Kareem Rahma

Kareem Rahma was born in Cairo, Egypt, and at age seven moved to a suburb outside St. Paul, Minnesota, where he initially struggled to fit in. “I got kicked out of preschool because I didn’t know English, and I would just cry every day,” he told The Guardian. His desire to assimilate, he explained, helped him become a “social butterfly.” After receiving a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota, he moved to New York City and worked at Vice and The New York Times video department.

Looking for a new way to express himself, he tried comedy and discovered it was a good fit. He now leads several successful web series. In Keep the Meter Running, a TikTok hit launched in 2022, he hails a taxi and has the driver take him to their favorite place in New York City. In 2023 he started the show Subway Takes on Instagram, which now has a million followers. Each episode begins when Rahma, outfitted in a signature oversized suit, asks the commuter beside him for a “take” on a random topic. The result is what the Times calls “a compendium of life-affirming conversations with working-class and immigrant New Yorkers.” As Rahma explained in an interview with Brooklyn Magazine, “For me, identity is not at the center of my work, but it’s always in the background.”

Beyond social media, Rahma has helped found a media company, Nameless Network; written a collection of haikus about the future, We Were Promised Flying Cars; produced the films Miracle Fishing: Kidnapped Abroad and Ferguson Rises, which both premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival; and created “The Revolution Will Be Televised,” a video installation piece about police violence in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.