Meet the New Faces of MTV’s ‘TRL’ Reboot

Beginning Oct. 2 at 3:30 p.m. ET, MTV’s rebooted TRL will once again air from its original Times Square studio, to which 6,000 square feet and more windows have been added. “TRL was social media before social media existed,” says Nina Diaz, head of unscripted programming for the cable network.

And its relaunch will be even more social: DC Young Fly will host a TRL “squad” that includes influencers Tamara Dhia and Amy Phan, and viewers will be able to register requests via Facebook, musical.ly and other platforms.

DC YOUNG FLY

Age: 25

Social Swag: 5.2 million Instagram followers

Bio: The Atlanta comic, born John Whitfield, first went viral roasting Drake on Vine. He has appeared on Nick Cannon Presents: Wild ’N Out and appeared in BET’s New Edition miniseries.

Dream Guests: “I want Eminem, Rihanna, Denzel Washington and Barack Obama. Everybody else is a plus.”

 

Who’s ready for @trl ??? Shit finna b littt #mtv

A post shared by Raised In ATL..DC4L RIP RICHIE (@dcyoungfly) on Sep 29, 2017 at 8:44am PDT

AMY PHAM

Age: 26

Social Swag: 16 million Facebook views for a video set to “Uptown Funk!”

Bio: The DJ and social-media star has performed with Snoop Dogg and modeled for Nike and CoverGirl, and hosts a fashion program on Disney’s Maker Studios channel.

Her TRL Pantheon: “Avril Lavigne and Michelle Branch; they were my thing.”

 

welp i am pretty freaking excited to go to the @mtv #vmas this sunday!!!! anyone wanna come with?? retweet @trl on twitter for a chance to win tix to the show!(& they already told me i can come they can’t take it back no matter how many fart jokes i make)

A post shared by Amy Pham (@iamamypham) on Aug 25, 2017 at 11:17am PDT

TAMARA DHIA

Age: Declined to disclose

Social Swag: 44,300 Instagram followers

Bio: Born in Baghdad and raised in Nashville, Dhia — a professed sneakerhead — worked until recently as an anchor-producer for Complex, where she interviewed Zayn Malik and Kylie Jenner.

Dream Guest: “Rihanna. She just does not give a fuck, and you never know what she’s going to do.”

 

when I was a kid, I used to watch @TRL religiously. i would pretend to be a “VJ” alongside Carson Daly and LaLa using the tv remote as my microphone. my brothers would make fun of me but I didn’t care. fast forward to 2017, not only is it back but I am now a TRL host standing on this stage where so many iconic pop culture moments happened. i can’t believe this is real life. my dream has now become a reality and I’m so damn grateful that after all those years what people said was true…hard work pays off. so if you’re reading this, keep grinding. and never let anyone make you believe that what you want isn’t possible. it’s yours for the taking…hustle now, shine later.

A post shared by TAMARA DHIA (@tamaradhia) on Sep 27, 2017 at 4:50pm PDT

This story originally appeared in the Oct. 7 issue of Billboard.