Who is Khaby Lame? TikTok's most followed creator who lost his job during Covid now earns £650,000 per post

There are over a billion TikTok users across the world, and more and more join each day. But one of them is more popular than them all. Khaby Lame is the most followed creator on the platform, as of June 2023.

He has an incredible 159.5 million followers, and that number continues to grow. He has also received 2.3 billion likes on his videos. His follower count surpassed that of dancer Charli D'Amelio, who had previously been the most popular TikTok user, in June 2022. She now has over eight million fewer followers than him.

Lame also has more followers than Will Smith, the actor who says inspired his videos, along with Addison Rae and Kylie Jenner, and even the official TikTok account.

But, just who is the 23-year-old who has captured the attention of social media users, and just what makes his videos so popular? Here’s everything you need to know.

Who is Khaby Lame?

Khaby Lame is a Senegalese-born Italian social media personality. He was working in a factory in Italy when he was made redundant during the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.

He then created his TikTok account, @Khaby.Lame, and uploaded his first videos as a hobby. These showed him dancing or playing or watching video games, but he soon found his niche by showing how other supposed life hack videos on the platform could be debunked.

For example, in one video he expressed mock frustration at a video showing someone using a plastic pizza saver to cut their pizza into slices as they did not own a pizza cutter. Instead, Lame showed how the same outcome could be achieved by using his hands. In another video, he mocks videos of people showing how difficult it is to lift weights by filming himself lifting a weight easily.

His comedic videos gradually gained more and more attention, and his follower count began to rise as users were looking for things to entertain them and lift their spirits during lockdown restrictions. He developed his own unique style; not speaking during the videos, instead relying on exaggerated facial expressions, and ending them with what became a signature look at the camera and a shrug. His videos have become akin to the modern equivalent of silent comedy.

Why is Khaby Lame so popular?

Lame’s appeal seems to come from the fact that his videos can be understood globally, owing to the fact he doesn’t speak - instead his actions and expressions can be universally understood by audiences worldwide.

Lame told the New York Times in 2021 that he believes that his huge success is due to the fact that he speaks a “global language”, revealing he has a huge following in Brazil and South America.

Then, in 2022, he spoke to CNN, and said that he thought the best way to reach as many people as possible was to not speak in his videos. “The type of gesture came by chance, but the silence didn't. I thought of a way to reach as many people as possible. And the best way was not to speak. Maybe because my facial expressions are funny and they make people laugh, this simplicity makes people laugh and I love it."

Lame, whose full first name is Khabane, added that he liked the idea of bringing simplicity to the many life hack videos that he had seen circulating, which he thought were more complicated than they needed to be. He also wanted to make people laugh, particularly during a time of global hardship brought about during the Covid-19 pandemic - and it can be argued that the need to laugh has continued to be important in the face of further struggles in society, such as the cost of living crisis. His TikTok biography reads “If u wanna laugh u r in the right place”.

He released a statement via TikTok in August 2021, when he surpassed 100 million followers, which said: “I [have been] passionate about entertaining and making people laugh since childhood, and I am thankful to TikTok for offering me a global stage to share my passion with the rest of the world”.

The trappings of TikTok fame

Lame has gained celebrity status among social media followers, and his popularity has awarded him some very special and unique opportunities. In January 2022, he signed a deal with fashion brand Hugo Boss to be the face of the BOSS X KHABY collection and had a doll made in his likeness as a result of the collaboration. He then walked the catwalk at Milan Fashion Week in 2022 for the fashion giant later that year. 

He has met famous faces including footballer Lionel Messi, rapper Snoop Dogg and actor Idris Elba, who appear in his videos. Earlier this year, it was reported that he will be a judge on this year’s Italia’s Got Talent competition, the Italian version of ITV reality TV show Britain’s Got Talent.

He’s also walked the red carpet at film premieres and awards ceremonies, most recently for the 95th Annual Academy Awards in March and the screening of Fast X in May.

How much money does Khaby Lame make from TikTok?

Lame said that he makes up to $750,000 (around £650,000)  per TikTok post when he was interviewed by Fortune magazine in September.  He also reportedly gets paid between $350,000 (£280,490) and $400,000 (£320,560) per video for a brand endorsement deal. In addition, he's also supposedly investing in real estate, restaurants and software companies, and has signed a deal with cryptocurrency exchange Binance.