Alan Melikdjanian (/ˌmɛlɪkˈdʒeɪniən/;[2] Russian: Алан Меликджанян; born April 13, 1980), known by the alias Captain Disillusion, is a Latvian-born American independent filmmaker and YouTuber.

Alan toured the Soviet Union with his parents until he was six years old, after which he lived with his grandmother while attending school.

[4] His parents defected to the United States in the late 1980s; he joined them two years later,[3] attending the William H. Turner Technical Arts High School in Miami, where he studied video production and 3D animation.

[10][11] On the channel, he debunks viral and paranormal "hoax" videos, among others, with a heavy focus on visual effects.

[12] He edits his videos using software such as Avid Media Composer, Adobe After Effects, Blender, and DaVinci Resolve.

[13] In his videos, Melikdjanian wears a vintage 1980s tracksuit, with the bottom half of his face being covered in metallic paint.

[16] Melikdjanian's work has gained recognition from The Huffington Post,[17] Kotaku,[18] Russian TV International, Phil Plait,[19] the James Randi Educational Foundation,[20] Fortean Times,[21] Home Media Magazine,[7] and Sun Sentinel,[22] among others.

[23] He started this effort as a blog entry on Myspace but later saw these items as ready made scripts for short videos.

He notes that Penn & Teller were instrumental to his current interest and eventually found the skeptical movement involved in similar work.

"[25] In a 2017 interview with Richard Saunders from The Skeptic Zone, Melikdjanian described the video effects editing process, saying:[26] You know, the tools change but the methods really don't.

I guess that's good for me because I get to explain lots of stuff but I wish people could finally strike that balance where they're not too credulous but they also know not to just dismiss everything out of hand.