A new Apple documentary explores the life of Aziz “Zyzz” Shavershian, who rocketed to internet fame in an age before influencers, then died at age 22 in 2011.

In time, the teenager’s chiseled physique gave him the confidence to develop an online persona that had little in common with the gentle and goofy kid that his friends and family knew. This would be Zyzz, a brash raver who strutted, mugged, danced, and flexed shirtless in front of his webcam while asking if viewers were “mirin’” (that is, admiring his body) and exhorting other men to chase their self-improvement goals. By 2010, his videos had made him an Australian celebrity with fans around the globe.

And as of August 2011, he was dead in Thailand, at the age of 22.

Shavershian’s brief and tragic life is the basis of a new documentary, Poster Boy: Becoming Zyzz, now available on Apple TV and Prime Video. But this keenly nuanced film is more than the familiar tale of an ambitious youth who pursued fame at all costs. It also reckons with the digital forces that could produce a person like Zyzz in the first place, and how his preternatural instincts for navigating a brand-new media ecosystem anticipated an entire generation of masculinity influencers.