On January 23, 2012, Ian Davies uploaded a yearbook photo of his childhood friend Kyle Craven to Reddit3. The two had attended Archbishop Hoban High School together in Akron, Ohio3. The photo dated back to the 2005-06 school year, when Craven was in seventh grade. Before the picture was taken, Craven deliberately rubbed his face with his sweater to make it red and put on a goofy grin3. The school principal wasn't amused and made him retake the photo, but Craven and Davies had already scanned the original3.

Davies posted the image with the caption "Takes driving test... gets first DUI," but it barely registered, pulling fewer than 5 upvotes2. Later that same day, someone else posted a version with the caption "Tries to stealthily fart in class / shits," and that one hit the front page of /r/AdviceAnimals, racking up over 3,300 upvotes within two months2.

Bad Luck Brian was one of the defining advice animals of the early 2010s meme era, alongside Scumbag Steve, Overly Attached Girlfriend, and Success Kid. The format helped establish the image macro as the dominant meme format on Reddit during that period.

BuzzFeed called one Bad Luck Brian post its most-read article in the site's history at the time1. The meme crossed over into mainstream advertising through deals with Volkswagen, McDonald's, and The General insurance3. Craven's 2012 Reddit AMA debacle, where the moderator's removal comment became one of the most downvoted in the site's history, showed how seriously the Reddit community took its meme celebrities2.

The NFT sale in 2021, fetching around $36,000, placed Bad Luck Brian among the meme NFTs that traded during the digital collectibles boom3. The 2026 locker room dedication at his former high school shows the meme's legacy reaching back into the physical world where it started3.

Bad Luck Brian's rise from a forgotten yearbook photo to internet fame happened in a matter of weeks, but its afterlife stretched across a full decade.

The first real test of the meme's cultural reach came on April 11, 2012, when someone claiming to be Bad Luck Brian tried to do an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit. A moderator removed the thread and left a lengthy explanation that backfired spectacularly, receiving more than 35,000 downvotes and becoming one of the most downvoted comments in Reddit history at the time2. Kyle Craven returned on May 8 with a proper AMA on the Advice Animals subreddit, which earned 24,722 upvotes2. During that thread, Craven revealed the photo was from seventh grade, confirmed his name was Kyle, and shared that his real life was actually pretty lucky. He'd won an Xbox 360 and a PSP within two weeks of each other, and actor Seth Rogen had once recognized him in public2.

A recurring joke format emerged where the bottom caption stayed constant across variations. After the original "shits" punchline went viral, dozens of derivatives used the same bottom text with different setups2. This kind of template locking was common in advice animal culture but worked especially well with Bad Luck Brian because the character's misfortune could be applied to virtually any scenario.

In 2013, Craven appeared in a YouTube sketch alongside Overly Attached Girlfriend, another advice animal celebrity, playing out a date between the two meme characters3. The collaboration pushed Craven to create his own YouTube channel and set up accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter3.

The commercial opportunities followed. Bad Luck Brian showed up on T-shirts, stuffed animals, and novelty items sold through Walmart and Hot Topic3. Volkswagen used Craven in an ad campaign3. In October 2018, McDonald's released an advertisement featuring Craven discussing his meme fame in connection with their "Trick. Treat. Win!" game, which offered 1-in-4 odds of winning prizes2. The ad's Reddit tie-in featured an updated image macro reading "Wins Free McFlurry Instantly / Instant Brain Freeze," which hit /r/CorporateFacepalm and earned over 1,100 upvotes2.

By 2023, Craven was still making appearances, starring in a commercial for The General insurance alongside Shaquille O'Neal3. Including licensing deals and merchandise, Craven estimated he'd earned about $20,000 within three years starting from 20153.

The meme entered the NFT era in March 2021, when Craven sold a Bad Luck Brian NFT for approximately $36,0003. Later that year, he appeared in a Slovak viral campaign for Klostermann Orthodontics promoting clear aligners, created by agency Kreatívna Dvojica, which won several advertising awards3.

In 2026, Craven revealed that the boys' locker room at Archbishop Hoban High School had been renamed "The Bad Luck Brian Honorary Boys Locker Room," complete with the rejected yearbook photo on the sign3.

Throughout all of this, Craven kept a day job. He holds a Bachelor of Science in construction management from Kent State University and works as vice president of his family's construction company in Bath Township, Ohio3.