Senegalese-Italian influencer Khabane “Khaby” Lame has taken the digital world by storm. As of 2025, he has more than 162 million followers on TikTok, making him the most-followed creator on the platform. Lame is a global internet sensation because of his funny, wordless videos that make fun of overly complicated “life hacks” by showing how to fix them with simple, common-sense solutions. His rise from working in a factory in Italy to becoming a worldwide star shows how powerful being real, being strong, and humor can be. This article talks about Lame’s journey, his unique style of content, his impact on social media, and his work outside of TikTok.
It also talks about the problems he has faced, such as being detained in the US because of immigration issues.Life and Background in the BeginningKhabane Serigne Lame was born on March 9, 2000, in Dakar, Senegal. When he was one year old, his family moved to Italy. They moved into a public housing complex in Chivasso, a small town in the Piedmont region near Turin. Lame’s early life was marked by modesty and hard work. He grew up in a working-class family with three siblings. His parents, who are from Senegal, raised him in a place where Senegalese and Italian cultures mixed. Lame went to Italian schools until he was 14, when his parents sent him to a madrasa near Dakar for a short time to reconnect with his roots.
Lame has talked a lot about how he feels Italian even though he hasn’t been a citizen for most of his life. He speaks Italian fluently and is deeply involved in Italian society. Lame was still a Senegalese citizen until August 2022, when he became an Italian citizen in a ceremony in Chivasso. This is because Italy’s strict citizenship laws are based on jus sanguinis (right of blood) instead of jus soli (right of soil). He said he was proud of this milestone, saying, “I always felt Italian,” and stressed that the official recognition was just a formality that didn’t change who he was.
Before he became famous, Lame worked in a factory near Turin as a CNC machine operator. In March 2020, he lost his job because of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. This changed his life in a big way. But this setback was what made his amazing journey to social media fame possible.
The Path to TikTok FameLame had a lot of free time during the lockdown, so he started using TikTok. At first, he posted videos of himself dancing and reacting to video games. But it was his switch to silent comedy that made him famous. Lame started making videos that responded to overly complicated “life hack” videos using TikTok’s “duet” and “stitch” features. These videos showed complicated ways to do simple things, like using a knife to peel a banana or complicated machines to put on socks. Lame would do the same thing in the simplest way possible in his answers, often with a blank look on his face, a knowing look at the camera, and his trademark hand gesture—a palms-up shrug that said, “Why make it so hard?”
This formula worked for everyone. Lame’s use of no words got rid of language barriers, so his humor could reach people all over the world. “It’s my face and my expressions that make people laugh,” he told The New York Times in 2021, calling his style a “global language.” His videos, which were usually less than 15 seconds long, were rough and unpolished. They were shot in his small bedroom, which had a Senegal flag and a Juventus scarf on the wall. This realness, along with his down-to-earth “everyman” personality, made him different from other influencers who relied on high production values or aspirational lifestyles.
Lame had more followers on TikTok than Gianluca Vacchi by April 2021. He became the second most-followed creator on the platform later that year, passing Addison Rae. In June 2022, he took the title of TikTok’s most-followed creator from Charli D’Amelio. He now has over 162 million followers, up from 142.1 million. The New York Times called his meteoric rise “entirely organic,” saying it was because he was appealing to everyone and wasn’t trying to be someone he wasn’t.
Why Khaby Lame’s Content Is So PopularThere are a number of reasons why Lame has been successful. His silent comedy style is similar to that of old-time entertainers like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, whose physical comedy crossed language and culture. His videos are short, easy to relate to, and understandable by everyone, which makes them appealing to a wide range of people. One of his most popular videos, which has 353 million views, makes fun of a complicated hack for adjusting a car’s wing mirror by showing Lame adjusting the mirror by hand and then shrugging, which is what he is known for. Another one, which has 304.8 million views, makes fun of a hair-cutting hack by showing how easy it is to open a car door.
