Leo González

AGE 27 HOMETOWN Hanford, California TOTAL FOLLOWERS* 2.4 million GENRE All-Too-Relatable Everyday Comedy

Leo González let his dream of being a comedian fade when he was in middle school. He opted instead to become a news reporter — but even then, things weren’t working out for him as a production assistant at a local station in Reno, Nevada. It was around that time that González downloaded TikTok. “It was TikTok and that year in Reno that cracked me like an egg,” he says.

González tapped into something he knew well: He made a video poking fun at that awkward lag when anchors are waiting to be connected with field reporters during local-news broadcasts, both often nodding in silence. The video resonated, and his follower count blasted from less than a dozen to more than 5,000 in a single day. “It forced me to dream again,” he says.

González’s videos are often simple, relatable skits in which he plays his character, Junior, in different scenarios — whether it be “people who make lactose intolerance a personality trait” or a friend asking a friend to be a fake résumé reference. The skits, nearly always in Spanglish, have led him to walk red carpets at Spanish awards shows, collaborate with one of his heroes, George Lopez, and most recently, interview Robert Pattinson on The Batman’s red carpet. “Now I can’t even imagine not doing this,” he says. “It’s a lot of healing for a little Leo inside.”