Nasim Najafi Aghdam (Farsi: نسيم نجفى اقدم; also known as Vegan Nasim on YouTube, April 4, 1979 - April 3, 2018) was a Persian YouTuber and animal rights Activist based in southern California. [9] She identified as a "female Vegan Bodybuilder [...] promoting healthy and humane living."

She gained notoriety after she shot and injured three people in the YouTube Headquarters shooting.

Nasim was born in Iran to Armenian and Azerbijan parents. She and her family moved to the United States in 1996.

According to police authorities, who received two different search warrants, she lived in her family's home in Menifee, California and at the Dove Canyon Apartments in San Diego where Aghdam lived with her grandmother.

She spent time training to be a Pilot, according to public records.

At an early age, she considered herself to be a humanitarian, thinking about animal welfare while refusing to eat meat or wear animal fur.

As an early adult, she became an animal rights advocate. She had a personal website dedicated to animal rights issues and veganism. She famously protested for against the US Marines' killing of pigs in military exercise. She stated to the San Diego Union Tribune , “For me, animal rights equal human rights.”

At one point, while she was living in San Diego, Aghdam established an animal rights charity called Peace Thunder Inc. to educate people about animal cruelty, as well as environmental pollution.

In 2010, Nasim started a website called Nasimesabz advocating for veganism. She used different social media tools and methods to promote her causes, including YouTube and Instagram.

She had a video section on her website, as well, where she embedded videos from her YouTube channel, as well as videos from other channels that promoted her cause; most of the videos from other channels included recorded incidents of people torturing animals.

There were also some inspirational videos uploaded to her 'Videos' section, including the music video of Michael Jackson's "Earth Song" and a video of Bill Clinton discussing why he went vegan.

In addition, she posted videos of her working out.

Nasim created her primary YouTube channel on September 19, 2010. She gained over 1.5 million views on her channel, along with over 4,500 subscribers. In her YouTube channel's About section, she claimed to produce the first Persian TV commercial and music video; the latter was entitled "Do You Dare." Her videos' themes centralized around animal rights and veganism.

In addition, she owned a second channel where she posted content in Turkish. That channel had over 10,000 subscribers and over 2.3 million views.

In January 2017, she made a video venting about her content being "discriminated and filtered."

She also posted photos on her website alluding to how YouTube had demonetized many of her videos.

She also wrote a manifesto and ranted frequently about her content being censored by YouTube. She posted the following on her website:

In another passage she wrote:

On April 3, 2018, Aghdam was identified as the suspect who opened fire at YouTube's headquarters in San Bruno, California.

She approached an outdoor patio and dining area and began to fire.

Aghdam did not have an ID badge but was carrying a purse.

Nobody in the facility knew who she was.

They added that Aghdam got off 30 or 40 shots before turning the gun on herself.

According to law enforcement authorities, she was wearing a dark top and head scarf at the time of the shooting.

Authorities stated that she was a user of the platform.

Aghdam had a website with an alleged manifesto that targets YouTube for censorship and demonetization of her video content.

A possible motivation for the shooting could have been tied to her many YouTube accounts, which she says have seen a decline in viewership over the past few months.