Senegalese-Italian TikToker Khaby Lame is the most followed content creator on the platform, as per Forbes. As of the time of drafting this story, Lame, who recently became an Italian citizen, had 163 million followers on the platform. However, he has a total social media followership of 255 million.
As per Forbes, he is the 10th highest-paid content creator in the world and the highest-paid black content creator. He earned $20 million over the last 12 months, according to Forbes. Lame is among the 50 honorees of the 2024 Forbes Top Creator list who earned almost $720 million over the last 12 months—an increase of $20 million from 2023.
Before becoming a content creator, Lame worked as an industrial worker in Chivasso, Northern Italy. However, when COVID-19 struck, he became one of the many people who got laid off worldwide as a result of the impact of the contagion on businesses and the global economy.
While at home during the COVID lockdown, he took to TikTok and spent several hours posting comedy clips on social media platforms, and the clips soon went viral. His most-watched video came to have over 158 million views. The clip mocks a fellow TikToker who cut himself free from a car door shearing through his T-shirt. Lame makes the same video, but instead of reaching for scissors to cut himself free, he simply opens the door to free himself and shrugs.
His rise on the social media platform has been entirely organic, and his videos lack a professional touch compared to other famous TikTok stars, some of whom have been approached by Hollywood. His content turns to mock or debunks overproduced content across multiple social media platforms.
By the end of 2022, Lame emerged as the most-followed person on TikTok with over 160 million followers, propelling him to stardom as one of the most influential black people in the world.
Lame, who now has a social media following of over 250 million, amassed $16.5 million in earnings in 2022, Face2Face Africa reported in 2023, making him one of the highest-paid content creators in the world. At the time, his earnings put him in 11th position on Forbes’ roster of the world’s leading creators.
Turning memes into millions, a chunk of his income also comes from multiple endorsement deals with brands like Hugo Boss, Fortnight, and Sony Pictures. What is more, he recently inked a deal with retail giant Walmart, selling his line of quirky cooking tools like a Khaby-branded garlic press and a taco holder, according to Forbes.
Prior to the 2022 Qatar World Cup, he was named as a World Cup ambassador for the largest financial institution in Africa and the Middle East, Qatar National Bank (QNB).
Also, he was signed by Binance, the world’s largest platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, as a brand ambassador to use his signature style to tackle some of the misperceptions around Web3 and also partner on exclusive NFT collections with Binance.
Not too long ago, media company Group Black and American multinational consumer goods corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G) collaborated with Lame for a series, “Khaby Is Coming To America.”