Popular YouTube personality Keenan Cahill has died at the age of 27, according to reports.
Cahill found viral fame as a teenager in 2010 when his lip-synch videos to hit songs started to gain traction online.
His first lip sync video was to the Katy Perry hit Teenage Dream – from there, he developed a celebrity following, with celebrities including Perry, Jennifer Aniston, 50 Cent, Flo Rida and Jason DeRulo appearing alongside him in his YouTube videos.
Stream more entertainment news live & on demand with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer available for a limited time only >
Chicago news station WGN9 first reported the news of Cahill’s death, saying that a spokesperson for his family had confirmed he’d passed away on Thursday aged 27.
The outlet said Cahill, born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, had become “friends” with WGN over the years and described him as “one of the first internet sensations.”
Cahill was born with Maroteaux – Lamy syndrome and stood at just 127cm tall. He had a bone-marrow transplant in 1997 in an attempt to halt the progression of the disease.
Cahill revealed that his health problems were continuing in social media posts in the weeks leading up to his death, telling his followers that he was booked in for open heart surgery on December 15.
“One week til open heart surgery … wish me luck, love y’all,” he wrote, in a post that is now flooded with comments mourning his death.
“For those who are asking. December 15th is the date of the surgery,” read what was to be his final Instagram post.
No cause of death has been publicly released at this time.
In recent years, Cahill had turned his attention to DJing, posting his final song on YouTube three weeks ago.