Trisha Paytas’ four-month-old son is currently going through a sleep regression phase. So, she decided, it was the perfect time to make her Broadway debut.
“I always say it takes a village,” the internet celebrity and mother of three tells Rolling Stone a few hours before she takes the stage at New York’s Palace Theater as Maxine Dean in Beetlejuice. (If her character doesn’t sound familiar, it’s because she was for the Broadway production — Maxine is only mentioned and never seen in the original film.) Some actors might feel slighted by being cast in a bit role, but for Paytas, this Broadway stage — any Broadway stage — is still a dream come true. And that dream also involves a husband who buys a ticket every night and a mom willing to stay in New York with the family during Paytas’ residency. “I do not want people to think I am this cookie-cutter mom that does it all. I have this career and I have three kids so I do do it all, but with help! And it does take help.”
For over a decade, Paytas has been one of the most divisive figures in internet culture. She was the quintessential face of YouTube’s 2010 internet celebrity era, one that could be seen everywhere from My Strange Addiction to appearances on Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star’s YouTube channels. But she was best known for her many controversies and purposefully incendiary content, cancellations that happened so frequently they became expected. These ranged from offensive and stereotypical accents and using the n-word, to saying she was planning a race change, and claiming she had dissociative identity disorder and introducing her alter egos to her YouTube viewers. These cancellations gave Paytas a reputation as a troll — a framework that could’ve followed her throughout her career. But after getting sober in 2021, Paytas took a surprising turn: She owned up to her past transgressions, blaming them on mental health struggles and substance abuse problems, and saying she would do better. She also married artist Moses Hacmon in 2021 and started a family. And it worked better than anyone could expect.
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“The internet is so unpredictable, so I don’t want to guess why people are being so supportive now, but I would assume it’s because I tried to change for myself. Then my kids came along and I had to change for them,” Paytas says, referring to her children, ages three, 18 months, and four months. “I couldn’t embarrass them anymore. I couldn’t put them in the line of fire. So I really tried to change.”
Now, Paytas is in the midst of a surprising return to popularity online. She has over 10.9 million followers on TikTok, 5.15 million subscribers on YouTube, and a comment section filled with people genuinely excited to see her life moving away from her troll past and toward some of her biggest dreams. This all started in 2021, when she began the Frenemies podcast with YouTuber and podcaster Ethan Klein. (Hacmon, her husband, is the brother of Klein’s wife Hila Klein.) The show was a viral success for its nine-month run, gaining Paytas hundreds of thousands of new followers and, more importantly, a new round of internet good will. So when the show ended because of an alleged feud between Paytas and Klein, Paytas took many of its dedicated fan base with her — a group that encompasses more internet obsessives each and every day.
Following Frenemies’ success, Paytas started her own podcast Just Trish, while continuing to post self-produced music videos, YouTube clips, mukbangs, and elaborate cosplays with her entire family. Many of the costumes revolved around her favorite theater-kid fantasies, getting bigger in production quality until Paytas announced a surprise: Trisha Paytas’ Big Broadway Dream, a one night only show in February that combined Paytas’ lifelong goal to be on stage with a charity benefit for the Entertainment Community Fund. Paytas’ event sold out, with fans clamoring to see her onstage alongside actual Broadway stars Sutton Foster, Rachel Zegler, Ben Platt, and Joy Woods. But the event operated on an unspoken assumption: This is probably the only way Paytas is actually getting on a stage of this size. Then a Beetlejuice audition came calling — an experience Paytas is still describing as surreal.
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“I don’t know if it could get any better or bigger than this,” Paytas tells Rolling Stone. “This is my dream show.
Based on the 1988 comedy starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Geena Davis, and Alec Baldwin, Beetlejuice tells the story of Adam and Barbara, a deceased couple who enlist the help of the titular demon to scare off the living inhabitants of their home. At one point, this involves scaring developer Maxie Dean and his wife Maxine (Paytas) during a business dinner. Maxine is his fifth wife, a ditzy and swanning character who emerges for the dinner scene, performs the infamous “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” with the cast, before running off stage in a fright. It’s a minor role, but that didn’t stop Paytas fans from filling the theater on her first night, and swarming the actress after to give her flowers, gifts, and themed merch.
“Even though I have 11 million followers on TikTok, to see even 100 of them come out is very overwhelming, and it’s very cool,” Paytas says. “Because I still can’t believe it. I can’t believe people want my autograph.”
There are some who see this reclamation of Paytas as undeserved, especially when considering the star’s past, and her repeated brushes with controversy. Paytas understands the doubters. In fact, she says they’re the reason why she’s here in the first place.
“I think [my career] turned around a lot when I could really take in criticism and reflection. It takes time. My journey started six years ago. I’ve hit some rock bottoms. And I was like, ‘Okay, I need to start looking at myself,’” she says. “There are many people too that are still like, ‘We can’t look past this,’ and I totally get it. I can only show that I’m trying to be better.”
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Right now, better looks like taking the stage every night as Maxine, a schedule that Paytas is still trying to get used to. After her limited engagement wraps on Nov. 23, Paytas will go back home to Southern California, continuing to produce content and record Just Trish. In 2026, she’ll make her television speaking debut in Euphoria in an undisclosed role. “I can’t say too much about it, but it was really fun,” she says. “And a lot of people have pointed out Euphoria — I lived a lot of that life.” But more than anything, she hopes that the role in Beetlejuice will open doors for her on Broadway. She’s got her eye on Chicago, and calls her “long shot, delusional” role Mary Todd Lincoln in Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! But for right now, she’s just happy to take her bows.
“I am the prime example of, ‘If you want something, you can make it happen,’” Paytas says. “I really feel like, if I could make it to Broadway, if I could have kids, have a husband, and be mentally stable, you can do it too.”
