From crazy food reviews and mukbangs, all types of shopping hauls, skits, and just straight up comedy, Larnelle Lewis is one of the best parts of TikTok. We speak to him today about his life as a content creator, his plans for the future, and everything in between. 

1. Larnelle, we are literally obsessed with you and your content! But for those who don’t know you, please introduce yourself to them?

 I am Larnelle Lewies – content creator/ linguistics honours graduate. I love being able to express myself through art, sharing it with the world and entertaining people. 

2.  Was it always your dream to be an influencer/content creator? Like, did you work towards it? Or did it just ‘happen’ with like a viral video, for example?

Becoming an “influencer/content creator” was never EXPLICITLY a dream of mine. I did however work towards sharing my craft “fashion/art” on Instagram. I never had the opportunity to study fashion, and so I took that passion and channelled it through my Instagram which I later shared on TikTok. However, funny enough – it took me to eat on social media to grow my following. I do enjoy cooking, so that kind of occurred naturally. I now share all sorts of content – fashion, food, mukbangs, lifestyle, even comedy. So to be honest things just happened naturally as time went by.

3. You post a variety of content, but which is your favourite type to create and why? 

Fashion will always be my favourite type of content even though my audience enjoys my cooking/mukbang/food video’s the most!

4.  In the world of social media, there always seems to be some sort of drama. So tell us, have you been in any? If so, how were you able to rectify it?

I don’t think I have been in any “drama drama” before besides the general hate/rude comments ever so often. 

5.  Tell us about some opportunities you’ve received through being a content creator; and what your favourite one has been so far? We would love to know!

The opportunity I treasure the most is being noticed by Burberry who DM’d me and told me they love my content. They have sent me a couple of gifts and I am now part of the #BNextGen community (An exclusive fashion community) – which is super wild. As mentioned before, it was always a dream of mine to study fashion, and not having to do so I thought “How in the world am I going to reach that destination if I’m so far away from it”. But, I strongly believe in the quote that says “What is meant for you, will never pass you”. The fact that I couldn’t study fashion, didn’t stop me from thinking of alternative ways to exercise that passion and put it out into the world.

6. What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to be a content creator/influencer?

I honestly do not want to sound cheesy, but JUST START. You don’t need all the fancy equipment – camera, tripod, ringlight, lighting, iPhone X PRO PLUS MAX V 5 EDITION whatever the case may be. I started Instagram with my iPhone 5s. At the time that wasn’t the greatest phone with the greatest camera quality but I used what I had. I couldn’t afford a camera at the time so I became resourceful. I watched plenty YouTube videos – what apps to use to edit, to make photo quality look better, interesting filters and overlays. As you grow and save, then you can invest in all the equipment to just further enhance the quality of your content. Be yourself, and your audience will find you. Set out short term and long term goals and work towards them.

7.  What are your goals for 2022 and the future? 

To do more of the things that makes me happy. 

8. Lastly, do you have any crazy predictions for 2022? Or just any prediction!

Nicki Minaj will release her long awaited Documentary, possibly album too “The Fifth Thing-Thing”. Rihanna will release either an album or singles – so will Beyonce. There’s my prediction for these legends. 

Words by Fran Rattle 
Photography: Courtesy images