TikTok Star Khaby Lame on His Tubi Comedy Series and Budding Acting Career: ‘My Dream Is to Win an Oscar!’
Khaby Lame brought his comedic chops to the U.S. — and the producers of his new unscripted series, “Khaby Is Coming to America,” are hoping his millions of TikTok fans will come along for the ride.
The limited three-part series follows Lame as he explores the best (and weirdest) people, places and cuisine that America has to offer. In each 20-minute episode, the Senegalese-born Italian social media personality visits a different city — Miami, New Orleans and New York — and meets with celebrity guests David Beckham, Alicia Keys, Jon Batiste and Steven A. Smith as well as local influencers.
More from Variety
FTC Refers TikTok Child Privacy Complaint to Justice Department
TikTok Star Sabrina Brier to Release Audiobook 'That Friend' in 2025 (EXCLUSIVE)
The series premiered Friday, June 28, on Tubi, Fox Corp.’s free, ad-supported streaming service. “Khaby Is Coming to America” (a nod to the 1988 Eddie Murphy movie) was co-produced by Group Black, an “inclusive, mission-driven” media and advertising company, and Procter & Gamble. Several of P&G’s brands are featured in the series, including Tide, Crest and Febreze.
Lame, asked about meeting up with Beckham, Keys, Batiste and Smith, told Variety, “Nobody surprised me! These people were really fun. Meeting them was like I thought it would be.” Lame said he was excited about collaborating with each of them but he did single out Batiste, the celebrated musician and filmmaker, as being extremely funny. Did Batiste give Lame comedy pointers? Well, music tips, at least: When the two of them met in New Orleans, Lame said, “He taught me how to sing.”
Lame, 24, is the most-followed individual on TikTok, a title he’s held for the past two years. Currently, he has more than 162 million followers for his comedy sketches and reaction videos — which are typically wordless.
The biggest difference between his TikTok videos and the new series? “I have to talk!” Khaby said with a laugh. “I have to interact more with people.”
Lame said working on “Khaby Is Coming to America” was “training for my movie.” That’s a James Bond-esque spoof with the working title “00Khaby,” in which Lame — in his first starring role in a feature film — will play a food-delivery guy recruited by the CIA to stave off the start of World War III. The English-language spy comedy is set in his home country of Italy and is slated to span locales including the U.S., Monte Carlo, Dubai and France’s Côte d’Azur.
The movie hasn’t begun started shooting yet, but Lame is preparing for the gig by studying acting in L.A. as well as brushing up on his English. “I’m practicing acting more. I don’t want to stay in social media all my life,” he said. Lame recently had a cameo in “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
Being an actor is “always something I wanted to do,” Lame said. “My dream is to win an Oscar!” He added that he doesn’t want to only make comedies: “I want to be a full actor.”
Asked if he is concerned about a potential ban of TikTok in the U.S. — which could happen as early as January 2025 if the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t divest its ownership stake — Lame claimed that he isn’t. “If it happens, it happens,” he said. “Only God knows.” Lame added that he’s also on Instagram (with over 81 million followers) and YouTube (9.4 million subscribers).
For Group Black, “Khaby Is Coming to America” marks the company’s first expansion into production, advancing its mission to promote equity for diverse creators. The show sits within P&G’s Widen the Screen initiative and continues the partnership between Group Black and the CPG giant. A study conducted by Group Black with Nielsen found that Black creators drive 10.5 times the media value of non-Black counterparts, yet their compensation and exposure remains disproportionately low. Group Black hopes projects like the series with Lame will help close that gap.
“Khaby Lame is leading the charge when it comes to socially engaging and relevant content, and we are proud to bring his talent and influence to the American mainstream market,” Morgan Wilkinson, Group Black’s director of creative strategy, said in a statement. “At Group Black we understand the power and growth potential of Black and diverse creators and look forward to continuing to amplify their voices.”
For its part, Tubi saw “Khaby Is Coming to America” as an excellent fit for its fastest-growing audience segment of young and diverse viewers. Sam Harowitz, Tubi’s VP of content acquisition, said the show “is exactly the type of content that defines and transcends culture which we believe will resonate with Tubi audiences, especially as they get to experience it in the same way they’ve enjoyed his social media content to date — for free.”
Best of Variety
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
