Lily Hevesh
Domino artist and YouTuber
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lily Hevesh (/ˈhɛvɪʃ/ HEV-ish[2]) is an American domino artist and YouTuber working under the channel name Hevesh5.
Lily Hevesh | |
|---|---|
Hevesh in 2024 | |
| Born | October 2, 1998[1] China |
| Occupation | Domino artist |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2013–present |
| Subscribers | 4.52 million |
| Views | 2.35 billion |
| Last updated: April 12, 2026 | |
| Website | hevesh5 |
Hevesh is the subject of the documentary film Lily Topples the World directed by Jeremy Workman and executive produced by actress Kelly Marie Tran.[3]
Personal life
Hevesh was anonymously left as a newborn at an orphanage in China, where she was adopted by an American couple when she was one year old.[4] She has two siblings, Alissa and Matt,[5][6] and grew up in Sandown, New Hampshire, as the only Asian person in town.[4] Hevesh was given her first set of dominoes at age 10.[7]
Hevesh attended Timberlane Regional High School.[6][8] She attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she was a "Design, Innovation, and Society" major,[9] but left after less than a year to pursue domino art full-time.[10] She currently lives in Massachusetts, west of Boston.[5] She hopes that her work would encourage more children to get involved in STEAM fields.[11]
Career
YouTube
In 2009, at the age of 10,[3] Hevesh created a YouTube channel called Hevesh5, a reference to her being the fifth member of the family. As of March 2021, her YouTube channel has 3 million subscribers and 1 billion views.[3] Her first viral video, "INSANE Domino Tricks!", was posted in 2013 and had over 163 million views in March 2021.[3]
Hevesh posted anonymously for 6.5 years before revealing her identity in 2015 via a YouTube video.[3]
In December 2018, YouTube used Hevesh's video "A Merry Domino Christmas" on their Twitter account without giving Hevesh credit. After Hevesh tweeted criticism of YouTube for co-opting her video for promotional purposes without crediting her, YouTube publicly apologized and tweeted credit for the video.[12][13]
Hevesh worked with Endemol Shine North America to create a competitive reality show around building domino effect chains, tentatively called Domino Effect, in the same vein as Endemol's Lego Masters, announced in August 2020.[14] In March 2021, RTL 4 Netherlands and France's M6 ordered local versions of the domino competition format created by Hevesh and Endemol.[15][16]
Domino set
In 2020, Hevesh and Spin Master launched H5 Domino Creations at the North American International Toy Fair in New York City.[17][18] The set comes with 100 improved dominoes which Hevesh described as being "specially made for toppling".[19]
Domino art
She was approached by Campbell Soup Company in 2013 to create a commercial for them.[3] Since 2014, Hevesh's domino art has been featured at the annual Brattleboro Museum and Art Center Domino Toppling Extravaganza.[20]
She has since created ads for companies—such as Prudential Financial, Ford Motors, and Honda[21]— and films such as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Despicable Me.[8] She was part of the team commissioned to set up dominoes for a scene in Collateral Beauty.[10][22] In 2017, Hevesh was hired by Marvel to create a Spider-Man-inspired domino art piece.[23]
Lily Topples the World
In 2021, a documentary about Hevesh titled Lily Topples the World premiered at the virtual South by Southwest, where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the Documentary Feature Film Competition.[24] Soon after, the film won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival.[25] It was directed by Jeremy Workman.[3] Lily Topples The World was produced by Robert Lyons and executive produced by actress Kelly Marie Tran in her first producing role.[26]
Awards
Hevesh was listed on the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the category "Art & Style".[27] She was one of the United States Junior Chamber's Ten Outstanding Young Americans in 2022.[28]