The King of Random

At the age of 29, Thompson, who was a former airline pilot, was semi-retired in Farmington, Utah, and decided to spend the next seven years studying the way things worked. Eventually, Thompson realized that his friends were becoming interested in his projects, and decided to teach himself to produce videos and begin uploading them to YouTube.[2] The channel's name was originally "01032010814", the exact date and time Thompson created the channel.[3] After his first video, he started making DIY and life hack videos. On September 9, 2017, the channel introduced Bonham as co-host, and he became the permanent host a few weeks later. On October 25, 2018, the channel introduced Gade as co-host.[4] Thompson reportedly stepped away to spend more time with family, but still owned the channel and was involved in its day-to-day operations[1] until his death.[5][6][7] Ownership of the channel passed to Thompson's wife Janae after his death in July 2019. In September 2020, the channel added Kennen Hutchison, Grace Dirig, and Kevin DeBruin as co-hosts. They act as "secondary" hosts to Bonham and Gade, with Bonham, Gade, and one of the newer hosts in each video.

In January 2018, Thompson was charged with two counts of second-degree felony possession of an explosive device for allegedly conducting incendiary experiments in his backyard.[8] Facing a maximum of 15 years in prison, Thompson agreed to a plea bargain deal. In exchange for dropping the charges to a suspended sentence of misdemeanor recklessness with an incendiary device charge, Thompson agreed to create two YouTube videos educating viewers about the "physical safety and/or the legal risks associated with experiments that could be dangerous".[9]

On July 29, 2019, Thompson died in a paramotoring crash near Hurricane in Washington County, Utah. His family had reported him missing around 10:30 pm to the Washington County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) after he did not return from the trip that day. Officers used GPS to connect to a locator he carried with him; they found his body, along with a recording device. The case remains under investigation. In response to his death, the King of Random channel uploaded Grant Thompson, in Memoriam to YouTube on July 30. The video is exactly one minute long, and is simply a picture of Thompson with the caption "Grant Thompson, 1980–2019".[10][11][12]

On August 1, a video titled Thank you, Grant was uploaded to the YouTube channel, in which a somber Nate and Calli present a montage of Thompson's various experiments, spliced with clips of him discussing how far the channel had come. In this video, Nate confirmed that the channel would be continuing to upload, stating it was what Thompson would have wanted.[13] It was the first time either host had appeared in a video since Thompson's death three days before.

On August 8, the channel posted a video called A Tribute To Grant From Fellow Creators. It compiled tributes from other YouTube personalities, notably MatPat (Matthew Patrick) from the channel The Game Theorists, Brian Brushwood from the channel The Modern Rogue, and Zack Nelson from the channel JerryRigEverything.[14]

Furthermore, on August 10, the channel posted a video called To Grant, From the TKOR Team which compiled short tributes from all of the channel staff, including Nate and Calli.[15] This was the final memorial video; the channel has continued its normal upload schedule since. He was also featured by PewDiePie on his own version of YouTube Rewind 2019.[16]

Thompson had been working on a book, "52 Random Weekend Projects", in the months prior to his death. The book was "almost finished" at the time of Thompson's death, and was completed by the production crew of the channel, including Bonham and Gade. The book contains 52 of Thompson's favorite projects done on the channel and was released on March 10, 2020.[17]

• Official website
• YouTube channel