Kalani Rodgers is a 23-year-old American social media star and model, probably best known for her eponymous YouTube channel.
Contents
Early life, source of career
Kalani Rae “Lani” Rodgers was born on 22 March 2000, in Detroit, Michigan USA; she has a brother and an aunt. At nine, Kalani developed a love for acting when she landed an uncredited role as an unnamed Hispanic girl in the 2009 short film “Dog Tags.” Subsequently, she auditioned for various commercials and short films.
According to Kalani’s profile on Backstage.com, a website used by actors and models looking for work, she’s good at roller skating, track and field, videography, and fishing. Moreover, she was knowledgeable about video games, and was certified in Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which was helpful on a film or series set. In contrast, Kalani wrote that she was a beginner at skateboarding, playing keyboards and piano, and drawing.
Early education
Kalani had lived nationwide before settling in California, US, where she matriculated from Pacifica High School in Oxnard in 2018. According to her Backstage.com profile, in that year she practiced on-camera cold reading skills, and took courses related to business improv comedy and auditions under teacher Mike Pointer in Los Angeles, California, and another teacher, Errol Isip, trained her in modeling choreography in Los Angeles. She then took acting classes and studied theater at California State University, Sacramento.
In her December 2022 video interview on the No Jumper YouTube channel, Kalani admitted that she was a procrastinator ‘whose work ethic is at a C-level, but who has the intelligence and memory capacity to produce B or A-level results.’
Career
Kalani started acting in October 2018 when Mansour Productions hired her for two birth control pill advertisements. She then appeared in a photoshoot for a Hydro Flask advertisement campaign, and in 2022, starred in an educational course video for Poised; the company created a virtual assistant based on artificial intelligence (AI).
In 2019, Kalani made her movie debut in the short film “What Ah Nerd,” in which she played Rachel Jones. In 2021, she portrayed Latanya in the “Pick A Side” movie, and in 2022, she played Daniel “DJ” in the film “Waiting on the World…”.
TikTok and YouTube
In April 2020, Kalani started uploading videos onto her first TikTok account, about her daily life, which included caring for several bunnies, , @kaalaanii, on which she has accumulated over 1.1 million followers. After an eight-month-long break, she uploaded the first of the comedy skits that brought her renown, captioned ‘To my future bf u gon be set with whichever hairstyles u want.’ In the video, Kalani appeared angry that a boyfriend left her for a girl who did not know how to braid or twist hair.
Many similar videos followed, including those entitled “Showed up unannounced” and “When I get a man this how ima move in the first night guaranteed.”
View this post on Instagram
Rapid growth
In her No Jumper interview, Kalani stated that two of her early comedy skits garnered about 29 million views, prompting her to pose as a jealous, scorned, or aggressive girlfriend or ex-girlfriend to boost her engagement on YouTube and TikTok. Subsequently, she gained a million followers on TikTok in two months, and about 450,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel, @Kalanirodgers, in four months; she now has over 853,000.
Moreover, Kalani filmed various skits related to frequent life events, such as time in school, driving, struggling with love, or having social anxiety. Kalani also noted that her followers continued watching even after realizing that she played a role in most skits, as the practice was typical for those platforms. Furthermore, she admitted that she initially wanted to make longer, more complex skits, and posted several. Unfortunately, she received feedback that they were challenging to understand, and thus not as funny, motivating her to return to simple short ones.
With that in mind, she established the character Burgundy Lani, a red-haired girl who sends her ex-boyfriend images and videos to remind him of what he lost. Kalani also told No Jumper that she quickly realized that her content was ‘in a lane of its own, so she felt that she had no competition and did not fear copycats.’
Interests and collaborations
Through TikTok, Kalani has revealed her love of Japanese animated series (anime) and that she had a black kitten which loved to nip on her toes. Additionally, she was passionate about sharing the spotlight, and has teamed with relatively unknown social media personalities Uché Obim, Jared “Jaygippy” Gipson, Xavier Mason, and Obina “9jaTony.”
