Mark Rober

Mark Rober is an American science and engineering YouTuber, a former NASA engineer whose elaborate build videos, from glitter-bomb porch-pirate traps to squirrel obstacle courses and record-breaking experiments, have earned him nearly 80 million subscribers.

Mark Rober
Personal information
Born	Mark Rober
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	YouTuber, engineer, inventor
YouTube information
Channel	Mark Rober
Also known as	Mark Rober
Years active	2011–present
Genre(s)	Science, engineering
Subscribers	80 million+ (September 2026)
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 1,000,000 subscribers 10,000,000 subscribers

Before YouTube, he spent nine years as an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, seven of them working on the Curiosity rover.

Early life and education

Rober earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University and a master's degree from the University of Southern California.

He then moved to Apple, spending four years in the company's secretive Special Projects Group before leaving to make YouTube his full-time career.

Career

YouTube engineering spectacles

Rober started his YouTube channel in 2011, but his breakthrough came in 2018 with the glitter-bomb trap, an elaborate, GPS-tracked, fart-spraying device engineered to punish parcel thieves, documented in a video that became one of the platform's most-watched.

He followed it with ever more ambitious builds, including multi-year squirrel obstacle-course sagas pitting backyard squirrels against ninja-warrior-style courses.

The squirrel courses became a running saga of their own, each year more elaborate than the last, with Rober narrating the squirrels' problem-solving like a nature documentary host.

His formula, genuine engineering rigour wrapped in playful storytelling, has made him one of the most trusted science communicators on the platform.

The original glitter-bomb video drew scrutiny when Rober admitted some footage was staged, a controversy he addressed publicly while continuing to refine the traps.

CrunchLabs and education

In 2022 Rober founded CrunchLabs, a subscription company that ships monthly STEM build kits to kids, extending his channel's mission into hands-on learning.

He has since announced free STEM curriculum resources for children, expanding the educational side of his work beyond paying subscribers.

Rober has invested a reported $60 million into building the free curriculum, with pilot teachers overwhelmingly saying they would adopt it as their full science program.

Rober has framed the free curriculum as a way to reach children who would never encounter engineering otherwise, a classroom-ready extension of what his videos already do.

Netflix

In 2025 Rober partnered with Jimmy Kimmel and his Kimmelot banner on a kids-and-family competition series for Netflix, built around big, playful science experiments.

The move followed a compilation of his experiments streaming on the platform in late 2025, signalling Netflix's interest in his family-friendly engineering brand.

The partnership pairs Rober's engineering spectacle with Kimmel's mainstream television instincts, a combination aimed squarely at family viewing.

Netflix later announced SCHOOLED!, a student science competition series hosted by Rober with Kimmel executive producing, with casting opened to young inventors.

It marks a new phase for Rober: from YouTube experiments to shaping how a generation of children first encounters engineering on the biggest screen in the house.

A decade and a half after his first upload, Rober remains the rare creator whose videos parents actively want their children to watch.

From NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to YouTube's biggest science stage, his career is proof that engineering, done joyfully, is entertainment.

Porch pirates beware: the glitter bombs are still out there.

And somewhere in California, the squirrels are training for the next course.

External links

• Mark Rober on YouTube