Twitch’s Most ‘Extra’ Streamer is Also an Ivy League Genius
By Kelli Luu | 28 Jul, 2025

Extra Emily is fearless, funny, and has built a career being fully herself. She followed the chaos and it led to internet fame.

She’s the chaos queen on Twitch and you’ve probably seen her interviewing strangers or getting pied on TikTok. This is Extra Emily. She’s saying yes to nearly everything and she’s taking over the internet by just simply being extra. 

Behind the chaos, she’s Emily Zhang. Born in Omaha, Nebraska to Chinese parents, Emily was truly a gifted kid. In high school, she was president of the speech club, student body president, and even learned to play piano. 

In 2016 she accepted admission to Columbia University where she graduated at the top of her class with a degree in financial engineering.

Emily launched her Twitch channel after graduating in May 2020 where she  would play Wii Sports and other Nintendo games. After a few months of consistent streaming, Emily slowly grew her channel and clips from her live streams began to go viral on TikTok. Her dedication was evident as she even did multiple 24-hour streams in order to boost her engagement. 

Extra Emily is known for her genuine kindness, her exciting energy, and completely fearless live content. She challenges strangers to dance battles, attempts new recipes, and spreads positivity everywhere she goes. 

In early 2022 Emily participated in a Twitch game show called “OTK Schooled” hosted by popular streamer Mizkif. She placed second until the first place winner was exposed for cheating and Emily was eventually crowned the winner of OTK Schooled and was awarded $50,000, making her Twitch channel gain 55,000 subscribers in a span of 3 months. 

In 2023 Emily was invited to join Mizkif’s gaming organization One True King as their very first female creator, solidifying her as one of Twitch’s top female streamers. That same year she co-hosted the red carpet at the 2023 Streamer Awards and received the most nominations as she was in the running for a total of 6 awards. 

Earlier this year in May, Emily kept the momentum of her channel going as she served as a “professor” at top streamer, Kai Cenat’s, Streamer University where she placed 7th amongst creators, generating over 1 million views during the live event. 

She went from an Ivy League school to an internet icon with over 730,000 Twitch subscribers today and Extra Emily is showing the world that being unfiltered means being absolutely fearless.