How to Cite a YouTube Video in MLA (Plus Movies, TV and TED Talks)

MLA 9 doesn't have a separate rule for every website. It uses the same core elements for every source: author, title, container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, date and location. So when you work out how to cite a YouTube video in MLA, you need the creator, the video title, YouTube as the container, the uploader if it's someone else, the upload date and the URL.

Paste the YouTube link into the citation maker above: it fills in the title, channel and upload date, then check that MLA video citation against the table below. The free MLA Citation Maker also has a film or video source type you can fill in by hand.

When the creator and the uploader are the same

Many videos are made by the channel that posts them, such as a vlogger, a science channel or a band. In that case, list the creator once, at the start, as the author. Don't repeat the name after "uploaded by." Purdue OWL's guide to MLA electronic sources says if the author's name matches the uploader, cite it only once.

When you can't tell who made it

If a channel reposts a clip and no creator is named, start the entry with the title and keep "uploaded by" and the channel name after YouTube. Your parenthetical citation then uses a short form of the title in quotation marks.

Every Works Cited entry needs a matching citation in your paper. For a video, the MLA video citation in your sentence is the first word or name of the entry, plus a time stamp when you point to a specific moment. Videos have no page numbers, so the time stamp does that job.

How to in-text cite a video in MLA

If the entry starts with a person, use the last name: (McGonigal). If it starts with a title, use the title or a short version of it: (“Chapter One”). You can also name the creator in your sentence and leave only the time in parentheses. The guide to MLA in-text citations covers signal phrases, short titles and punctuation for every kind of source.

Formatting a time stamp

In an MLA video citation, give the range of hours, minutes and seconds you're referring to, as shown on the video player, with a hyphen between the start and end: (00:02:15-00:02:35). Purdue OWL's in-text page uses this form for media with a runtime. Many writers shorten the second time to the part that changes, as in (00:02:15-35), a common shortening that mirrors MLA number ranges. If a short video has no hours, many instructors accept 02:15-02:35. Pick one form and use it every time.

Quoting from a video works like quoting from a book, except that a time stamp replaces the page number. Learning how to quote a video in MLA comes down to three things: a signal phrase, the exact words and a citation in the right place.

How to quote a YouTube video in MLA

1. Introduce the speaker with a signal phrase, such as "Game designer Jane McGonigal argues."
2. Transcribe the words exactly. Turn on captions to check them, since auto-captions are often wrong.
3. Put the citation after the closing quotation mark and before the period: … "a quote from the talk" (McGonigal 00:01:15-40).

Speaker vs. creator

A common snag in how to quote a video in MLA: sometimes the person you quote isn't the author in your entry. If you quote a scientist interviewed in a news channel's video, name the scientist in your sentence and cite the entry's first element in parentheses. For example: the climate scientist interviewed in the clip explains that … (“Title of Video” 00:03:02-10). That keeps the trail clear for your reader.

Long quotations

The rules for how to quote a video in MLA also cover long quotations. If a quotation runs more than four lines in your paper, set it off as a block quotation, indented half an inch with no quotation marks. The time stamp goes after the final period. See the guide on MLA block quotes for the full format.

A film is a single work, so its title goes in italics. That answers a common search: yes, in MLA format the title of a movie is italicized, both in your sentences and in the Works Cited list. How to cite a movie in MLA depends on what your paper focuses on.

Title first: the film as a whole

The simplest answer to how to cite a movie in MLA is to start with the title, which you do when you discuss the story, themes or the film in general. Then give the director after "Directed by," the main distributor or studio, and the release year: Get Out. Directed by Jordan Peele, Universal Pictures, 2017. You can add performers after the director with "performance by" if they matter to your point.

Director or actor first: your focus is a person

If your paper is about a director's choices, start with that person, last name first, followed by a description of the role: Peele, Jordan, director. Get Out. Universal Pictures, 2017. A paper about a performance can begin with the actor and "performer." Purdue OWL's page on other common sources shows both forms for films.

Which studio to list

Knowing how to cite a movie in MLA also means picking the right company. Use the company that produced or distributed the film, which you can find on the poster, the opening credits or the back of the disc. If several companies are named, list the main one.

How to cite a film in text MLA style depends on how your Works Cited entry begins. The rule is the same as for books: the first thing in the entry is what goes in your parentheses.

Title-first entries

If the entry begins with Get Out, cite (Get Out) or, for a specific scene, (Get Out 00:45:10-30). Keep the title in italics inside the parentheses.

Director-first entries

This is the other half of how to cite a film in text MLA papers. If the entry begins with "Peele, Jordan, director," the citation becomes (Peele 00:45:10-30). The name must match the first word of the entry.

Mentioning the film in your sentence

Often you'll name the film in the sentence itself: "In Get Out, the hypnosis scene turns a teacup into a threat." Then the parenthetical citation holds only the time stamp, or nothing at all if you're describing the film generally. This is the most readable way to handle how to cite a film in text MLA papers, especially in film-analysis essays where you mention the title often.

TV episodes have two titles, so they use two kinds of styling. The episode title goes in quotation marks because it's part of a larger work. The series title goes in italics because it's the container.

Streaming services: Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Max

For a show you watched on a streaming service, give the episode title, the series title, the season and episode numbers, the service, and the release date: “Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers.” Stranger Things, season 1, episode 1, Netflix, 15 July 2016. If you want to credit the creators, add "created by" and their names after the series title.

Broadcast and cable episodes

For a show that first aired on a network, the network replaces the streaming service, and the date is the original air date: “Diversity Day.” The Office, season 1, episode 2, NBC, 29 Mar. 2005. If you watched it later on a streaming site, you can add that site as a second container at the end, with its URL.

A movie on a streaming service

The rules for how to cite a movie in MLA barely change on streaming. A movie released by a streaming service, such as a Netflix original film, lists the service as the distributor. A studio movie that you happen to watch on Disney+ is still cited by its studio and year; the service is optional.

Two more video sources show up often in student papers: TED Talks and video games.

How to cite a TED Talk in MLA

Treat a talk on ted.com like a video on a website; the MLA video citation uses the same core elements. Start with the speaker, then the talk title in quotation marks, TED in italics, the date of the talk and the URL: Robinson, Ken. “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” TED, Feb. 2006, www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity. If you watched the talk on TED's YouTube channel instead, cite it as a YouTube video: the speaker as author, YouTube as the container, "uploaded by TED," and that upload date and URL.

How to cite a video game in MLA

A game is a whole work, so its title goes in italics, followed by the version or platform if it matters, the publisher and the year: Minecraft. Mojang Studios, 2011. Most games list a studio rather than a single author. If a lead designer or writer is central to your point, you can start with that person. For an in-text citation, use the title: (Minecraft).

Most errors in an MLA video citation come from copying the YouTube page too literally. Here are the ones teachers mark most often.

Check the order

Before you submit, put your entries in alphabetical order by their first word, ignoring A, An and The. An MLA video citation that starts with a title sorts by that title, right alongside books and articles. The guide to the MLA works cited page explains alphabetizing, double spacing and the hanging indent, and you can browse every topic on the student writing guides page.

Let the tool do the formatting

If you're still unsure how to cite a YouTube video in MLA, or you have several to cite, let the MLA citation generator format them, then check each result against the patterns on this page. Writing your paper in Google Docs? The guide to MLA format in Google Docs shows how to set up the page and the hanging indent.