From making TikTok videos in his bedroom to getting a role in a Hollywood series: This is influencer/actor Jake Shane
The internet personality and podcast host has now branched out into small and big-screen roles.
TikToker-turned-actor Jake Shane says his recent television debut gave him “all I ever wanted”, as the 25-year-old now prepares for a big-screen release.
“Changed my life”
Earlier this year, Shane featured in season four of the hit HBO comedy Hacks, appearing as the social media manager for Deborah, Jean Smart’s Las Vegas stand-up comedian.
Speaking to USA Today this week, Shane said being cast on Hacks “changed my life”, adding: “I just needed someone to give me a chance to be like, I can do this in front of a camera.
“And although the role wasn’t the biggest role in the entire world, it still, I think, showed people that I could hold my own in a scripted television show, which is all I ever wanted.”
Fresh from making his TV bow, Shane recently wrapped filming on his first ever movie role, in the Graham Parkes-directed romantic-comedy Wishful Thinking.
Shooting the upcoming film, which stars Maya Hawke and Lewis Pullman, “was the greatest experience of my life”, he told an interview with Elite Daily last month. “I’ve never been happier ever.”
From TikTok to Therapuss
Shane first rose to prominence in 2023, posting viral TikTok videos in which he reenacts events like the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, the Last Supper, and the approach of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Posting under the username octopusslover8, Shane quickly gained traction, racking up a TikTok follower count that now stands at 3.8 million. He also has a further 1.4 million followers on Instagram, as well as 285,000 subscribers on YouTube.
In early 2024, Shane launched his podcast Therapuss with Jake Shane - a show on which he has interviewed major names such as Glenn Powell, Selena Gomez and Katy Perry.
A podcast in which Shane holds candid discussions about mental health, Therapuss describes itself as a “deep dive therapy session that is both tongue and cheek and deeply introspective”.
A personality who was named on Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” list in 2024, Shane completed a cross-country comedy tour - “Live with Jake Shane!” - this summer.
“I owe it all to my [follower] community,” Shane told Forbes. “They let me be myself and find different ways to make them laugh.”
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