- Dominykas Zeglaitis, known online as Durte Dom, has appeared in dozens of David Dobrik's vlogs.
- The Durte Dom character, a blend of fiction and reality, appears misogynistic and sex-obsessed.
- It's unclear when Zeglaitis plays it up for the camera or is playing a bit for the vlog.
"I'm uncancelable," Dominykas Zeglaitis said in an October 2020 interview.
Five months later, an Insider investigation by reporter Kat Tenbarge unearthed an allegation of rape against the content creator known as "Durte Dom" online. Zeglaitis has all but disappeared from the internet in the wake of Insider's reporting.
Given a platform by his childhood friend and YouTube superstar David Dobrik, Zeglaitis, 25, has a long history of misogyny and controversial behavior, all documented in vlogs.
The Durte Dom character evolved over the four years he appeared as a regular in Dobrik's so-called Vlog Squad videos, which feature a rotating collection of popular YouTubers and former Viners in Dobrik's orbit. Eventually, Zeglaitis' Durte Dom role became an amalgam of Hugh Hefner and an overzealous sex-obsessed 20-something.
Dobrik's vlogs are a combination of sketch and reality, blurring the line between what's real and what's manufactured for clickbait. In the dozens of videos Zeglaitis appears in on Dobrik's channel, it's unclear when he is playing it up for the camera and when he is actually being himself.
Reviewing YouTube videos featuring Zeglaitis in the wake of sexual-assault allegations paints a picture of a group that was so focused on creating content that they ignored possible red flags along the way.
Durte Dom was there from the start but evolved with the Vlog Squad
Zeglaitis is one of Dobrik's oldest childhood friends from Vernon Hills, Illinois, and can be seen in the first videos on his channel in 2015.
There's "Cool Intro" and "Drove Cross Country for In-N-Out" that were created before the vlogs officially started, featuring Zeglaitis as himself, without the pink bandana or sexual innuendos he would soon become known for on Dobrik's channel.
By the third video, "Epic Roommate Prank," the pair had moved to LA and the persona started to take shape. In the video, Dobrik dons a long-haired wig and pretends to give fellatio to Zeglaitis in their roommate's bed in an effort to prank her.
Zeglaitis soon became a key player in the Vlog Squad, frequently appearing in the 4-minute-and-20-second vlogs posted multiple times weekly on Dobrik's channel.
After appearing a half-dozen times as Zeglaitis, his persona, "Durte Dom," becomes defined as a drug dealer. In multiple vlogs throughout 2015, he made jokes about his phony career, with claims that he "just got back from prison" and that "drugs are the key to life."
The character was extremely important to Dobrik's vlogs, with several of his own Vlog Squad inside jokes. In the video "PAPPARAZZI!!?," a running joke that would last for years is born, as Dobrik gives Zeglaitis the chance to shout out his social-media handles, only to cut him off before the clip finishes.
2015 vlogs feature bits where Zeglaitis yells for "sluts" off his balcony, asks if the latest iPhone can test for "AIDS and Chlamydia," and shows stacks of money, while Dobrik asks if he earned it from "selling drugs."
Dobrik said in another vlog, "HE CALLED THE POLICE!!," that Zeglaitis never drank or did drugs in high school, but "the second he moved out here he completely changed."
As the drug-using persona evolved, the idea that Zeglaitis was sex-obsessed became essential to his character.
In a 2016 vlog, Dobrik asks Zeglaitis where he "sees himself in 20 years." Roommate Alex Ernst replies, "Probably knocking on his neighbor's door saying, 'Hey, I'm a sexual predator.'"
Later that year, the vlogs became extremely successful, averaging four to seven million views a video. Zeglaitis capitalized on his new brand, dying his hair and talking about marijuana in every scene. 2016's "BEDROOM CAMERA FOOTAGE!!" shows Dobrik and Ernst knocking on Zeglaitis' door. Zeglaitis appears shirtless with a "girl in his room" and says he is showing her his "birthday cards."
Like many other "Vlog Squad" moments, it's not clear whether this bit is staged or if Dobrik really walked in on his roommate for content.
As Dobrik's vlogs grew, so did Durte Dom and his brand
By late 2016, the Durte Dom persona had fully formed and Zeglaitis had created his own YouTube channel. Now equipped with bright-blonde (then pink) hair, he posted pranks and his own vlogs sometimes featuring Dobrik and other members of the Vlog Squad.
Views on the channel were consistently in the six-figure range. Zeglaitis used videos of himself kissing women — including celebrity cameo Kylie Jenner and Vlog Squad member Corinna Kopf — as clickbait, which caused view surges. He would also attempt publicity stunts, like asking his fans to pay $2,000 to take him to prom.
—DURTE DOM (@durtedom) April 1, 2017May 2017's "WHO IS HIS NEW GIRL!!?" featured a bit where Dobrik walks into a room of two-dozen people, which Dobrik says is "all of the girls Dom has hooked up with" at UCLA. This vlog then features interviews with two women who claimed to have actually "hooked up" with Zeglaitis.
"It wasn't my choice, honestly," one says, prompting Dobrik to respond, "That's what every girl says when they hook up with Dom." Dobrik then asks the other girl "What about Dom turns you on?" and she says, "He was straight forward" and then after an editing cut says, "He just came up and did what he wanted."
While posting on his own channel, Zeglaitis still appeared in many of Dobrik's vlogs. One March 2017 video featured a room full of children in their shared apartment, as the kids chanted for Ernst to take his shirt off. Zeglaitis asked if any of their moms could come upstairs, and said that he could "out smoke" all the kids.
The channel uploaded videos frequently throughout 2017, pausing briefly in June of that year after Zeglaitis was accused of sexual misconduct by YouTuber Elijah Daniel. But by the next month, he was back to posting vlogs with Dobrik in their hometown.
