Hi, my name is William Rates. Most people call me Willie, and you probably also know me as KhAnubis, as the creator behind the channel of the same name.

I was born in 2000 in the town of Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. I lived in the DC area until I was 8, when my family moved to Portland, Oregon, where I currently reside (at least when I’m not in Berlin). In what is perhaps the least surprising thing you’ll read today, my channel is fed by my strong interest in world culture, history, and languages. I also love travelling around the world, and also have a strong interest in space travel, which may not be as obvious from my videos but is still just as strong as my other interests.

I first started my channel in 2009, initially making stop-motion videos with Playmobil toys. It wasn’t until 2013 when I started doing the explainer-style videos I do to this day. I was very much inspired by channels like CGP Grey, MinutePhysics, Crash Course and the like to pursue this path with my channel. I never really had a goal with my channel, but I guess nowadays it is to help try to unite and connect the world and everyone in it, by garnering followers from all corners of the Earth, all interested in semi-animated videos about basically how the world works.

I guess I have always had a sort of adventurous spirit. I am always curious about different cultures around the world, whether it be in places to go to, or even just new cuisines to try in that restaurant on 42nd Avenue I haven’t tried yet. Nowadays, whenever I travel to somewhere new, I try to feed the new knowledge and experiences into my channel, be it from making a video about automated mass transit in Vancouver, BC, or full profiles on small and somewhat obscure countries, like what I did in Luxembourg.

FAQs

Q: What’s up with the hat?

A: I got it as a Halloween costume a long time ago, when I was in a kind of ancient Egypt phase, which made me want to keep wearing it until I got too used to it to bother taking it off. I still wear it because it helps distinguish me and my work (the one I currently wear is actually the second one I have worn).

Q: Wait, you were born in 2000?!

A: Yes, I guess I just bloomed rather quickly. Not much more I can really say about it.

Q: Where are you from? What is your nationality?

A: In terms of citizenship, I am just American. I don’t have any German relatives and I didn’t grow up in Germany or anything like that, I just live there now. In addition, I am a native English speaker who learned German from scratch in my teenage years. As mentioned above, I am originally from the DC area, grew up in Portland, Oregon, and now live in Berlin.

Q: Where did you think of the name KhAnubis?

A: When I was nine, I saw the movie Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian, during my aforementioned ancient Egypt phase of my childhood. In this movie, the main antagonist was the fictional pharaoh Kahmunrah, which I assumed was a combination of Ka (which I thought was spelled Kha) and Amun Ra. Thus, thinking it would be a good name, but not wanting to steal another name, I replaced Amun Ra with Anubis at random (which is why the A in KhAnubis is supposed to be capitalized).