Herschel " Guy" Beahm IV (born March10, 1982), better known as Dr Disrespect or The Doc, is an American live streamer. He became known for playing battle royale games such as , H1Z1, and on Twitch and YouTube. While streaming, he takes a bombastic persona. He has invested in game studios, including founding the Midnight Society.
In June 2020, Beahm was permanently banned from Twitch for then-undisclosed reasons. He returned to streaming on YouTube a month later. In June 2024, former Twitch employees disclosed that his ban was due to inappropriately messaging a minor using Twitch's Whisper feature in 2017, although no criminal charges were filed and Beahm has stated that nothing criminal happened. He later apologised to his family, fans, and all involved. YouTube demonetized and suspended his channel from the platform's partner program, and his partnerships were suspended. In November 2024, Beahm signed a deal to stream on Rumble and become an advisor for its gaming category. His YouTube channel was remonetized in January 2025.
Beahm began playing and Halo 2 in college and became known in the Halo community while using the gamertag "Diarrhea Panic" for his trash talking via the game's proximity chat.
In February 2011, Beahm announced that he was taking a hiatus to be hired, on March 16, as the community manager of Sledgehammer Games. At Sledgehammer, he expanded his role to include Level designer for in 2014.
Under his Dr Disrespect persona, Beahm gained a significant following for playing battle royale games, starting in 2016 with H1Z1 before switching to and then mode; he had also livestreamed gameplay of Apex Legends, , Fortnite Battle Royale, and Fall Guys. His stream of PUBG: Battlegrounds on February 5, 2018, reached a total of 388,000 concurrent viewers, nearing Tyler1's record of 410,000. His high viewership numbers led to sponsorship deals with Gillette, Asus, Roccat, and Game Fuel, among others. On January 10, 2019, Creative Artists Agency signed Beahm as a client. According to a June 2024 Rolling Stone report, he had not been a client since at least months prior.
Beahm has faced controversy for various on-stream comments. One significant incident involved his uses of caricatured Eastern Asian accents and language. Musician Jimmy Wong compiled a series of clips highlighting these instances during his livestreams, accusing him of racism. He responded by stating that he has Asian friends and dismissing the criticism as "laughable".
On June 11, 2019, Dr Disrespect's Twitch channel was suspended as he was livestreaming while attending the 2019 edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Beahm and his cameraman went into a public restroom (he re-entered the restroom on two occasions, with filming still going on) at the venue in violation of Twitch's privacy rules. E3 organizer Entertainment Software Association revoked Dr Disrespect's E3 pass, banning him from the event. Twitch reinstated his channel on June 25.
Beahm criticized Twitch for banning him, claiming that it cost him "a lot of sponsorships". He also claimed that he declined a "gracious" $10 million annual offer to stream on Kick, an alternative platform known for hosting controversial content creators, because his demand for $50 million was not met. Allegations eventually emerged in June 2024 that Beahm had sent sexually explicit messages to a minor. Though no proof has ever surfaced, former Twitch director of strategic partnerships (Cody Conners) tweeted on June 21 that he "got caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch whispers product" in 2017. Beahm denied the allegations, stating that he did "nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid". On a livestream of Elden Ring, he considered leaving his business ventures, saying that he was "burnt out" by the allegations. He later acknowledged that some of his messages could be loosely deemed "inappropriate,"; that statement was removed in August, and he tweeted afterwards that "we have lots to talk about".
A single anonymous former Twitch employee alleged to Rolling Stone that the statement was inaccurate, characterizing the messages as "sexually graphic" and that Beahm kept sending these messages even after being made aware the individual was underage. The Anonymous former Twitch employee was unable to provide any tangible proof of their claims.
In response, YouTube temporarily suspended Beahm's access to YouTube's monetization features. His partnerships with FanDuel, Midnight Society (a game studio he helped found), Turtle Beach and other sponsors were also suspended. Just prior to YouTube's suspension of monetization on Beahm's channel, the platform's former global head of gaming partnerships at Google, Ryan Wyatt, confirmed to Rolling Stone that Beahm was not offered a contract due to the potential for negative press related to Beahm's Twitch ban.
