Kai Cenat III (born December 16, 2001) is an American

live streamer An online streamer or live streamer is a person who broadcasts themselves online through a Livestreaming, live stream to an audience. History Streaming arose in the early 2010s, originating on sites like YouTube where users could upload videos ...

and

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

, best known for his live streams on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...

and his comedy-based content posted on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. On February 28, 2023, during a month-long subathon, he became the most-subscribed Twitch streamer of all time, beating the previous record set by fellow streamer Ludwig.

Early life

Kai Cenat was born on December 16, 2001 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He was raised in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

borough by a Haitian father and

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

mother. Kai has three other siblings, a younger brother named Kaleel, an older brother named Devonte, and a twin sister named Kaia. Originally aspiring to be a comedian, Cenat posted short-form content on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and

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during middle and high school. Cenat attended Frederick Douglass Academy for his secondary education. He graduated high school in 2019 and then attended Morrisville State College in August 27, 2019, to study Business Administration. He eventually dropped out of college in 2020 due to the struggle of keeping up with schoolwork and content creation.

Career

Cenat uploaded his first

video in January 13, 2018, and began making videos surrounding pranks and challenges. On September 21, 2019, he first went viral recording prank videos such as extreme ding dong ditching while in college. He joined the YouTube group AMP (Any Means Possible) after being discovered by fellow Bronx-born YouTuber Fanum. He regularly appeared in the channel's videos from then on. He began streaming on Twitch in February 2021 after migrating from YouTube, broadcasting gaming and reaction content. He had an acting role in the trailer for

Polo G Taurus Tremani Bartlett (born January 6, 1999), known professionally as Polo G, is an American rapper. He rose to prominence with his singles "Finer Things (Polo G song), Finer Things" and "Pop Out" (featuring Lil Tjay). His debut album ''Die a ...

's June 2022 single "

Distraction Distraction is the process of diverting the attention of an individual or group from a desired area of focus and thereby blocking or diminishing the reception of desired information. Distraction is caused by: the lack of ability to pay attention ...

". Cenat released his debut single "Bustdown Rollie Avalanche" with American rapper

NLE Choppa Bryson Lashun Potts (born November 1, 2002), known professionally as NLE Choppa (previously YNR Choppa), is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. He rose to fame with his 2019 single " Shotta Flow", which was certified platinum by the RIAA ...

in May 2022, which sits at 25 million streams on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

as of September 2022. In 2022, Cenat began including celebrity guests on his streams, including

Bobby Shmurda Ackquille Jean Pollard (born August 4, 1994), known professionally as Bobby Shmurda, is an American rapper. Along with Rowdy Rebel, Shmurda is considered a pioneer of Brooklyn drill music. He rose to international fame in 2014 when his song "Hot ...

in April,

Lil Baby Dominique Armani Jones (born December 3, 1994), known professionally as Lil Baby, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to mainstream fame in 2017 following the release of his mixtape ''Perfect Timing''. *Alt URL* * His deb ...

in October, and

21 Savage Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph (born October 22, 1992), known professionally as 21 Savage, is a rapper based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Born in London, he moved to Atlanta with his mother at age seven. He became known after releasing two m ...

in November, who helped him receive his highest viewership at the time with 283,245 concurrent viewers at its peak. In October 2022, he was nominated for the 12th Streamy Awards in the "Streamer of the Year" and "Breakout Streamer" categories, winning the former in December. In November 2022, he had a guest appearance in

Lil Uzi Vert Symere Bysil Woods ( ; born July 31, 1995), known professionally as Lil Uzi Vert, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. They are characterized by their face tattoo, facial tattoos, facial piercings, eccentric hairstyles and androgynous ...

's music video for "

Just Wanna Rock "Just Wanna Rock" is a song by American rapper Lil Uzi Vert from their upcoming mixtape ''The Pink Tape''. It was released as a single through Atlantic Records and Generation Now on October 17, 2022. Uzi wrote the song with producers MCVertt and ...

". On January 31, 2023, Cenat began a month-long subathon. On February 28, 2023, he became the most-subscribed Twitch streamer of all time, reaching 306,621 subscribers at its peak.

Controversy

Rape complicity allegations

On January 5, 2023, Cenat was accused by

TikToker TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

Jovi Pena of downplaying and refusing to help her after her alleged

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

at a New Year's Eve party he hosted. Pena said that at some point she asked Cenat if she could leave the party, to which Cenat told her to go to sleep in an upstairs room due to her being

drunk Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ps ...

. Pena then said that a fellow party-goer named Djigui Seck entered said room and "brutally raped me to the point where I bled," while she was asleep. Pena accused Cenat of not adequately responding to her when she questioned him about the alleged rapist. On January 6, Cenat responded on stream, saying that the reason he did not respond earlier was because he went to contact the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

and his

lawyers A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicitor, ...

. He also said he did not want to make the incident public. He said that Seck had been a good friend of his since

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, but that he had no knowledge of the alleged rape and that he had not been in contact with either party since the incident.

On-stream drug use

On January 23, 2023, while live on Twitch, Cenat ingested a copious amount of

cannabis edibles A cannabis edible, also known as a cannabis-infused food or simply an edible, is a food product (either homemade or produced commercially) that contains decarboxylated cannabinoids (cannabinoid acids converted to their orally bioactive form) f ...

on camera; he later passed out on stream from the intake. Later on January 26, he was temporarily banned by Twitch for an unexplained reason; though it was widely believed to have been due to cannabis incident.

Awards and nominations

Discography

Singles

Filmography

Music video

Notes

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Biography, Internet, Media, New York City, United States Living people 2001 births 2012 establishments in the United States 21st-century American people American YouTubers English-language YouTube channels Gaming-related YouTube channels Gaming YouTubers YouTube channels launched in 2012 American video bloggers Twitch (service) streamers Streamy Award winners