Long before sold-out performances at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, before signing with one of the world’s largest talent agencies, and before surpassing one billion YouTube views, Raphael Nathan was simply a shy child who found refuge in music.
School was difficult. After immigrating from Johannesburg to Israel at the age of eight, he struggled with anxiety, ADHD, and bullying. While the classroom often left him feeling out of place, music, dancing, and performing gave him something different: confidence.
Today, millions of children know him by another name: DJ Raphi.
The Israeli content creator, DJ, dancer, and entrepreneur has quietly built one of YouTube’s largest family dance communities, attracting more than 1.6 million subscribers and surpassing one billion views. His biggest audience is not in Israel but in the United States, where schools, summer camps, and community centers regularly project his videos for hundreds of children at a time.
For Nathan, though, the statistics have never been the goal.
Behind the glasses
DJ Raphi was never part of a carefully mapped-out career.
The character began in 2013 during a marketing class, where students were tasked with creating a brand. Nathan, studying advertisement and marketing communications at Ono Academic College, came up with a simple idea: a DJ business called “DJ Raphi.” At the time, it was nothing more than a university assignment, and what he expected would become a small side hustle.
He began DJing weddings and bar mitzvahs, but quickly realized he was doing something different from everyone else. When guests didn’t know the dance moves, he stepped out from behind the booth to teach them himself. Skills he had developed as a child – beatboxing, dancing, and performing – became part of every show.
The interactive approach caught on.
What began as a small events business slowly evolved into a global entertainment brand.
Today, producing a single DJ Raphi video resembles a studio production. Writers, producers, choreographers, videographers, animators, and editors spend weeks creating each song before it appears online. Several videos are completed months before release to keep pace with the demands of YouTube.
Nathan is quick to point out that the success has never been his alone.
“I always say ‘we,’” he told The Jerusalem Report. “It’s never just me thinking of ideas.”
More than entertainment
To millions of children, DJ Raphi may simply look like a man wearing turquoise glasses and a fedora dancing across a screen.
Nathan sees something else.
“I am still a child,” he said. “People sometimes say, ‘My inner child.’ I don’t have an inner child. I am a child dressed up as a grown-up.”
That philosophy sits at the heart of everything he creates. Rather than performing for children, he believes he is connecting with them. Having experienced bullying and loneliness himself, he wants young audiences to know there is nothing wrong with being different. His songs are built around movement and fun, but underneath is a consistent message: be yourself, be kind to others, and pursue what you love without fear.
That message has resonated far beyond birthday parties and classrooms.
Before his first US tour in 2026, Nathan received a message from the mother of a young boy recovering from major surgery. Throughout his hospital stay, she wrote, her son had watched DJ Raphi’s videos to lift his spirits. Nathan invited the family to meet him backstage during the tour.
“When I saw them, his mother burst out crying,” he recalled. “Then I started crying.”
Another encounter came backstage at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. A mother told him her daughter had undergone chemotherapy four times and that hospital staff regularly played DJ Raphi’s videos to help children through treatment.
For Nathan, those moments changed the way he viewed his work.
“This is not about me doing shows,” he said. “It’s about really changing people’s lives in a way that we had no idea.”
The stories also explain why audience figures only tell part of the story. Nathan frequently receives videos from schools and summer camps where hundreds of children dance together to a single YouTube video. In one clip, around 1,500 campers performed one of his routines simultaneously.
To YouTube, it counted as one view.
Proudly Israeli
Nathan’s success overseas has not come without obstacles.
He said some people in the entertainment industry advised him not to advertise that he was Israeli.
He refused.
“I’ve been fighting antisemitism online since I’ve been online,” he said. “As a Jew, it’s important to be proud... and show the world that Jewish people are actually really awesome.”
After several unsuccessful attempts to find representation due to his Israeli identity, Nathan signed with William Morris Endeavor (WME), one of the world’s largest talent agencies, whose clients include Kevin Hart, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Matt Damon. Nathan is represented by global talent manager Rhys Paynting, while his US bookings are handled by Peter Schwartz.
According to Nathan, one of the agency’s initial concerns was that he does not perform on Shabbat, traditionally the busiest day for children’s shows.
“You’ve never seen someone work as hard as I’m planning to work,” he told them.
The agency ultimately signed him, making him only the second observant Jewish performer represented by WME after reggae rapper Matisyahu.
Just days before his latest US tour, Israel’s airspace closed during the conflict with Iran. Rather than cancel, Nathan traveled through Egypt to reach the United States in time for the performances.
The audience never knew the journey it had taken simply for him to reach the stage.
His first audience
If there is one person Nathan believes gave him the freedom to become who he is, it was his late mother. After immigrating to Israel, she worked four jobs to build a new life for her family and spent years contributing to their community in Ra’anana, including through the family’s synagogue. Nathan remembers accompanying her during school holidays and only later appreciating the dignity with which she approached every job.
Years later, Nathan shared with his mother an email from a hospital explaining that staff were using his videos to encourage patients to get up and move. “Raphi, I’m very proud of you,” she told him. “Please continue what you’re doing.”
That conversation has stayed with him ever since.
But while his mother gave him the confidence to become himself, Nathan said the person who made the journey possible was his wife, Elana. Through the late nights, filming sessions, international tours, and long stretches away from home, she has been the constant behind the scenes, supporting his dream while caring for their two children.
“I honestly couldn’t have done this without her,” he said.
Today, children arrive at his shows wearing turquoise glasses inspired by his trademark look. Parents send photographs of birthday parties themed around DJ Raphi. Thousands dance along in schools and community centers around the world.
Nathan is hesitant to describe himself as a hero. Instead, he hopes children leave with something much simpler.
“Be you. Be awesome.”■