The only other person ahead of him is dancer Charli D’Amelio, a California teen who posts playful videos, often with her older sister Dixie.Īnd Lame, 21, does it all without saying a word. Now Lame (prounouced Lah-MAY) is the most popular man on TikTok, with 114 million followers. Then, earlier this year, he began making fun of the life-hack videos that flood social media platforms – reacting to them with a wordless shrug or a look of exasperation – and he struck a chord.
And gradually, a surprising career was born.Īt first, like a lot of TikTokers, he created clips of himself dancing, watching video games or doing comedy stunts. One day, he downloaded TikTok and started tinkering with it in his bedroom, posting videos of himself under the name Khaby Lame. He spent his days holed up at his parents’ home in Chivasso with his three siblings, looking for other jobs. When Italy first went into a coronavirus lockdown last year, Khabane Lame had just lost his job at a factory near the northern city of Turin.
