From Chapman University to the Big Apple
How Gray Fagan Went From TikTok fave to in-demand comedian
by Floriana Azemi
“It’s sold out”, says Gray Fagan, dressed in his favorite purple t-shirt, shorts, and white crocs. He checks text messages from his manager while riding the subway in New York. “There’s gonna be people standing in the back!” he exclaims, laughing nervously.
I happened to be riding the subway with Fagan, a Tik Tok comedian and filmmaker, when he was informed that the second performance of his first comedy show in New York City sold out.
I first met Fagan while scrolling on TikTok. Well, I guess I didn’t really meet him — it was more like my eyes met my screen. His viral video popped up on my For You page while I was mindlessly scrolling my responsibilities away. His humor, cleverness, and kookiness made not only myself, but millions of others laugh.
Gray Fagan, or GraysWorld by his online username, is a 25-year -ld content creator hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After transferring from Louisiana State University to Chapman University, Fagan enrolled in the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts to pursue filmmaking. While working on various school projects, Fagan began making 15 second videos with his friends in his free time.
During the initial stages of the COVID pandemic, millions of teenagers flocked to TikTok to fill up their newly open schedules. Quickly and unexpectedly, Fagan rose to the top of the esteemed “For You” page, also known as a revolving thread of individual’s videos, or the first thing seen when the app is opened. His videos are creative, sarcastic, and plain funny. Fagan was a source of humor we needed in the dark times of the pandemic. He continued to gain more and more followers and has a total following of five million as of November 2022.
At first, Fagan’s aim was simply to make silly videos with his fellow filmmaking college friends. Now, he rehearses his first comedy show in an office at one of the top entertainment agencies in the US — Creative Artists.
So, how exactly did he get there?
Early in March 2019 the comedian downloaded the TikTok app, and since then he has been honing his own brand of humor. Fagan defies categorization and frequently combines absurdist humour with expertly crafted films. His “Karen” cartoons and his fake celebrity Zoom videos have quite different aesthetics, which merely serves to highlight how inventive he can be. With his videos routinely earning a million or more likes, he has expanded the parameters of what TikTok content can actually be. He aspires to now continue developing material for the app and pushing the limits of his creativity. Fagan recently chatted with me about his beginnings on the app, his goals to become a filmmaker, and other things.
Fagan spoke with me recently about his beginning on the app, his goals of becoming a filmmaker and more. He said he defines his comedic style as absurd — he says absurd because in his words, “There’s no one word to describe my comedy since each video can be wildly different.” He’s played around with several different styles, even musical comedy. Fagan says that above all, his goal is to make people laugh.
Fagan’s first encounter with going viral occured over a TikTok video he made with one of his best friends and fellow Chapman alum, Alex Gordillo. The video could indeed be described as absurd — it features Fagan and Gordillo speaking random words in unison. The silly, 15-second video “When It’s Finally December 1”, attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers.
He continued to make videos here and there with his friends on campus and also wrote and directed short films while attending the prestigious Dodge film school at Chapman University. Fagan wrote and directed his thesis film, Moonlight Dancer. The short was shot in his home state of Louisiana and went on to win an award for Best Lead Actress at the Louisiana Film Prize. The short film, a musical, was based on a story of a young entertainer in New Orleans. Fagan has plans to direct another original musical film next year in 2023.
His college career finished with a bang, (literally) when he fell flat on stage at his graduation from Chapman University. Of course, the incident was posted to TikTok and made viewers laugh. After graduating, Fagan decided to remain in Los Angeles and create more videos.
One day, he came across a dark-green, velvet jumpsuit and birthed a new character into his imagination: Benji. Benji became the emo, dark, and spiritual character in Fagan’s TikToks. Benji’s videos started becoming the most popular on his account and Fagan’s world froze in place when a Benji video became so popular that it got nearly 68 million views. The character’s darkness and absurdity was enticing to viewers — garnering comments such as “this is so funny for no reason” and “this will forever be funny.”
As the character Benji gained immense popularity, Fagan continued to create videos in his everyday persona as well as in several other characters. “Georgina” was another absurd character born out of Fagan’s mind. Georgina was simply Fagan in a dark wig holding his mouth as wide as he could while managing the most abnormal facial expression. Georgina would remain stuck in this facial expression while doing a variety of activities — laying on the beach while a wave rolled over her face and into her mouth, doing the face behind strangers in a club, and getting a makeover.
Clearly, Gray Fagan fulfills a niche in the Tik Tok world that gravitates to absurdist humor. His dedication to stick to his craft in even the most awkward situations makes his content entertaining and often hysterical. As Fagan continued to gain popularity on TikTok, Creative Artists Agency, a powerful talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, reached out to him. They had plans to begin a “new media” division for online stars like Fagan. He partnered with the agency in 2021.
While creating original videos, Fagan also got opportunities to represent brands online such as Bose, Hot Topic, and Instagram.
Fagan continued to make Benji videos, and one night on a Tik Tok livestream, he had another idea. While streaming alongside good friend and actor Braeden De La Garza, De La Garza asked why Fagan hadn’t done a live show yet. The two cultivated the idea for a live comedy show about an intervention for Fagan’s character Benji. After the stream ended, Fagan immediately got to work. He created a pitch deck for the show and pitched it three days later.
The show was greenlit by CAA and set to premiere in Los Angeles. Teams immediately got to writing and planning an intervention-style show, wherein Benji was made to become “normal.” The show premiered at Catch One in Los Angeles on August 25th, 2022. Fans of Benji came in emo clothing, and fellow online presences such as Cameron Dallas and singer Paris Jackson made appearances. The show was successful enough to get Fagan officially signed to CAA, and placed in the New York Comedy festival by his agents.
The show at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective, to be exact, was sold out days before his performance. Fagan had spent weeks analyzing the parts of the first performance in Los Angeles that worked well while cutting those that didn’t, retooling the show for a new audience. Fans traveled from all over the state to see the performances.
Fagan continues to create content on TikTok and doesn’t plan on halting any time soon. His most recent video got 3.4 million views. He hopes to continue to create, whether it be through TikTok, live comedy, or writing and directing his own films. His Benji character may be dark, but Fagan’s creativity and uniqueness seem to be setting him up for a bright future.
