Imane Anys, the girl commonly known as Pokimane, is a Moroccan streamer who is currently one of the most watched faces on Twitch.
Since starting her streaming career with the game League of Legends in 2017, