Khaby Lame was a factory worker in Chivasso, Northern Italy. However, when COVID-19 struck, he became one of the many workers globally who were laid off as a result of the contagion’s impact on businesses and the global economy.
He took to TikTok and spent several hours posting comedic video on social media sites while at home during the COVID lockdown, and the clips quickly went viral. His most popular video has had over 158 million views. The video makes fun of a fellow TikToker who cut himself free from a car door that was ripping through his T-shirt. Lame creates the identical movie, but instead of grasping for scissors to free himself, he merely unlocks the door and shrugs.
His rise on the social media platform has been purely natural, and his films lack a professional touch when compared to other well-known TikTok stars, some of whom have been approached by Hollywood. Across many social media channels, his work mocks or debunks overproduced content.
“He almost represents this authenticity overproduction. I think that’s very appealing at scale to people, this feeling of someone not trying too hard, it’s something that feels authentic,” Samir Chaudry, a founder of The Publish Press, told the New York Times. The Publish Press focuses on covering the creator economy.
By the end of 2022, Lame had amassed over 160 million fans on TikTok, pushing him to notoriety as one of the world’s most influential black individuals.
With a social media following of 224 million, he earned $16.5 million in the last year, making him one of the world’s highest-paid content providers, according to Forbes. His profits place him 11th on Forbes’ newly announced list of the world’s leading creators.
His income is supplemented by various endorsement partnerships with some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Prior to the 2022 Qatar World Cup, he was chosen a World Cup ambassador for Qatar National Bank (QNB), the largest financial institution in Africa and the Middle East.
He was also named a brand ambassador by Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency trading platform. He’s anticipated to use his trademark approach to dispel some of the myths around Web3, as well as collaborate on exclusive NFT collections with Binance.
He also has relationships with sports team PSG and fashion brand Hugo Boss. According to Peopleofcolorintech, Lame will star in Hugo Boss re-branding advertisements and co-design a capsule collection with the fashion company as part of a multi-year deal.
In September of this year, he accomplished a new feat by becoming a video game character. He appears in the most recent season of Epic Games’ blockbuster battle royale game Fortnite, which revolves around a high-stakes heist.
In Fortnite Chapter 4: Season 4, titled “Last Resort,” players can play as Lame after unlocking his “icon series” skin via the Battle Pass system, which costs 950 V-Bucks, or around $10 per season.
As Lame, players can break into vaults, evade security cameras, and engage in thrilling gameplay. “I’ve been a big ‘Fortnite’ fan for a long time. I started playing five years ago, and sometimes I posted videos on YouTube or tagged Fortnite in stories. I was thrilled about this game,” Lame expressed to Variety. He also mentioned that he’s most often played as Black Knight in the past.
He revealed that Epic Games approached him around a year ago about collaborating, and he eagerly embraced the chance to play an action hero in a video game.
“My reaction was pure excitement,” he recounted. “Who doesn’t want to be an action hero in a video game? It sounded so fun!”