Hailing from New Jersey and now based in Dubai, Nick Santonastasso seems to have lived many lives already at just 28 years of age. From his current work as a motivational speaker and content creator, to achieving internet fame as a viral prankster turned wrestler and bodybuilder, Santonastasso says he is “living on a bonus round”.
He explains: “I was born with a super-rare genetic disorder called Hanhart Syndrome, which either leaves the babies with undeveloped limbs or undeveloped organs. I was the 12th baby in medical history that they’ve ever seen this happen to. Of the 12, eight have passed away. So I’m here living on the bonus round, this is all additional for me.”
Santonastasso now uses his profile to speak openly about mental health and resilience, inspiring others through sharing his experiences.
Reflecting on his childhood, Santonastasso said the sense of difference and “inadequacy” he felt as a teenager drove him to make a drastic change.
‘The minute I sat down on the train, I knew I’d been scammed’: Are the Irish susceptible to con artists?
From Billie Eilish to Electric Picnic: 85 unmissable concerts and festivals in Ireland in 2025
‘That would have never happened in Ireland,’ my boyfriend said after my trip to Australian A&E
Depression came down on me like a terrible cloud. I thought it would never lift, but it did
“Kids are savages. I didn’t really realise I was too different until I got into middle school and high school. I think that’s probably the most judgmental time of our lives regardless of what your physical or mental differences are. From there, that pain of not feeling enough or not feeling like I fit in drove me to make a shift in my life.”
Inspired by his older brother, “who I always looked up to” and who was a wrestler, Santonastasso decided to also become a wrestler. But this decision came at a cost.
I was sometimes not happy, not really comfortable with my body ... I figured if I could become an athlete it would really upgrade my identity, it would give me more confidence, give me more certainty, maybe give me more self-love, make me more comfortable with my body and maybe girls will like me
“In order for me to become a wrestler, I had to amputate 5 inches of my right arm, my right limb, off. It was about 5 inches longer than it is now. My bone was growing faster than my skin. It was super sensitive, and so I made the decision at 16 to amputate 5 inches of my arm off to become a wrestler.”
“That really changed my life,” he says, pointing to the community gained and “deep meaningful brotherhood” forged through the sport.
“Being part of a community, pushing myself physically and mentally, being active, gave me a whole new sense of identity and community. From there, I gained a lot of confidence and started putting myself out on the internet more. I think the internet’s a great tool as long as you don’t let it destroy you.
“Especially where I’m from in the United States, wrestlers were like these badass figures. It was very empowering. I was never really bullied because I had really scary friends that were wrestlers ... Having a deep, meaningful brotherhood goes a long way, especially for men. To be able to suffer alongside brothers is a whole new level of fun.”
Speaking about his work as a men’s mental health advocate, Santonastasso reflects on the impact of his brother’s death.
“Due to the passing of my brother to an overdose, I also got brought into alcohol and drug rehab centres, doing a lot of work with helping people get sober as well.”
Santonastasso says, “We live in a world where we are programmed to not ask for help as men,” emphasising the importance of “breaking the stigma around asking for help and breaking the stigma around doing the deep, meaningful work”.
Before becoming an athlete, Santonastasso struggled with his body image and self esteem.
“I was sometimes not happy, not really comfortable with my body ... I figured if I could become an athlete it would really upgrade my identity, it would give me more confidence, give me more certainty, maybe give me more self-love, make me more comfortable with my body and maybe girls will like me.”
One moment from Santonastasso’s teenage years stuck out to him as being central to this period of self-doubt.
“Most of our beliefs aren’t ours, they’re someone else’s and we pick them up along the way,” he says.
“There was a specific incident when I was 15 years old and I was on a school bus and I was made fun of by a female. From that moment I started to believe the things that she said. That led me to not really going into any of my junior dances and senior proms and parties.”
For Santonastasso, taking control of the mind is key to erasing negative self-talk.
“Our brain is the best detective in the world,” he says, “so it’s always going to try and find evidence to prove your beliefs right. If I have a belief that I’m not attractive, I’m going to find or create the evidence in the world that proves I’m not attractive.
