On July 16, 2019, senior Dylan Eastman went viral. 465,700 likes on a video of his cat that he posted on TikTok. Followers started flooding in, but little did he know it was only the start of his TikTok fame.

“I was pretty hyped, I was sitting on my bed all night refreshing the page, watching my inbox blow up,” Eastman said. 

Eastman first made his TikTok was to prove a friend wrong. After being told he could never become famous, he decided to show them up. Starting out with comedy skits, he didn’t go viral until he featured his overweight cat, Big Chungus.

“Dylan made the TikTok to prove a point, but it became one of the best things he has done,” Eastman’s friend, Kyle Smith, said. 

Eastman’s TikTok featuring his friend, Nigel Watson has 2.8 million views. This had been the most views he had received on a TikTok. Then, another video went viral. A video of Watson dancing made Eastman gain even more followers than he already had, making him even bigger. Smith was also featured in a TikTok that became popular. After much of the comment section called him Forky, Eastman made a video showing his audience the comparison. 

“Dancing in my driveway is what became famous; it was pretty cool,” Watson said. 

Eastman’s views and followers continue to rise as he makes more and more content. Creating comedy skits, sad ones, fat cat videos, etc. Most of the videos that went viral feature one of his friends, boosting their accounts as well. Many people say Eastman hasn’t even hit his peak and that he is going to keep growing, while others say he has already hit his peak. The future will be the only thing to tell where Eastman goes with his new found fame.

“TikTok is honestly one of the most fun things for me to do, and proving my friend wrong was the funniest things I could have done,” Eastman said.