Brett Cooper
Brett Cooper (born October 12, 2001) is an American conservative political commentator, YouTuber, and media personality recognized for her rapid rise as a voice for right-leaning cultural critique targeted at younger audiences.[1][2] Born in Bellingham, Washington, and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she began her career as an actress with roles in television series such as Heathers and Prank Academy before transitioning to political media.[3][1] Cooper gained prominence hosting The Comments Section with Brett Cooper, a YouTube program produced by The Daily Wire starting in March 2022, where she analyzed viral videos, celebrity news, and political developments from a perspective emphasizing traditional values, skepticism of progressive social policies, and individual liberty.[4][3] The show amassed millions of views by blending reaction-style content with substantive commentary on topics like feminism, abortion, and gender ideology, distinguishing itself through Cooper's relatable, Gen Z-oriented delivery.[4] After graduating from the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in English literature, she leveraged her early acting experience and self-described conservative upbringing to build a following that valued her unfiltered takes over mainstream narratives.[2][5] In December 2024, Cooper announced her departure from The Daily Wire on amicable terms to pursue independent projects, citing a desire for greater creative control and new challenges.[6] She launched The Brett Cooper Show in January 2025, which promptly achieved viral success, underscoring her established appeal independent of institutional backing.[7] While her content has drawn criticism from left-leaning outlets for challenging prevailing cultural orthodoxies, it has been credited with energizing conservative discourse among youth through authentic, data-informed rebuttals rather than rote partisanship.[7]Early Life and Education
Childhood and Family Background
Brett Cooper was born on October 12, 2001, in Bellingham, Washington, to parents Diana Cooper and Mike Cooper.[8][9] When Cooper was three years old, her family relocated from Washington to East Tennessee, where her parents had moved.[10] She was raised in a modest household and homeschooled for the majority of her childhood, which allowed flexibility amid family circumstances but limited traditional peer interactions.[11] Cooper has two older twin brothers, contributing to a sibling dynamic marked by shared experiences in a turbulent home environment.[11] Family relations were strained from early on, including revelations that her father had urged her mother to abort her during pregnancy, a detail Cooper disclosed publicly as influencing her pro-life views.[12] These tensions escalated with her parents' prolonged and acrimonious separation, setting the stage for her later independence, though the core upbringing emphasized self-reliance amid instability.[11]Emancipation and Upbringing
Cooper's upbringing was marked by familial instability stemming from her parents' contentious divorce. At age 15, in approximately 2016, she pursued legal emancipation, citing being manipulated as a pawn between her parents as a key factor.[13] To secure this status, Cooper demonstrated financial independence by securing employment and hiring her own attorney, forgoing parental support.[13] Following emancipation, Cooper lived alone while maintaining her education and working full-time jobs, including a stint at Trader Joe's, to cover living expenses.[13] This self-reliant phase, which she later described as a coping mechanism amid emotional suppression, fostered early resilience but also highlighted the challenges of abrupt independence during adolescence.[14] Her acting background from childhood provided some residual income and skills that aided this transition, though she emphasized the divorce's direct role in prompting her departure from the family home.[15]Academic Pursuits and University Experience
Cooper enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature, graduating in 2021.[16] She also completed a minor in business through the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.[17] Her academic path reflected an early interest in literature and media production, building on prior acting experience, though she later shifted focus from performance to content creation during her studies.[18] At UCLA, Cooper encountered a campus environment dominated by left-leaning activism, which she described as misaligned with her conservative perspectives and the broader political climate of Los Angeles.[18] In one notable incident at a party, peers pelted her with a copy of The Communist Manifesto, urging her to read it as a means to challenge her views, highlighting the ideological confrontations she faced among classmates deeply engaged in political discourse.[18] These experiences prompted her to more firmly articulate her own values, though she initially resisted centering politics in her identity amid friendships with progressive peers.[18][19] Cooper has publicly critiqued the quality of education at UCLA compared to community college courses she took earlier, asserting that the latter provided superior instruction despite the prestige of the university setting.[20] This perspective underscores her broader skepticism toward elite university curricula, which she found less rigorous in core academic skills than practical alternatives.[21] Her university tenure thus informed her later commentary on higher education's emphasis on ideological conformity over substantive learning.[18]Career
Early Acting Roles
