Jon Paul Piques (born June 30, 1986), also known simply as Piques, is a Canadian actor, director, internet celebrity and former soccer player. He has over 3 billion views on YouTube and over 11 million combined followers.[1][2]
Career
Soccer career
Piques played as a goalkeeper during his youth and was scouted by Sporting CP through his father's contacts at the Lisbon club. Sporting's officials wanted him to stay, but he was unable to as he was still in ninth grade.[3] He finished up his school year and joined Sporting's academy. During his time there, he became close friends with Miguel Veloso, and although they never played together, Cristiano Ronaldo.[3] Piques was at Sporting for ten months, and FIFA rules determined that he had to return to Canada. He went back to Portugal after turning eighteen, to play for Beja and then for Braga's reserve team,[3] before returning to Canada to play one season with the Montreal Impact.[4][5] At Braga B, he was second-choice to Eduardo and was a teammate of Diego Costa, both of whom would later play for Chelsea, Piques' favourite club.[3]
Piques decided to change career paths and attended Humber College, majoring in marketing and sales. After college, Piques worked as a business insurance salesman, but later moved to Los Angeles following initial success on social media. Piques' breakthrough on social media was through Vine, where he posted comedic videos on his way back and forth to his insurance job. Following his success on Vine, Piques expanded into Facebook. Many of Piques’ social media videos involve collaborations with other Vine stars such as Jerry Purpdrank, Amanda Cerny, Lele Pons, Max Jr and King Bach.
Piques was a featured speaker in the 2016 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, where he led the panel about the rise of social media in today's world.[9]
Piques shot his first pilot presentation in May 2016, which he wrote and is starring in for Playboy Digital.[10][11][12] In 2018, Piques had a voice role in a six-part animated series Super Slackers, directed by Simpsons director David Silverman. In 2019, he appeared in Airplane Mode, a film featuring several internet celebrities and co-written by the Paul brothers.
^"Players". 2007-10-24. Archived from the original on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2017-06-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Attak FC". 2008-05-26. Archived from the original on 2008-05-26. Retrieved 2017-05-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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