set, I remember thinking that I felt very prepared. I didn’t feel like a fish out of water at all, because there’s literally a decade of me doing everything.”

By building his social media, Nick was able to get Netflix’s attention. But it was the practical skills he has built and demonstrated throughout his channel that actually got him the job.

Step four: Build the nest, not just the branch

“That’s the secret sauce within digital. You almost don’t even need a huge following. You just need to be really good at that one thing and then have a lot of proof of that concept, that’s how you leap from digital into longform or TV or streaming.”

Nick treats his social media both as a CV for his skills, and as a billboard to bring him opportunities.

“Employers are using digital like a giant casting net. You should try to always bring external opportunities back to your social media. It’s going to be your nest egg that you can use to get new opportunities.”

“I think it helps to have a following, but most people have learned that your following does not translate to the success of a long form content. It just doesn’t translate.”

The key is to make sure every opportunity drives people back to your platform. That’s how you build a sustainable career, one where you don’t have to start from scratch every time a show ends.

Nick’s story isn’t about luck, it’s about creating your own opportunities from nothing, and using those to push you towards the next.

So do you even need to have good connections anymore?

“Yes, it absolutely still matters who you know, but the first introduction now happens digitally. A great example is Blown Away. I didn’t know a single person in that production company, but they saw my content and reached out to me, and then we forged a relationship that led on to the show.”

“Those relationships always matter, but typically you don’t craft them out of the blue.”