Jay Swingler is an English YouTuber and professional boxer who gained popularity for his extreme challenges, stunts and pranks on the channel TGFbro (where TGF stands for The Ground Floor), which he shares with his friend Romell Henry. Apart from being embroiled into controversies for extreme content, the channel was also hacked and terminated, but they have since got it back.
Early Life
Jay Swingler had enrolled into Halesowen College to study photography/film, but later decided to quit because he didn’t enjoy it. As a youth, he played semi-professional football with the team Kidderminster Harriers, but quit it to spend more time on his videos.
Career
Jay Swingler was just 12 when he started making Call of Duty content on YouTube. However, he didn’t take it seriously until much later in 2012, when he posted a Tweet asking who would want to make videos with him. His close friend from school, Romell Henry, responded saying, "I'm on it", following which they teamed up to create the channel TGF Madness, which was unfortunately deleted later. They eventually made TGFbro (where TGF stands for The Ground Floor) in May 2012 and started uploading extreme challenges, stunts and pranks that often resulted in pain and vomiting.
Alongside TGFbro, Jay started his self-titled personal channel in November 2013. While the channel was primarily for vlogs, he continued to post videos in his usual extreme style in that channel as well. After being called out by Saudi Arabian-English YouTuber AnEsonGib, Jay made his amateur boxing debut against him in August 2018, although he lost the fight. He latter fought professionally against American YouTuber Cherdleys in October 2022 and Singaporean YouTuber and TikToker NichLmao in March 2023 and won both fights, following which he called out his first opponent AnEsonGib.
Controversies
Due to the extreme nature of his content, Jay Swingler has time and again courted controversies. In 2017, the TGFbro channel uploaded the video I Cemented My Head In A Microwave in which spackling paste was used to seal Jay's head into a microwave. After firefighters had to be called in to rescue him, he responded to the controversy stating that the negative attention did not bother him and that he was willing to pay a fine. He received a police warning in 2019 after hosting a live action hide and seek game in Birmingham city centre. In March 2020, while filming for the video Extreme Driving Test, Jay and Romell drove recklessly, crashed into parked vehicles, and flipped their car, following which they faced prosecution by police. He and Romell were charged with dangerous driving and were later fined in 2022 after they pleaded guilty. In 2020, he also received notoriety for bringing the video game series Grand Theft Auto to life using a “third person” GoPro camera.
Family Life
Jamie Michael "Jay" Swingler grew up with a sister who has occasionally appeared in his videos. He has also featured both his parents in his videos. He has a pet dog named Gatsby.