Brett Cooper began her acting career in her early childhood, securing minor roles in independent short films and television series primarily in the southeastern United States before relocating to pursue opportunities in Los Angeles. Her screen debut came in 2011 at age 10 with the role of Young Paulina in the short film 1000 Blisters, an indie drama exploring personal struggles.[22] In 2012, she appeared uncredited as a speech student in the family comedy Parental Guidance, a 20th Century Fox production directed by Andy Fickman and featuring Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, marking her first involvement in a major studio feature.[23] By her early teens, Cooper took on lead roles in several short films, including Racquelle VanderApple in The Boy Scout (2013), Emily in Little Emily (2014), and Bobbi Gareth in Bobbi & Gill (2017), the latter portraying a lead character in a narrative about friendship and challenges.[24] These independent projects, often produced on low budgets, showcased her versatility in dramatic and comedic parts but received limited distribution. Concurrently, she landed guest spots on television, debuting on the Disney XD series Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street in 2014, followed by an appearance in the Fox limited series Shots Fired (2017), a crime drama addressing racial tensions.[25] Her most notable early television role came in 2018 as Trailer Parker in the black comedy series Heathers, a Paramount Network production adapting the 1988 film and focusing on high school cliques and social satire; the series was canceled after one season amid controversy over its content.[26] These roles, typically brief or supporting, reflected Cooper's efforts to build a resume in Hollywood while balancing self-emancipation and education, though they did not lead to breakout success prior to her pivot toward political media.[27]Transition to Political Commentary
After pursuing acting roles in Los Angeles, Cooper grew disillusioned with the entertainment industry's pervasive leftist ideologies, which she described as clashing with her emerging conservative values, including experiences such as being targeted with Communist Manifesto pamphlets while briefly attending UCLA.[28] She began transitioning to political content creation around 2020-2021, initially by writing articles for the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), a libertarian think tank, where she critiqued issues like government-induced supply chain disruptions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.[29] Cooper also engaged with conservative organizations, serving as a PragerFORCE member for PragerU—its activist ambassador program—and working with Young Americans for Liberty, through which she produced early on-camera segments promoting free-market principles and limited government.[30] These efforts marked her shift from passive acting to active commentary, focusing on cultural and economic topics to counter what she viewed as dominant progressive narratives in media and academia. By late 2021, her independent content and organizational affiliations drew attention from larger platforms, culminating in her recruitment by The Daily Wire in January 2022 to host a dedicated show targeting younger audiences.[28] This move formalized her role in political media, leveraging her youthful appeal and pop culture familiarity to discuss policy and societal issues.Hosting The Comments Section
Brett Cooper began hosting The Comments Section, a YouTube series produced by The Daily Wire, on March 1, 2022.[31] The program featured Cooper reacting to viral internet content, celebrity news, and cultural trends through a conservative lens, often emphasizing logical analysis over mainstream narratives.[32] Episodes typically ran 10-20 minutes, with Cooper delivering commentary from a studio setup, consistently wearing oversized headphones as a visual signature.[7] The show's format centered on dissecting trending social media clips, political controversies, and pop culture phenomena, such as TikTok videos or celebrity statements, to highlight perceived inconsistencies in progressive ideologies.[31] Cooper frequently critiqued topics like modern feminism, identity politics, and media bias, using humor and direct engagement with viewer comments to foster discussion.[33] For instance, episodes addressed issues like "woke" resolutions on social platforms or debates over gender categories in sports, positioning the series as an antidote to what Cooper described as sanitized mainstream discourse.[34] Under Cooper's tenure, The Comments Section experienced rapid growth, amassing over 4.5 million subscribers by late 2024 and generating millions of views per episode on high-profile topics.[35] The channel's appeal lay in its accessible, youth-oriented style, attracting a predominantly young conservative audience disillusioned with traditional media outlets.[32] Cooper's delivery—characterized by straightforward rebuttals and avoidance of partisan platitudes—contributed to its viral success, with segments often sparking broader online debates.[36] Cooper announced her departure from the show and The Daily Wire on December 10, 2024, stating it was a voluntary decision amid shifting professional priorities, though she expressed gratitude for the platform's support over three years.[37] The series continued under a new host, Reagan Conrad, but subscriber counts declined post-transition, dropping to around 3 million by early 2025, underscoring Cooper's central role in its peak popularity.[38] Her exit marked the end of an era for the program, which had solidified her as a prominent voice in digital conservative media.[39]Post-Daily Wire Independence and New Ventures
