Kane Parsons
American YouTuber and filmmaker (born 2005)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kane Parsons (born June 18, 2005),[1] known online as Kane Pixels, is an American YouTuber and film director.
In January 2022, Parsons began publishing the viral web series Backrooms to his YouTube channel, based on the creepypasta of the same name. A film adaptation, which he directed, was released by A24 in May 2026. Parsons is the youngest director to top the box office.[2]
Early life
Parsons grew up in Petaluma, California and attended Marin School of the Arts at Novato High School to study film.[3][4] His father was a video game developer and his mother was a therapist. They divorced when he was 7 years old. He has a younger brother.[5]
His passion in visual effects started with LittleBigPlanet, where he worked on environments and lighting in the engine. Parsons got Adobe After Effects around winter 2017. A few months later, his desire to produce a video set in the universe of Little Nightmares compelled him to learn how to use After Effects. In February 2020, Parsons downloaded Blender and began learning how to use it. Prior to that, he had been using Element 3D, being a plugin for After Effects. Parsons felt that 2020 was the best year for his skill growth.[‡ 1]
When Parsons was eight years old, he developed an interest in music when practicing the piano. He continued to play for the next two years, which gave him experience with music. In middle school, he experimented with GarageBand on his school-issued iPad. In July 2020, Parsons got a trial of FL Studio. Excited by what he was creating, he soon upgraded to the paid version. He released some of his music on his SoundCloud and YouTube music channel. Parsons' music channel gathered attention and grew in 2022 after the release of The Backrooms (Found Footage).[‡ 1]
Parsons registered a YouTube channel on April 13, 2015. He initially posted Minecraft Let's Plays and meme videos, but he soon looked into directing short films.[‡ 2][‡ 1] Parsons' films didn't receive much attention, and his meme videos attracted more people. Instead of publishing his films online, he published them through local festivals and other real-life means.[‡ 1]
Career
2020–2021: Early work
At 14 years old, Parsons sent a video based on the web series Dad Feels to Nathan Barnatt. Barnatt reacted positively and suggested changes to the video. It was soon released as "The Facility" on June 1, 2020. Parsons later worked with Barnatt on other installments.[‡ 3]
From late 2020 to early 2021, Parsons published a series of videos known as Project 209. It serves as a spinoff Dad Feels. It follows Kane Parsons getting kidnapped and forced to live in Town, USA.[‡ 3]
In 2021, Parsons adapted the anime and manga series Attack on Titan into six animated shorts. The videos present events from the series in the form of historical footage akin to war photography from the early 20th century.[6] The videos were praised by fans of the original series for its horror elements and for remaining faithful to the original series.[7]
2022–present: Backrooms
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Parsons became interested in the Backrooms,[8] a fictional location which originated from a 2019 creepypasta.[9][10] Parsons was disappointed in the quality of related Backrooms content that was circulating online at the time, stating "there was definitely no real presence of high fidelity content being made".[8] He began working on a short Blender animation inspired by the Backrooms,[10] which he released on his YouTube channel on January 7, 2022, under the name The Backrooms (Found Footage).[8][‡ 4] The video grew in popularity[8][9] and has around 78 million views as of May 2026.[10] Prior to the upload, Parsons intended the short film to be a standalone work and had an unrelated story he had developed some time beforehand. While the story's themes were somewhat connected to Found Footage, he didn't think it would be very popular. However, with the newfound popularity of Found Footage, Parsons reconsidered the story idea, and decided to create a series following it.[8]
Parsons’ parents joined him for his initial Zoom meetings with studios, including A24,[5] which came onboard the project in 2023.[11]
A film adaptation of the web series, directed by Parsons and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, was released by A24 in May 2026.[12] At 19 years old, Parsons is the youngest director in the studio's history.[13][8]
2023–present: The Oldest View
The Oldest View is a mystery thriller web series, debuting on March 18, 2023. The series revolves around a YouTube vlogger, Wyatt, discovering a staircase leading into an underground mall.[14][15]
Prior to production, Parsons encountered an image of a rolling giant puppet based on Julien Reverchon, and saved it to his computer in the summer of 2021. When he rediscovered the photo in December 2022, he searched for its origins. On New Year's Eve he shared his findings with his friends. In January through March 2023, they collected media of the rolling giant. Parsons considered adding the rolling giant to the Backrooms web series, but he found it limiting and not fitting. In March, he had a clear idea what The Oldest View would be. He published "Renewal" on March 18, 2023.[‡ 5]
2025–present: People Still Live Here
People Still Live Here is a digital horror web series that began on January 13, 2025.[‡ 6] It revolves around a video game retelling of the events experienced and documented by Clifton J. Saywell between 1934 and 1946 in a dimension called 'The Meadow'.[16]
The first work relating to People Still Live Here was an album of the same name, released on June 13, 2023 on YouTube.[‡ 7] He started working on SAYWELL, the first entry in the series, in 2024,[‡ 6] later publishing it on January 13, 2025.
Filmography
Film
Web series
- Project 209 (2020)
- Attack on Titan (Historical Footage) (2021)
- Backrooms (2022)
- The Oldest View (2023)
- People Still Live Here (2025)
Short film
- Sandwich (2017)
- Corpus Schizophrenic - A Portal 2 Short Film (2019)
- Late for School (2019)
- It's Nicer Here (2020)
- Transmission Server (2022)
- Monkey Car Crash Go Boom / No Time for Monkey Business (2023)
Discography
Albums
- Awake (2020)
- Backrooms (Original Score), Vol. 1 (2022)
- Backrooms (Original Score), Vol. 2 (2023)
- The Oldest View (Original Score), Vol. 1 (2023)
- Daemon (2023)
- It's All Happening (2023)
- Highway 101 (2024)
- Out of Sync (Side 1) (2024)
- Out of Sync (Side 2) (2024)
- Backrooms (Original Score), Vol. 3 (2024)
- Daemon (Vol. 2) (2024)
- I Can't Wait to Use the Internet (2025)
- Backrooms (Original Soundtrack) (2026)[a]
Singles
- Everything (2021)
- Halogen (2022)
- Sailing (2023)
- DS Lite (2024)
- Glory to Lockheed Martin (2024)
- The Hacker Known as 4Chan (2024)
- I Love My Job (2024)
- Privacy Commodity (2025)
- Gather No Moss (2025)
- Agitation (2026)
- Buyout Crash (2026)
Notes
- Co-composed with Edo Van Breemen.