World champion of tiktokers… Without ever having said a single word! Khaby Lame, 22 years old, passes just ahead of a young American, Charli d’Amelio, used to monopolizing the lead in the standings. His success, he owes it first to his gestures and his expressions. When he makes fun of the absurd tutorials that are circulating on social networks, he is content to mime them and always ends with the same gesture, palms up, polite but ironic smile and the air of saying: You are complicating your life, there, it’s quite stupid in fact!
@khaby.lame If @50 Cent had to do a casting in the 19th century. #learnfromkhaby #learnontiktok @tiktok @tiktokcreators ♬ sonido original – 0riginal_G7
A minimalist production, without any pretension, but a universal language, like a commedia del arte version 2.0, which makes teenagers around the world scream with laughter.
Khaby Lame was born in Senegal. He was only one year old when his parents emigrated to Italy and found themselves in social housing in Chivasso, near Turin. He did not study but lived off odd jobs: mason, waiter, dishwasher, mechanic, window washer or machine tool operator. “My whole life has been hard, he said in an interview with Brut on May 25, 2022. It’s not rosy every day, but you should never stop at the first obstacle.“
In 2020, during the pandemic, he was fired and discovered TikToK where, out of boredom, he started posting a few videos. His notoriety exploded only in a few months.
Today, Khaby Blade is an international star. He makes videos with footballers Lionel Messi, Alessandro Del Piero or activist Greta Thunberg. The biggest stars know his famous gestures. Having become a millionaire, he moved to Milan with his agent who manages his contracts (partnership with Hugo Boss and Pepsi among others). According to specialized sites, it takes at least 50,000 dollars per promotional spot.
Khaby Lame also took her first steps on the red carpet. After the Venice Film Festival in 2021, we saw him in May at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, he was a member of the jury in the section dedicated to tiktokers and there is talk of a future collaboration with his idol, the American actor Will Smith. He is also at the center of a graphic novel published by Mondadori, Super Easy. The tiktokeur has worked with two longtime comic book artists, cartoonist Pietro B. Zemelo and screenwriter Giulio D’Antona.
Il phenomeno mondial dei social diventa un fumetto. In occasione dell’uscita del libro “Super easy”, solo nei Mondadori Store aderenti e su https://t.co/WqPBpmshap puoi acquistare la copia del libro autografata personalmente da @KhabyLame.
➡ https://t.co/GUEJhdM74T pic.twitter.com/I5vHQ3LRim
— Mondadori Store (@MondadoriStore) January 19, 2022
The young Senegalese, who wants to be an actor, still does not have Italian nationality but has repeated several times that he “didn’t need a piece of paper to know“that he was Italian. No controversy. Never. It’s not good for the image. The only time he posted a message against racism on his Instagram account he lost thousands and thousands of thousands of subscribers. And never did it again. In an increasingly noisy world where everyone gives their opinion, its best asset remains… silence.