BuzzFeed: From Quizzes to Hollywood - A Click-Worthy History

BuzzFeed: From Quizzes to Hollywood – A Click-Worthy History

Once upon a time in the ancient internet days of 2006 (before TikTok dances and AI boyfriends), a guy named Jonah Peretti—who previously helped co-found The Huffington Post—asked the all-important question: “What if journalism, but also… cats?” Thus, BuzzFeed was born.

Originally conceived as an experimental lab for viral content, BuzzFeed quickly became the internet’s junk drawer—full of oddly specific quizzes, deeply relatable listicles, and a surprising number of emotional op-eds about millennial burnout. Whether you wanted to find out which type of bread best matched your personality or read a 3,000-word investigative piece on corruption, BuzzFeed somehow had it. It was like if a tabloid, a therapy session, and a meme generator had a baby.

Enter BuzzFeed Los Angeles, the company’s West Coast stronghold and spiritual home of video chaos. Located in the glitzy, influencer-scented air of LA, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures was launched in 2014 and headquartered at the historic Siren Studios on Sunset Boulevard. That’s rigght: where dreams of stardom once simmered in smoky black-and-white glamour, millennials were now producing Tasty videos and accidentally becoming YouTube-famous by eating hot wings or dressing like Disney villains for a week.

LA became the perfect playground for BuzzFeed’s personality-driven content. This is where The Try Guys were born (and eventually left the BuzzNest), where unspeakable food challenges were filmed, and where “What It’s Like to Date If You’re a Human Dumpster Fire” probably became a trending topic.

But it wasn’t all avocado toast and viral dances. BuzzFeed’s LA team helped pioneer a new form of digital storytelling—snackable content with a bite. Short, witty, sometimes bizarre, but undeniably addictive. Meanwhile, in between the memes, the company also managed to win a Pulitzer Prize. That’s right—BuzzFeed, once dismissed as the internet’s digital candy aisle, went full serious-journalism mode and pulled it off. Plot twist.

As of today, BuzzFeed’s LA roots remain strong, even as the media landscape continues to shift faster than a TikTok trend. Whether it’s a new batch of Tasty hacks or another “We Tried…” series, BuzzFeed LA continues to keep things weird, witty, and wonderfully internet.

So if you're ever in Hollywood and hear someone yell “We’re filming a mukbang with alpacas!”, just nod. It’s probably BuzzFeed being BuzzFeed.