Who is Nuseir Yassin, the man behind Nas Daily?

Content creator Nas Daily, Nuseir Yassin in real life, drew flak online on Wednesday, August 4, after his digital learning platform Nas Academy was accused of offering a traditional tattooing course by artist Whang-Od, which she allegedly did not agree upon. 

Whang-Od’s grandniece, tattoo artist Grace Palicas called it a “scam,” and said her “grandmother did not sign any contract with Nas Daily to do any academy.” Nas Academy has since taken down the page promoting the course and has insisted that they had gotten Whang-Od’s consent.

Here are some things you should know about Nuseir Yassin, the man behind Nas Daily: 

Yassin quit a tech job in New York to travel the world full-time

At 19, Yassin left Israel to study in Harvard. He applied to major in aerospace engineering, where received a full scholarship. In 2014, he graduated with a degree in Economics and moved to New York City to work in the tech industry. 

Yassin began coding for the Paypal-owned money-transfer app, Venmo, where his salary was reportedly at $100,000 per year. But despite the high-paying job, Yassin felt unsatisfied with his work. “My job was overpaid. It wasn’t satisfying enough,” he told Business Insider. 

He saved up $60,000 and within a year and a half, quit his job in 2016, bought a camera and plane ticket, and decided to travel the world full-time.

Yassin is known for his ‘That’s one minute!’ line

Yassin used the word “Nas,” which means “people” in Arabic, for his Facebook page. He pledged to make a single minute-long video every day for 1,000 days. 

Most of his daily one-minute videos document his travels and experiences traveling the world. As of this writing, his main Facebook page has 20 million followers while his Youtube channel has 3.7 million subscribers. 

“I make videos about people’s stories in a way that is human,” Yassin told Business Insider. 

In January 2019, Yassin posted his 1,000th video on the Nas Daily Facebook page, the conclusion to the challenge that began when he was just starting as a content creator.

In February 2019, Yassin was presented a Certificate of Recognition by Department of Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat for his videos featuring the Philippines on the Nas Daily Facebook page. 

The 29-year-old Arab-Israeli vlogger has several videos about his travels in the Philippines. He’s said that it is “the most lovable country” he has visited.

Yassin establishes Nas Academy

Aside from creating videos, Yassin ventured into making podcasts and teaching content creation through his digital learning platform Nas Academy. 

Launched in 2020, Nas Academy’s mission is to “empower creators through technology. Starting with education.”

According to the website, the platform caters to creators, learners, and businesses, depending on what they need and want to know. 

“At Nas Academy, we plan to fill the gap that exists in the world right now, where universities do not teach these skills because it’s so new, and online videos don’t tell you enough about it. With us, we hope to hold their hands and guide them on how to navigate this world of social media and digital storytelling,” Yassin told Outlook India. 

He added, “We view this as more than just video making. We take this mission very seriously… We hope to inspire the youth with these videos, and encourage them to make a change the world so badly needs.” 

In June 2021, Nas Academy announced that the platform tapped several Filipino personalities as speakers and teachers. 

Included in the list are Catriona Gray, Jessica Soho, Michael Cinco, Erwan Heussaff, Moira dela Torre, Jason Magbanua, Chinkee Tan, Carlo Ople, Mavrick Bautista, and James Deakin. Whang-Od was initially part of the lineup. – Rappler.com