On December 10, 2024, Cooper announced her departure from The Daily Wire after three years, describing the decision as bittersweet and crediting the platform for enabling the creation of popular content while expressing enthusiasm for upcoming independent projects.[37] She emphasized leaving on her own terms to pursue greater creative autonomy and new challenges, rejecting rumors of dismissal.[40] In January 2025, Cooper debuted The Brett Cooper Show as her flagship independent venture, launching the trailer on January 27 and the first episode on January 30 via YouTube and podcast platforms.[41][42] The series examines generational shifts, cultural trends, and their impacts on values, relationships, and communities, continuing her style of commentary on pop culture and politics but with expanded flexibility outside corporate constraints.[43] Early episodes garnered significant viewership, with the premiere addressing topics like ideological shifts in conservatism, signaling strong initial audience retention from her prior platform.[7] On June 25, 2025, Fox News Media signed Cooper as a contributor, enabling her to deliver analysis on cultural, social, and political matters across its programs.[44] She made her on-air debut that day on The Will Cain Show, marking an expansion of her reach into traditional broadcast media while maintaining her independent digital output.[45] This role leverages her Gen Z appeal and prior digital success, with over nine million followers across platforms at the time of signing.[46]Personal Life
Marriage and Relationship with Alex Tombul
Brett Cooper and Alex Tombul first connected professionally in April 2022 while Cooper was employed at The Daily Wire, though they had grown up approximately five miles apart in Tennessee, with Tombul having attended high school alongside Cooper's brothers.[47] Their initial interactions were work-related, and Cooper initially resisted Tombul's romantic interest before agreeing to a first date at Lockeland Table in Nashville.[48] Cooper later reflected that she recognized Tombul as "the one" within two weeks of dating, citing their intellectual compatibility and shared values as foundational to the relationship.[47] Tombul proposed to Cooper in October 2023 on a terrace at Fisherman’s Bastion in Budapest, Hungary, during her filming of The Pendragon Cycle.[47] The couple married on March 30, 2024, in an intimate ceremony at a chapel within The Venue at Birchwood in Spring Hill, Tennessee, officiated by mutual friend Jonathan Hay.[47] [48] The wedding featured a rehearsal dinner at Lockeland Table, live music during the ceremony including a performance of "June" by The Wldlfe, and a reception with the couple's first dance to "Stolen" by these United States, followed by a sparkler send-off.[48] Cooper wore a thrifted tea-length dress for the ceremony and later changed into a reimagined version of her mother's wedding gown.[48] Tombul, a Nashville-based entrepreneur who founded his own advertising agency, maintains a low public profile and avoids media appearances, which Cooper has described as aligning with his private nature: "He’s very, very private [and] does not want to be on camera."[47] The couple resides in Tennessee and, as of June 2025, were expecting their first child.[47] Their relationship emphasizes mutual respect for privacy amid Cooper's public career in conservative commentary.[47]Lifestyle and Aspirations
Brett Cooper maintains a rural lifestyle on a farm outside Nashville, Tennessee, emphasizing self-sufficiency and hands-on animal care as a counterbalance to her media career. Her homestead features beef cows, pigs, ten chickens, and four ducks, with daily maintenance largely managed by a hired farmhand while she supervises operations during weekdays.[49] This setup, inspired by her mother's longstanding dream of farm living, provides Cooper with a sense of grounding and tranquility amid her public digital presence, allowing her to engage directly in tasks like feeding and property upkeep.[49] She has shared intentions to incorporate farm-related content into her content creation, viewing these activities as integral to her routine and personal fulfillment.[49] Her personal interests extend to fostering connections through practical, family-oriented pursuits, reflecting her homeschooling background where socialization occurred via extracurriculars rather than institutional settings. Cooper describes this lifestyle as a deliberate shift from urban environments, which she found draining, toward rooted, nature-based living that supports mental clarity and long-term stability.[50] Cooper's aspirations center on building a traditional family structure, including starting a family and prioritizing motherhood alongside her professional work. She plans to homeschool future children, citing her own positive experiences with flexible, parent-led education as superior for personalized development and avoidance of institutional pitfalls.[49] Influenced by mentors like Candace Owens, she seeks to balance high-profile commentary with family life, advocating marriage and parenthood as essential infrastructure for generational continuity rather than deferring them for career advancement.[51] This vision includes diversifying ventures for financial flexibility, enabling a homestead-focused existence that empowers viewers through relatable, sanity-restoring content.[51]Political Views and Commentary Style
Critiques of Modern Feminism and Cultural Issues