“I always used to think that people were looking at me or making fun of me. So anytime if I was in public and there was a random conversation and people were laughing, I would think it was about me.
“I think we all create our own inadequacies. Regardless of me having insecurities about having no legs and one arm, there’s a 6′2″ jacked guy who has money and is still insecure.”
I basically never felt enough, so I got as many tools as I could so people would finally like me. I figured if I built big things and big followers and big business, I’d finally be loved, and so that’s where a lot of my success came from
From the age of around 12, when Santastasso says he created his first YouTube video – “It was just like me documenting skateboarding or doing something and posting the video online” – social media became a huge part of his life.
“After I became a wrestler I made a profile on the app called Vine. I dressed up as a zombie and I pranked people and I got really famous for that. So my last year of high school I gained about a million followers on Vine, I did some work with the [TV series] Walking Dead and basically had the identity of a prankster.”
As a high schooler, this internet virality came with the burden of being both “immediately exposed to the good side of the internet and the bad side of the internet”.
“I’ve heard every insult under the moon in the comments and that affected me for many years. At this point, I understand that if anything in the external world dictates how I feel internally, I’m a slave to the world.”
Despite the online harassment he faces, Santonastasso says he chooses to treat his trolls with “compassion and grace”.
“You have to realise the people who post negative comments, they’re actually suffering really bad. There’s a new sense of compassion and grace for the haters because they feel so inadequate or they’re so hurt on the inside that they have to project it on to someone else,” he says.
After graduating from high school, Santonastasso moved to Los Angeles for a short period to see if he could forge a career as an internet prankster.
“LA didn’t go as planned, so I moved back in with my parents and pursued bodybuilding ... I figured there wasn’t any man with no legs and one arm bodybuilding – and if I can do it, I can monetise it, make a living out of it and inspire people.”
After successfully making waves online as a bodybuilder, Santonastasso moved from his family home in New Jersey to Florida. Shortly afterwards, he met his current business partner through a mutual friend and “jumped into the world of speaking and communicating”.
“I dedicated eight years of my life to serving others with communication, human behaviour, neuroscience, neurolinguistic programming, inner child healing, like, you name it.”
Santonastasso says much of his motivation to constantly strive for change and self-improvement stems from feelings of unworthiness when he was growing up.
“I basically never felt enough, so I got as many tools as I could so people would finally like me. I figured if I built big things and big followers and big business, I’d finally be loved, and so that’s where a lot of my success came from.”
Public speaking doesn’t come naturally to Santonastasso, he claims, something the audience who saw him take to the stage of Convention Centre Dublin earlier this week to speak at the 2025 Pendulum Summit would surely find hard to believe.
“If people go to my older YouTube videos, you can see how terrible I was,” he says. “I think the big lesson here is that most people aren’t willing to go through the season of suck to be great at something.”
Santonastasso insists he owes much of his success as a speaker to the “great mentors” he looks up to.
“I’m a firm believer that we stand on the shoulders of giants, and the only reason why I’m at this level at 28 is because I had people who are richer and smarter than me trickle down their information so I can collapse time,” he says.
“I think the most dangerous information is the information you don’t know, and so if you find the people who have the information, you do whatever it takes to get that information, you can collapse decades into days.”
Santonastasso consulted ChatGPT to perfect an itinerary for his first visit to Ireland this week, spending the days leading up to his appearance at the Pendulum Summit exploring Dublin.
“I went on ChatGPT and I looked up what are the greatest things you can do in Dublin and it created an itinerary ... Some of the highlights were Dublin Castle, Kilmainham Gaol, Malahide Castle, Powerscourt Gardens, and the Book of Kells. You know, some nerdy things.”
So, having been a viral Vine star, wrestler, bodybuilder and motivational speaker, what’s on the horizon for Santonastasso in 2025? “I’m really excited about releasing my album,” he says.
He says his first song will drop next month, with the album Hello World under the performing name Santo following shortly afterwards.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis