Henry Rowley: The British ‘posh boy’ who became one of the year’s breakout TikTok stars
Henry Rowley couldn’t be more honest about enjoying the recognition that comes with going viral.
“I really do love it,” he says. “Partly because I’m a vain ****!”
The 25-year-old was a standout performer at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, a prospect which not long ago would probably have made him laugh more than one of his own jokes.
No longer a mere marketing executive after finding fame on TikTok, the comic’s growing collection of skits and impressions – each personifying parts of pop culture and society we can all relate to or poke fun at – have seen him amass more than 1.3 million followers.
“It was pretty cool,” he says of the first video that really took off.
“Each time you hit a milestone of numbers it’s so surreal, the fact so many people have seen your video.
“But I think also I was keeping in mind that a lot of people probably don’t find it funny or even find it annoying, it’s just the nature of comedy, especially online.”
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Fringe comics tell favourite jokes
Growing up ‘posh’
Since he shared his first video last year, Rowley has developed a cast of his own characters to go along with the countless celebrity impressions and film parodies.
There’s Minty and Hugo, “the music guy at afters” and “the walking ick”, the husky-voiced posh girl Delicatessen.
None of his clips are more popular than those sometimes self-deprecating riffs on Britain’s upper class, speaking in tones that would embarrass even Jack Whitehall and Boris Johnson.
And at this most wonderful time of year, when Love Actually is as inescapable as mince pies and turkey, he’s certainly not letting his Hugh Grant and Keira Knightley impressions go to waste.
“I’d grown up in Leicester being the posh one of my friends, and always sort of taken the p*** out of it,” he says.
“Then suddenly I was in Bristol University surrounded by these posh kids and the minute they heard I was from Leicester they saw me as this little street urchin. I’m really not! So a lot of it is based on friends I made there, and sometimes even myself.”
Rowley doesn’t take any negative feedback to heart – any comedian who does probably isn’t long for the circuit, although putting all your material online certainly makes you an easy target.
Those who aren’t keen “normally just hate me from afar”, he says. “Which I’m OK with!”
Love Actually’s Hugh Grant is a regular source of inspiration. Pic: Peter Mountain/Universal/Dna/Working Title/Kobal/Shutterstock
A simple formula
With his videos attracting 69.1 million likes on TikTok, earning him fans all around the world, it’s safe to say he has mostly found himself an enthusiastic audience.
While few are safe to embed in a family-friendly news article, each clip strives to be relatable in some way.
As someone who had the misfortune of enduring the entire Twilight saga this year, his recreation of what it’s like to watch them is painfully accurate.
The unremarkable selfie-style framing and sharp runtimes also suit the platform perfectly.
When Rowley’s fans see him out and about, he can’t help but enjoy hearing about how much they enjoy his work.
“It’s such a nice interaction meeting someone, finding out they find you funny or enjoy what you’re doing,” he says.
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But there’s no real formula to his success, he insists.
Well, no formula beyond doing something he loves – and he’s now making a living out of it.
“If you don’t enjoy making the videos or don’t like the end product, what’s the point in doing it?” he says.
“People always say to me, ‘why do you always laugh at your own jokes?’ And I say ‘because I find them hilarious. If I didn’t then I wouldn’t say them.'”
Well, that and he’s a vain so-and-so.
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Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report
A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.
The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
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Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.
R Kelly’s challenge against a 20-year sentence for child sex convictions has been quashed by an appeals court.
The singer was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Chicago court ruled on Friday.
He was convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In his appeal, Kelly, 57, argued Illinois’ old statute of limitations – which required prosecution of child sex crime charges within 10 years – should have applied, rather than the current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive.
The appeals court rejected this, labelling it an attempt by Kelly to elude the charges entirely after “employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet”.
He also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to three other accusers due to video evidence that became a focal point of the Chicago trial.
Prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, only identified as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.
The three-judge panel from the appeals court noted jurors acquitted Kelly on seven of the 13 counts against him “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes”.
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In a written statement, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said they plan to seek a US Supreme Court review of the decision and “pursue all of his appellate remedies until we free R Kelly”.
“We are disappointed in the ruling, but our fight is far from over,” she said.
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