Modeling
Kalani’s fans suspected that she would create an OnlyFans account in mid-2021, when she complained that TikTok removed some of her posts for breaching their policies related to nudity, and reports that she was underage. While she didn’t appear nude in any posts, Kalani sometimes posted videos in which she wore a bikini, a body-tight dress with sides cut away that showed her thighs, and partially unzipped body suits with a low-cut neckline.
🌴🤍 23 pic.twitter.com/Gidu4IL4NF
— Kalani Rodgers (@rodgers_kalani) March 22, 2023
In July of that year, Kalani began documenting her time in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which many suspected was related to a modeling opportunity, as she reported that men frequently stared at her and her friends. She posted similar content to her Instagram account, @kalani_rodgers, on which she has over 745,000 followers, as well as photos from her vacation trips and outings with friends.
Because her focus wasn’t on producing content for Instagram, Kalani only started balancing acting and modeling in September 2022, when she created her OnlyFans account, @t_o_princessxoxo. She’s posted over 1,000 times and uploaded over 1,300 media files, mostly pictures and videos in which she was naked and masturbating, or partially dressed and in lewd poses. The following year, Kalani updated her Twitter (now X) account’s cover photo as a screenshot of a quote, ‘Hate me or love me, you watched. That’s all you could do.’
Around that time, the RollingOut.com website named her its 2023 Content Creator of the Year. In the subsequent interview, Kalani explained her cover photo to Rolling Out by admitting that her cheat code involves ‘posting posts things that are controversial enough to engage people but not controversial enough to get her canceled on the Internet.’
Dating preferences
In her interview with Rolling Out, Kalani revealed that she was rarely the first pick regarding friendships and relationships, and only later realized her value.
She also revealed to No Jumper that she has intrusive thoughts and a wild imagination, which she channels into her videos but not relationships, so she doesn’t have crazy romance-related stories. Kalani revealed that she’s attracted to ambitious men but not athletes, as she’s heard too many stories about them being cheaters, and had some issues with football players in school.
She would also not date followers of the late YouTuber Kevin Samuels, because she disagreed with his opinions and attitude, or men with the same worldviews as “Fresh & Fit Podcast” hosts.
Rumored ex-boyfriend RDC Mark
In late 2022 and January 2023, Kalani was allegedly in a relationship with Mark “RDC Mark” Phillips, a member of the RDCworld1 online content creation group based in Texas. However, RDC Mark denied those claims during a Twitch livestream on 12 January 2023.
Romantic link with RDC Desmond
On 1 April 2023, after repeated questions, Kalani posted on X, ‘Boyfriend reveal in 30,’ and her post attracted over 2.2 million views. Shortly afterwards, she posted a video of Desmond “RDC Desmond” Johnson, in which someone, seemingly her, slowly approached him and grabbed his hand as he was sitting and scrolling on his smartphone.
However, RDC members revealed on 4 April that the whole thing was an April Fools’ Day joke, and that the person who touched Desmond was one of the guys. They explained that they chose the one with the smallest hands and that he wore a hoodie to cover them partially to make fans believe that it was Kalani’s hand. That day, Kalani retweeted the original X post and wrote, ‘We’re done, she can have u… 1 April-4 April 2023.’
Physical characteristics
Kalani has dark brown eyes and curly dark brown hair, often dyed dirty blonde. According to Kalani’s Backstage.com profile, she is 5ft 6ins (1.67m) tall and weighs about 135lbs (61kgs), with vital statistics of 34-28-40, dress size 6 (US) or 38 (EU), and shoe size 8 (US) or 38 to 39 (EU). According to her profile on the Stars Agency website, Kalani, Her most prominent facial features are a dimpled smile and a pointy chin. Kalani has one small tattoo on her left thigh, consisting of four or five words.
Net worth
Kalani has a net worth of about $500,000, primarily from her OnlyFans subscriptions, tips, and custom content. She is represented by Krr Productions and Stars Management. Kalani has always lived frugally and stated in her Rolling Out interview that she resisted purchasing luxury items when she earned her first significant paycheck. She noted that her most substantial expense is on food, but that she pays roughly the same as the average American resident, about $3,000 yearly. Kalani has promoted Fashion Nova, TooDieFor Experience, and Safari Meats 1976 on her Instagram.
