Shane Madej
| Name: | Shane Madej |
| Also Known As: | |
| Occupation: | YouTuber |
| Medium: | |
| Works: | |
| Official Website(s): | |
| Fan Website(s): | |
| On Fanlore: | Related pages |
Shane Madej is an American YouTuber, best known as the co-host of BuzzFeed Unsolved. He has since gone on to found a production company, Watcher Entertainment, with fellow ex-BuzzFeeders Ryan Bergara and Steven Lim.
Biography
Shane Madej was born in 1986. In late 2016, he became the co-host of Ryan Bergara's BuzzFeed Unsolved series, taking over from former co-host Brent Bennett.
Madej is generally skeptical when it comes to paranormal phenomena; Bergara, on the other hand, is more of a believer. This gives Unsolved a skeptic-believer dynamic not dissimilar to that of The X-Files, and sets it apart from other ghost-hunting documentary series.
In 2019, Madej co-founded Watcher Entertainment, and has since produced and starred in several of the company's shows; notably, he is the creator of Puppet History, where he plays the show's fluffy host.
Fandom
Shane Madej began to attract fannish activity in early 2017, following the success of Unsolved. As of March 2021, there are currently over 4000 works on AO3 featuring him as a tagged character. Fans of Madej refer to themselves as "Shaniacs."
Ships
The most popular ship featuring Madej is Ryan Bergara/Shane Madej ("Shyan"), with over 3500 works on AO3 as of March 2021. Shane has also been shipped with artist and fellow ex-BuzzFeeder (as well as his real-life girlfriend) Sara Rubin, as well as his Watcher co-founder Steven Lim. He has also been featured in a number of polyships.
Tropes
One of the most popular tropes in the Unsolved fandom is "Demon!Shane" - an AU in which Shane is secretly a demon, providing an alternate explanation for his lack of fear of the supernatural. As of March 2021, there are over 450 works on AO3 with the tag "Demon Shane Madej". Madej has also been portrayed as various supernatural creatures in different AUs (from aliens to faefolk), though the demon AUs are the most popular.
Madej also has a sort of alter ego in the form of C.C. Tinsley. Tinsley was the name of a real detective active during the 1940s, and said name left an impression on fans. There are multiple written and drawn fanworks that feature a version of Tinsley modelled in appearance and personality off of Shane, and are usually paired with or against Ryan's alter ego, Ricky Goldsworth.