Introduction
Joe Penna (Birth name Jônatas de Moura Penna) (born May 29, 1987 in São Paulo), known online as MysteryGuitarMan, is a Brazilian filmmaker. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
YouTube
Penna maintains the YouTube channel MysteryGuitarMan. He uploads one or two videos every month. He is a member of the Big Frame network, and participated in the network's BAMMO channel. In January 2011, he was the most subscribed YouTuber in Brazil. As of September 2014 his channel has over 2.8 million subscribers, and his videos have been viewed over 340 million times. On September 11, 2005, Penna started a second YouTube channel, jp, where he uploads his making-of videos and vlogs. Within 6 hours, it became the third most subscribed channel in Brazil.
Press
In 2007, Penna received media coverage, including attention from DC Fox News, after his "The Puzzle" video was featured on the front page of YouTube.
In 2009, Penna was again seen on the front page of YouTube with his "Guitar: Impossible" video, which has been covered by De Wereld Draait Door, the highest-rated primetime show in the Netherlands. On December 6, 2009, Penna was featured on FM4, an Austrian national radio station. Shortly after uploaded, his "Guitar: Impossible" video was featured on the MSN.com front page.
Best Buy announced Penna as the $15,000 winner of their Tech-U-Out Video Challenge. He was also a finalist in the "Oreo Global Moments" video competition. Ford selected Penna as a Fiesta Agent for the 2009 Ford Fiesta Movement. Penna's "Guitar: Impossible" video was also featured by YouTube as one of the best videos of 2009.
In 2010, Penna's "Root Beer Mozart" was featured on CNN's morning show Morning Express with Robin Meade and on Germany's nationally broadcast Taff show. Penna's collaboration with YouTubers Rhett and Link and Billy Reid for "T-Shirt War" garnered national attention. Following the success of the original, Penna and the original cast were hired to produce a national television and cinema spot for Coca-Cola and McDonald's.
In June 2010, Penna was highlighted by CNN Money on their Best Jobs series. On June 24, Penna was selected as one of the top 10 new directors of 2010 at the 20th Cannes Lions Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase with "T-Shirt War". "Guitar: Impossible" was selected for the YouTube Play Shortlist, which is a collaboration between YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum. In 2012, Penna wrote and directed an original interactive thriller series entitled Meridian starring Orlando Jones and Rick Overton in conjunction with Fourth Wall Studios.
In August 2014, Penna was announced by Steve Rotfeld Productions as the host of Xploration Earth 2050, a technology-oriented television series for its syndicated educational programming block Xploration Station.