Brian Barcyzk is a reptile breeder and snake conservationist who rose to fame after he started to post vlogs on YouTube featuring one of the world’s largest snake collections that he owns.
Barcyzk is one of the most experienced snakes and reptiles experts on the planet, and he even hosted Discovery channel’s A-tier show, Venom Hunter, which aired for the first time on February 17, 2016.
Love for Snakes Turned Into Career
Brian got his first pet snake when he was a 15-year-old kid and fell in love with the snake elegance so quickly that his collection reached 250 in no time.
When he was 20 years old, Barcyzk decided to drop out of college and pursue snakes and reptiles breeding full-time.
In an exclusive interview with Jobbie Crew, he stated how rare reptile breeding was back in the 1980s.
“In the late 1980’s I started working with reptiles full-time. It was a weird niche at the time. Typically, people who looked like me, the tattoo & ponytail stereotypes, were the only ones who owned snakes. At the time, Tropical Fish Pond (13 Mile Road and Woodward, Warren) was the only store in the Detroit area that carried reptiles. Now all the stores do. And 4-6 million households in the US own snakes.”
Fast forward to now, he has more than 10,000 species of reptiles in his reptarium. Previously, he had over 30,000 species, but he decided to minimize the numbers to give good care to every one of them.
Brian holding a python with renowned music producer Marshmellow (Source: Business Insider)
The people willing to visit his reptarium situated in Detroit are supposed to buy the ticket, which costs them $10 per person, and in exchange, they get a chance to view most exotic collections of reptiles.
He firmly believes that timing played an integral part in his success, and his secret success formula has always been consistency, content, and collaboration. Brian has also launched various merch over time which focuses on promoting awareness about reptiles and snakes.
Brian has a YouTube channel with more than three million subscribers where he uploads his interactions with his pets and various tours of the reptiles nest of his zoo.
As of 2021, Barczyk has a net worth of more than $2 million. The snake fanatic in his 50s is also leading a family life that is as exotic as his reptarium.
Brian Barcyzk's Family Life
Brian resides in Southeast Michigan and shares his love for reptiles through YouTube along with his family members. He has been a married man for nearly three decades and shares a beautiful family of four with his wife, Lori Barczyk.
Even after years of marriage, the duo shares the same chemistry, and Brian never fails to surprise his wife, like the time he gifted her a car in 2019.
His son Noah also shares similar passions and has a definite love of snake and reptile elegance. Noah even has a verified YouTube channel of his own with more than 200k subscribers.
Like his father, he also posts different encounters with snakes and other reptiles, a perfect father-son duo!
Brian’s daughter, Jade, got married in 2017, and he shared a beautiful video where he explained how he felt regarding his baby girl getting married.
A Short Bio
Brian Barczyk was born on September 6, 1969, in Detroit, Michigan, and continues living there. He belongs to the Polish ethnicity raised in Warren, Michigan, and attended Center Line High School.
He found his love for snakes when he was visiting Belle Isle Zoo, and since then, he has become the biggest reptile influencer in the world at present.