Brett Cooper critiques modern feminism for fostering a culture of victimhood that undermines personal responsibility and genuine equality between the sexes. In a July 15, 2024, interview, she argued that third-wave feminism has shifted focus from liberation to emphasizing group-based grievances through identity politics, leading women to prioritize collective narratives over individual agency.[52] This perspective, she contends, contributes to widespread female unhappiness by discouraging early marriage and family formation in favor of prolonged career pursuits, which she views as culturally promoted but empirically unfulfilling for many.[52] Cooper has specifically challenged feminist tenets like the undefined concept of "the patriarchy," asserting in a February 11, 2023, episode of The Comments Section that proponents often invoke it without coherent explanation, rendering it a rhetorical tool rather than a substantive critique of societal structures.[53] She positions herself as supportive of first-wave feminism's push for legal equality, such as voting rights, but rejects later iterations for promoting biological denialism and exploiting insecurities, including through the normalization of extensive cosmetic procedures as empowerment.[54] In dismantling the 4B movement—originating in South Korea and advocating women's abstention from dating, marriage, sex, and childbirth with men—Cooper described it on November 18, 2024, as a self-defeating response to personal discontent, symptomatic of broader feminist incentives to spread misery rather than foster mutual societal improvement.[55] Extending her analysis to related cultural issues, Cooper opposes elements of transgender ideology intertwined with modern gender feminism, warning that it pathologizes normal female behaviors like tomboyishness and encourages irreversible transitions among impressionable youth. In a February 12, 2023, video, she highlighted how this cultural shift harms young women by framing innate traits as disorders requiring medical intervention.[56] She has covered rising detransition regrets, as in a March 13, 2025, episode exploring why many teens seek to reverse procedures amid social pressures.[57] On sports and spaces, Cooper criticized transgender female athletes' participation in women's categories, noting instances like boxers dominating competitions as evidence of biological realities overriding ideological claims, per an October 25, 2025, discussion.[58] While acknowledging cancel culture's prevalence on the left, she has urged conservatives to avoid mirroring it, as in her January 30, 2025, pilot episode cautioning against purges of ideological nonconformists within right-leaning circles.[59]Stance on Key Political Topics
Brett Cooper holds a pro-life position on abortion, having shifted from an ambivalent pro-choice stance during her teenage years to staunch opposition after discovering at age 17 that her father had urged her mother to abort her.[60][61][62] She has publicly shared this personal catalyst in interviews and podcasts, emphasizing it as a pivotal moment that reframed her views on fetal personhood and the moral implications of elective termination.[63] Cooper advocates for alternatives to abortion, aligning with conservative efforts to protect unborn life, as evidenced by her appearances at pro-life events and congratulations from organizations like March for Life following her own childbirth in 2025.[64] On Second Amendment rights, Cooper supports robust gun ownership as a fundamental safeguard against tyranny and for personal defense, drawing parallels to global events like the Ukraine conflict to underscore disarmament risks.[65] She has critiqued federal overreach, such as ATF regulations on pistol braces and "ghost guns," arguing they infringe on privacy and self-reliance traditions embedded in American law.[66] In content featuring gun range visits and discussions with proponents, she highlights how restrictions disproportionately harm law-abiding citizens rather than criminals.[67][68] Cooper advocates for stricter border enforcement and immigration controls, criticizing policies that prioritize migrants over citizens, such as converting schools into shelters for illegal entrants.[69] She has praised Texas Governor Greg Abbott's defiance of federal inaction on border security, framing it as a necessary response to inadequate national protection funded by taxpayer dollars.[70] In 2025, she rebuked Joe Rogan's reservations about mass deportations as misguided empathy, asserting that unchecked immigration strains resources and undermines sovereignty.[71] Her commentary ties immigration to broader economic pressures, including labor market impacts, as noted in speeches at conservative summits.[72] Regarding transgender issues, Cooper opposes gender ideology's application to minors and public policy, highlighting rising "trans regret" cases where individuals seek to reverse procedures amid inadequate long-term data on outcomes.[57][73] She critiques activist efforts to dismantle women-only spaces, such as gyms, and questions narratives equating gender dysphoria with immutable identity, often citing empirical trends in detransition.[74] Cooper argues that such policies erode sex-based protections and free inquiry, as seen in her analysis of cultural flashpoints like cosplay controversies.[75] A defender of free speech, Cooper views it as essential for personal growth and societal resilience, urging thicker skin over censorship in response to offense.[76] She has addressed cancel culture from both left and right, questioning exclusion of former liberals in conservative circles while decrying broader suppression of dissenting views.[59] Her advocacy aligns with platforms emphasizing open discourse, contrasting it against institutional biases that stifle debate on topics like ideology.[77] In electoral politics, Cooper endorsed and voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election, citing his unyielding principles and appeal to young voters disillusioned with progressive alternatives.[78] She has highlighted Trump's resonance with Gen Z amid cultural shifts, positioning his policies as a counter to perceived elite detachment.[79] Post-election commentary in 2025 focused on early Trump administration actions, such as rescinding prior executive orders, as fulfilling promises on governance reform.[80]Approach to Pop Culture Analysis
