Louis John Cole, better known by his online alias FunForLouis, is an English-born film-maker and YouTube personality based in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California. He has a following of over 2 million on YouTube and is best known for posting a daily video blog on the channel FunForLouis, which documents his life and travels adventuring all over the globe. Cole originally found fame through filming eating stunts on another channel, FoodForLouis, but has since taken these videos down to focus on the positive message of FunForLouis. Louis appeared on the BBC TV show called 'Homefront' when he was younger. In 2007 Cole purchased and renovated a double-decker bus, equipping it as a mobile centre to help homeless youth with music and video game facilities. The Boombus project now receives funding from local council wards. Discovery signed Cole to its Digital Seeker Network in 2015. Cole has been named a top travel influencer.
Cole started to post daily vlogs on to his channel FunForLouis on. He has released over 1486 vlogs consecutively as of 25 October 2017. Through this, Cole has managed to gain over 1.92 million subscribers as of 28 May 2017.
FoodForLouis
In 2019, Louis restarted his FoodForLouis as a Vegan cooking channel.
Live The Adventure
Louis Cole has a social media travel management agency brand based on his slogan called Live The Adventure often referred to as LTA.
Find The Nomads
Find The Nomads was a clothing company founded by Cole, Steve Booker and Jake Evans. It was started on 9 May 2014 and dissolved on 28 June 2016
Beyond Borders - A Journey Celebrating Global Diversity
Beyond Borders involved flying to 22 cities with his friend and pilot Juan-Peter Schulze over a period of 60 – 90 days. The journey began in Kern Valley, California, USA on August 21, 2017. The journey has been concluded however the film documenting the trip is over a year past due for release.
Solvey
In 2016, Louis co-founded The Solvey Project with Dave Erasmus with the aim of funding social entrepreneurs. Louis and Dave presented on stage at Social Progress - What Works? in Reykjavik, Iceland with then Prime Minister Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson.
Beyond Borders - A Film Celebrating Unity
On 22 March 2017, Cole announced on his YouTube channel that he is starting a Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary flying around the world called Beyond Borders - A Film Celebrating Unity with JP. The £100,000 goal was reached before the kickstarter ended with a total amount of £111,563 raised by 1,666 backers. As of 2019, this project is in post production with an extended trailer being shown at Buffer Festival Toronto in September 2018.
Controversy
2012
In April 2012 he posted a video of himself to his YouTube channel Food For Louis that showed him eating a live goldfish. This caused the RSPCA to prepare a case against him under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Since he had previously only eaten invertebrates, the fish was the first incident in which he may have broken the law. The case was settled: he admitted his "guilt" and received a caution, avoiding a trial and a possible criminal record. He has received death threats from some animal lovers. In the past, Cole has eaten locusts, a raw heart, maggots, roadkill rabbit, roadkill pigeon, a frog corpse, ragworms, and scorpions. Cole claims his videos are not cruel and that he kills the animals quickly to avoid any unnecessary suffering. He argues that viewers' disgust is based on ignorance of or bias against other culinary cultures. He has denied that his goldfish-eating stunt caused unnecessary suffering, and claims that the RSPCA is "wasting its time" in pursuing the case.
2016
At the beginning of 2016 while driving in New Zealand with his girlfriend Raya, he was pulled over for speeding 41 km/h over the speed limit. While the officer caught him travelling at 141 km/h, he used discretion to officially register it as 139 km/h. Since he was registered under 40 km/h over the limit, under New Zealand law Cole received a NZD$400 fine instead of automatic loss of licence. The story made national headlines in New Zealand. In August 2016, Cole was criticized for his vlogs from his visit to North Korea. He was accused of promoting North Korea and his videos were described as propaganda for the North Korean regime. He has stated that he disagrees with the ideology of the regime and that the content was not funded by the North Korean government.
