Things Victor Kunda isn’t: Beyoncé’s choreographer, a former gangster turned high street evangelist, and a self-help influencer on Valentine’s Day. In many ways, though, he is the archetype for a TikTok comedian – someone who’s amassed hundreds of thousands of followers by posting outsize impressions of everyday scenarios that resonate with people regardless of where they live. Less boy next door, more handsome class clown, Kunda started to post sketches on Facebook and YouTube back in 2016, but none of those took off quite as much as when he pretended to smoke a breadstick on TikTok during the first lockdown, his elastic face and cartoon eyes clocking-up more than 6.2 million views.
Kunda’s skits have now been watched and shared by over a billion TikTok users in total, among them Bella Hadid, Lil Nas X, and Doja Cat. He still dons a wig to parody white girls at brunch and insipid HR personnel, but viewers will have seen him relocate from his mum’s bathroom in Lewisham to plush hotel suites, having spent the best part of the year attending movie premieres and fashion weeks – ousting editors from the front row at Burberry, Yohji Yamamoto, and Labrum. Now signed to Rare Select Models, Kunda’s being mined to create all manner of sponcon, but it’s acting that he’s most interested in pursuing, as he recently told British Vogue. That dream edged closer to reality when he was announced as the host of Channel 4’s new improv show, Razor Sharp earlier this year. “I found comedy as a way to escape my tough upbringing. I grew up in a dark and heavy environment where I didn’t feel love,” he told the network. “Instead, I find joy in making other people laugh.”
Text Daniel Rodgers