Brett Cooper analyzes pop culture by dissecting mainstream films, television series, celebrity scandals, and viral media trends through a conservative lens, emphasizing how progressive ideologies often prioritize messaging over storytelling coherence and audience appeal. She argues that Hollywood's embrace of "wokeness"—including forced diversity quotas, gender ideology, and anti-traditional narratives—results in creatively stunted content that alienates viewers and incurs financial losses, as evidenced by box office flops tied to such elements.[81][82] This contrasts with earlier conservative dismissals of entertainment as frivolous; Cooper views it as a vital arena for cultural warfare, where media shapes young minds on issues like family, gender roles, and morality.[32] In The Comments Section, her signature format involves reacting to YouTube comments on trending clips, blending humor, relatability, and pointed critique to engage Gen Z audiences without overt preachiness. She highlights public backlash in comment sections to validate conservative interpretations, such as calling out feminist-driven celebrity endorsements of abortion or transgender activism as disconnected from everyday realities.[83][32] For example, Cooper has critiqued productions like Disney's Snow White remake for altering classic tales to fit modern ideological agendas, predicting audience rejection based on prior "woke" failures.[84] Her method prioritizes empirical outcomes, like revenue data from underperforming ideologically charged films, over abstract defenses of artistic liberty, positioning pop culture as a litmus test for societal health. Cooper draws from her early acting experience in Hollywood to expose industry pressures toward conformity, advocating instead for content that upholds traditional values like personal responsibility and biological realism.[85] This approach fosters a counter-narrative that resonates with disillusioned youth, using pop culture's accessibility to normalize conservative skepticism of elite-driven cultural shifts.[32]Reception and Influence
Appeal to Young Conservatives
Brett Cooper's commentary resonates with young conservatives through her focus on pop culture critiques that highlight perceived hypocrisies in mainstream media and celebrity spheres, framing conservatism as a rebellious stance against cultural orthodoxy. At age 20, she launched The Comments Section on YouTube in 2021, deliberately targeting Gen Z viewers alienated by progressive dominance in entertainment and social platforms, amassing over 4.5 million subscribers across Daily Wire channels before her departure.[32][7] Her independent channel, started post-2024, quickly grew to 1.6 million subscribers by blending humorous, relatable dissections of trends like celebrity scandals with defenses of traditional values, appealing to youth seeking unfiltered alternatives to establishment narratives.[86][87] This appeal is amplified by Cooper's own Gen Z identity—born October 12, 2001—and her "E-girl" aesthetic, which delivers conservative arguments in an energetic, non-pedantic style that mirrors the platforms' fast-paced discourse.[88] She positions conservatism as "incredibly cool" for young people, citing rising frustration with Democratic policies on issues like free speech and identity politics as fueling a "Gen Z rebellion" toward right-leaning views.[89][90] Audience data indicates broad youth engagement, with her content drawing a balanced gender split (42 percent male) and high interaction from under-25 demographics via TikTok and YouTube algorithms favoring her accessible format.[32] Cooper's influence extends to bridging generational gaps in conservative media, as evidenced by Fox News recruiting her in June 2025 to provide Gen Z perspectives on cultural and political topics, signaling recognition of her role in attracting younger voters to Republican-leaning narratives.[91][92] Her emphasis on authentic, principle-based pushback against "woke" excesses—without relying on dated rhetoric—has cultivated loyalty among conservatives in their late teens and early 20s, who view her as a peer articulating their disillusionment with institutional biases in academia and entertainment.[93][94]Media Presence and Growth Metrics
Brett Cooper's primary media presence is on digital platforms, where she hosts The Brett Cooper Show, an independent podcast and video series launched in January 2025 following her tenure at The Daily Wire.[95] Her YouTube channel, featuring commentary on cultural and political topics, has reached 1.62 million subscribers and accumulated over 117 million total video views across 311 uploads as of October 2025.[96] In June 2025, she expanded her reach by joining Fox News Media as a contributor, providing appearances and analysis across its television, digital, and radio outlets.[44] Cooper's growth metrics demonstrate substantial audience engagement on social media, with over nine million followers collectively across platforms reported in mid-2025.[44] Key accounts include:| Platform | Followers (as of October 2025) |
|---|---|
| YouTube | 1.62 million |
| 1 million | |
| TikTok | 1.2 million |
| X | 523,000 |