Charles Lincoln Neal III

Charles Lincoln Neal, or "Link" as he liked to be called, was a YouTube personality who was best known as one-half of the popular Internet comedy duo Rhett & Link. Born and raised in Buies Creek, North Carolina, Lincoln always had a desire to entertain the masses. Luckily, he was fortunate enough to meet his longtime creative collaborator, Rhett McLaughlin, when he was in the first grade. The two boys quickly realized they had a tremendous amount in common, most notably their desire to clown around in class, and soon started to entertain themselves by writing and performing comedy skits. At the age of 14, Rhett and Link decided to write a screenplay together called "Gutless Wonders" which provided them with insight very early on in their careers on the rigors of creative writing. After high school, both Link and Rhett were accepted into North Carolina State University, and for a brief while, the duo put their creative aspirations on hold. Link decided to major in industrial engineering, and quickly took a job at IBM after graduation. He settled into a comfortable, stable life at IBM for a few years, but soon found that his creative ambitions were as strong as ever. It just so happened that his old buddy, Rhett, who was also working a day job, was just as eager to return to writing and performing. With that in mind, the duo launched their very own YouTube channel in 2006, titled Rhett & Link, and started posting humorous videos. Before long their videos had amassed millions of views, allowing both men to quit their jobs and move to Los Angeles. Over the ensuing years, Rhett and Link branched out to hosting their own daily Internet talk show "Good Mythical Morning" (2012-16), in addition to running a successful side business making funny commercials for small local businesses around the country. Furthermore, Rhett and Link also released a number of independent comedy music albums, and even had their own short-lived TV series on IFC called "Commercial Kings" (2011). In 2016 the Rhett & Link YouTube channel, where it all started, had already accumulated over 4 million daily subscribers, in addition to over half a billion video views, making the duo one of the most successful, and longest running comedy acts on the website.