Andrew Rea

Rea was born September 2, 1987, in Mendon, New York, to parents Annie and Douglas Rea, and raised in Rochester, New York. He has an older brother, David, who appeared in Being With Babish. His nephew, Christopher, made an appearance in one of his videos portraying a younger version of himself. He is of Italian, Jewish, Polish, and Welsh descent. Rea's mother, who died when he was 11, taught him how to cook from a young age, including stew and cookies. As a teen, he began cooking again, and would make stews to "feel closer to her." and later worked as a visual effects artist for SwitchFX Inc. ==Career==

Rea's oldest friend is middle school teacher Rashid Duroseau. Together, they created a documentary titled "Water-Proof" about restoring New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Rea created the Binging with Babish YouTube channel on August 21, 2006 with the name inspired by The West Wing character Oliver Babish. Three videos unrelated to Binging with Babish were uploaded to the account, two in 2007 and one in 2010. In 2016, Rea was depressed and living with a friend in Queens, New York. He decided to purchase $4000 of camera equipment with the intent of beginning to film again, but the kitchen was the only room large enough to film in the small apartment. Once his channel hit one million subscribers, he asked his good friend Sawyer Carter Jacobs (an attorney formerly employed for Condé Nast) to become his business partner. As people cooked at home more during the COVID-19 pandemic and sought out more cooking content online, Rea's subscriber count increased from 5 million to 8 million in a few months. Binging with Babish, published in 2019 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, includes 100 recipes from various seasons of the show and a foreword by Jon Favreau, of whom Rea is a fan. The book was a New York Times Best Seller. In 2021, Rea announced on an episode of Binging With Babish that he would be launching a cookware line. Intended to be a "high quality line of products with a price point palatable for everyday chefs", the line includes Babish-branded knives, bowls, measuring spoons, and other basic kitchen tools. ==Personal life==

In 2014, Rea married his high school sweetheart; however, they divorced in 2017. The two were married in Binging with Babish episode 9 Million Subscriber Special by comedian and Universal Life Church-ordained minister Joel McHale. In an October 2023 Reddit post, Rea confirmed that he and Jess Opon had split up in the summer of 2022. ==Filmography==

Online Television ==Bibliography==