Lights, Camera, AP History

In 2025, over a million students took at least one Advanced Placement exam.

That also happens to be the number of people subscribed to Heimler’s History, a YouTube channel that posts AP exam review videos on U.S. history, world history, human geography, government, and European history.

Watching the channel’s polished animations and reading comments from its engaged (even enraptured) fans, it might be hard to believe that the man behind the media, Steve Heimler, never set out to be a well-known YouTuber.

“I just sort of accidentally ended up doing this,” Heimler says, adding that his life, like many, didn’t arrange itself in a clear, neat path. “All I know is, I’ve lived my life in a circle, a spiral—any number of twists and turns.”

Those very twists and turns took him from the University of Georgia to ministry to the classroom, and finally, to an unexpected spot in front of the camera.

From UGA to Internet Fame

Heimler was the first member of his family to go to college when he enrolled at Kennesaw State University. After a few years there, though, he “had to go see about a girl.”

Joining his soon-to-be-fiancée at UGA in 2001, he quickly fell in with a close-knit community of friends and found his voice in classes as a speech communication major in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

“It has always just blown my mind what is happening when we communicate,” Heimler says, noting that the ability to take complex ideas and express them to others sometimes feels like a miracle. “That’s why I chose that degree, because I wanted to be able to harness that magic.”

After graduating in 2003, Heimler used those communication skills first as a pastor, having started a small church in Roswell, then as a history teacher.

“It was a very small school, so I was the entire history department. I taught AP U.S., AP World, AP European, AP Government.”

Then, over a lunch-break conversation with another teacher, he learned that homeschool students in Georgia’s suburbs often relied on curriculum videos to study for those same AP exams. Heimler had made skateboarding videos with friends in middle school and filmed a few skits while at UGA, so he thought, “Dang, I could do that. That sounds fun.”

Heimler Takes the Stress out of Taking Tests

Having refined his craft and found an audience as a YouTube creator, Heimler went full time in 2023, dedicating his working hours to writing scripts, shooting and reshooting (and reshooting) lines, planning animations, and coordinating with other AP teachers to ensure his content’s accuracy. He once wrote 250,000 words of video scripts—the equivalent of three novels—in just nine months to overhaul one curriculum set.

For Heimler, all that effort is worth it, and not just because of his growing subscriber count. More than his channel’s success, what’s important to Heimler is that his work helps students feel reassured and capable as they head into test day.

“This is not about me, this is about you,” Heimler says. “I want you to feel confident when that little bar finishes at the end of the video.”

In an in-person classroom, Heimler explained, providing that reassurance is somewhat straightforward, since a teacher can get to know students’ lives, struggles, and needs on a personal level. YouTube doesn’t provide that face-to-face opportunity, but Heimler believes he can still serve students and help them feel like someone’s got their back before their exam, even if that happens through a screen.

“All I really want is for a student who feels panicky about whatever this topic is, and finds me, I just want the very first thing going on in their minds and their hearts to be ‘Oh, I’m in good hands.’”

Looking back, he believes his UGA speech communication degree has been key in helping him accomplish that goal. “I’m actually so grateful that I spent the time that I did learning how to articulate what is in my mind so people can understand it and feel served by it.”