On September 6, 2024, Beahm returned to streaming on YouTube, denied the allegations and stated that neither he "nor the Twitch user exchanged any sexually graphic messages or images". He also explained to viewers that Conners does not participate in Twitch investigations, "didn't have any firsthand knowledge about my dispute with Twitch," and was thus lying.
Twitch's internal procedures include processes for reporting sexually explicit conversations with minors to law enforcement. The alleged messages, and Beahm were never reported to any law enforcement authority. Lending truth to Beahm's claims that nothing sexually explicit was ever exchanged. While live on stream, Doc additionally noted he never intended to meet anyone at TwitchCon, did not go to TwitchCon, and further accused the former Twitch community manager of targeting him. Later that month his remonetization request to YouTube was denied but was eventually re-monetized in early 2025 after moving to Rumble.
In October 2024, Beahm released a line of merchandise with the slogan "Make Gaming Great Again"
On January 30, 2025, Beahm's YouTube channel was reinstated for monetization. In a statement provided to PC Gamer, YouTube said, "Dr Disrespect was previously suspended from the YouTube Partner Program for violations of our Creator Responsibility policies. Creators who are suspended from this program can reapply for access, and after careful review of the channel's recent activity, we've reinstated it."
While playing as Dr Disrespect, he wears a black mullet wig, sunglasses, a red or black long-sleeved athletic shirt, and a red or black tactical vest. He sports a mustache he has nicknamed "The Poisonous Ethiopian Caterpillar". Members of his family, if they make an appearance during a livestream, are also occasionally mentioned as part of the Dr Disrespect persona, with his wife portraying "Mrs. Assassin" and their daughter as "Baby Assassin" or "Baby Disrespect".
In May 2021, Beahm invested in Bright Star Studios for the developers' massively multiplayer online role-playing game named Ember Sword.
In December, Beahm announced the launch of a game studio, Midnight Society, to be headed by him along with Call of Duty and Halo veterans Robert Bowling and Quinn DelHoyo. Their in-development free-to-play battle royale title, codenamed Project Moon and later Dead Drop and DEADROP, sparked criticism around the sale of "Founder's Access" NFTs which allow owners to provide input on the development of the game. On June 24, 2024, he was terminated from the studio after learning about the allegation of sending inappropriate messages to a minor. In January 2025, Midnight Studio was closed on the same day that Beahm was remonetized from his YouTube channel.
In June 2024, shortly after the reason for Beahm's Twitch ban was revealed, 2K Sports removed all content in NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K24 featuring him including his character model, related elements from MyCareer mode, and his custom dunk and jump shot animations.
In August, Beahm announced that he was writing a personal memoir called Violence. Speed. Momentum. about Dr Disrespect's Pourquoi story. The book, fictitiously Ghostwriter by "Nigel P. Farnsworth III", was published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, on March 30, 2021.
A fan of the San Francisco 49ers, Beahm collaborated with the San Francisco-based NFL team starting in early 2020. At the 2022 NFL draft, he announced in the 3rd round that the 49ers selected running back Tyrion Davis-Price from LSU. He was seen at the wild-card game between the 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks on January 14, 2023, at Levi's Stadium, where he sounded the team's ceremonial foghorn. Beahm's character was featured in several social media posts and videos from the team during the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In June 2024, the team suspended relations with Beahm after revelations he inappropriately messaged a minor.
Beahm is a fan of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, seen at games as Dr Disrespect at Oracle Arena and Chase Center.
2020 | Rogue Company | Dr Disrespect | Voice; removed in a patch |
2021 | PUBG Mobile | Voice | |
2022 | NBA 2K23 | Voice; removed in a patch | |
2023 | NBA 2K24 |
2017 | Esports Industry Awards | Streamer of the Year | ||
The Game Awards | Trending Gamer | |||
2019 | Esports Awards | Streamer of the Year | ||
2021 |
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