Canadian-Iranian YouTuber builds success and big new studio in North Vancouver

A B.C. content creator has reached a new level of success since moving to North Vancouver from Iran.

Kimia Ravangar goes by the name “Mia Plays” on YouTube, where she has racked up more than 620,000 followers.

She started making her videos in 2017 in her native Iran, and has seen her follower count grow since coming to Canada.

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The growth has been such that she and her team have opened a new 4,000-square-foot studio in North Vancouver.

It’s a far cry from her bedroom studio in Tehran where she had to be careful with her content because of the country’s authoritarian government.

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“It was hard to work in Iran in this field,” she told Global News.

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“Back in Iran I didn’t have the freedom to dress how I want, or say what I want to say or to feel safe doing what I do.”

Ravangar and her team won’t say just how much money they make from their videos – although some of their top posts have had well over a million views.