Senegalese-born Italian social media personality Khaby Lame is the most followed person on TikTok. With close to 150 million followers, Lame is also one of the highest paid social media stars. He earned close to Rs 80 crore this year with the handsome endorsement deals thanks to his international fame, his manager Alessandro Riggio revealed in a recent interview with a leading business news outlet.
Known for his TikTok videos where he silently mocks overly complicated life hack videos, 22-year-old Lame earns exorbitant amounts for single posts on his handle. Lame was recently paid over Rs 3.58 crore by famous fashion label Hugo Boss to walk the ramp at the Milan Fashion Week and then post a video of the same on TikTok.
Lame was paid nearly Rs 6 crore ($750,000) by a Hollywood production house for another video that he posted on TikTok, it was reported. His journey on TikTok is just a few years old when he first joined the social media platform around the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Who is Khaby Lame?
Lame and his family migrated to Italy from his birthplace Senegal in 2001. He was a year old at the time. Born on March 9, 2000, Khaby comes from a poor background. In Italy, his family lived in a public housing complex. Before hitting stardom he used to work at a factory in the city of Turin as a machine operator but lost his job during early months of the pandemic in March 2020.
Getting laid off would now carry different sentiment for Khaby who then started posting TikTok videos. He would also dance and watch video games to entertain his followers. He became popular for his ‘duet’ and ‘stitch’ responses that mocked overly complicated life hacks. He became the most-followed TikToker with 142.8 million followers on June 22 this year, surpassing Charli D’Amelio. He also has 78.3 million followers on Instagram and 1.2 million followers on Facebook.
He now lives in a house in Italy’s Chivasso which is worth $6 million and features a swimming pool and a tennis court. Khaby got engaged to Zaira Nucci in October 2022. Despite earning such unimaginable sums, Khabane ‘Khaby’ Lame, is not interested in money and “doesn’t know how much he has in the bank”, his manager was quoted as saying by a UK tabloid.
READ | Handsomely-paid techies splurging lakhs on 'leg lengthening' surgeries to look taller, says report
.