Second, Lame’s “everyman” quality really speaks to people. Many influencers try to look rich or exclusive, but Lame’s early videos were shot in a simple place with an old phone and bad lighting. People liked him because they could relate to him and didn’t see him as an untouchable celebrity. Adam Meskouri, a young content creator, said, “Khaby comes and he’s just a normal guy.” You can relate to him a lot more than most other big influencers.
Third, Lame stands out because he cares more about being real than making things, as Samir Chaudry of The Publish Press points out. His videos put real humor ahead of polished looks, which is in line with the growing demand for authenticity in the creator economy. His deadpan expressions and over-the-top gestures make a connection with viewers, like when you share a knowing look with a stranger in a strange situation.
Going beyond TikTok: Growing His EffectLame is famous for more than just TikTok; he has gotten big breaks in fashion, entertainment, and charity work. He was a special guest at the Venice Film Festival in 2021 for the premiere of Lost Illusions. In August 2021, he was in a video for Juventus FC that announced footballer Manuel Locatelli. In 2022, he signed a multi-year deal with Hugo Boss and starred in their #BeYourOwnBoss campaign with celebrities like Kendall Jenner.
He has been in Hollywood movies like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), where he voiced a character in the Italian-dubbed version, and Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), where he didn’t speak. In June 2024, Lame starred in Khaby Is Coming to America, an unscripted comedy series on Tubi that follows his travels across the U.S. He will also star in an action-comedy movie called 00Khaby, in which he plays a food delivery man who is hired as a spy. The movie will be filmed in Brazil, India, and the U.S.
Lame wants to win an Oscar, which has been his dream since he was a child. Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise and Robert Redford have given him advice. Cruise told him to use goodwill to get over problems like dyslexia, and Redford told him not to take formal acting classes so he could keep his natural style. Lame is also co-writing a movie about Olympic athlete Tommie Smith. The goal is to show off his range as an actor.
Lame was named a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in January 2025. He used his platform to support humanitarian causes. He also worked with Robert Redford on a series of documentaries about how climate change affects African communities, like Senegal.
Problems and ArgumentsLame has had to deal with a lot of problems, even though he has been successful. His lack of Italian citizenship until 2022 brought attention to Italy’s strict citizenship laws and started discussions about giving citizenship to kids born or raised in Italy to foreign parents. Lame himself said, “It’s not fair that someone who has lived and grown up with Italian culture for so many years and is clean still doesn’t have the right to citizenship.”
In June 2025, Lame hit a big bump in the road when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas for staying longer than his visa allowed. Lame came to the U.S. on April 30, 2025, and was given the option to leave voluntarily. This meant that he could leave without a formal deportation order, which could have kept him from coming back to the U.S. for up to ten years. The event, which was part of President Donald Trump’s larger effort to crack down on immigration, got a lot of attention. A teenage pro-Trump influencer named Bo Loudon said he was the one who reported Lame’s visa status. Lame hasn’t said anything about the incident in public, but he kept posting, including an Instagram story from São Paulo, Brazil, not long after.
There have also been changes in Lame’s personal life. He married Wendy Thembelihle Juel in November 2023, but the marriage ended by May 2024. He was said to be engaged to Italian Instagram star Zaira Nucci before, but not much is known about their relationship.
Money Success and LegacyLame’s impact has led to a lot of money success. Alessandro Riggio, Lame’s former social media manager, says that Lame was making up to $750,000 per post and was on track to make $10 million by the end of 2022. In 2024, posts on X said that his net worth had reached $20 million, but these numbers have not been confirmed. His work with brands like Hugo Boss, Binance, and UNICEF shows how marketable he is.Lame’s legacy is that he made fame available to everyone. His story, from factory worker to global icon, shows that being real and relatable can be more important than having a polished production. He has found a niche that works across cultures by putting humor and simplicity first. This shows that sometimes, silence is more powerful than words. Lame’s journey isn’t over yet; he’s moving to Hollywood and doing charity work. His impact on digital culture will probably last for years to come.
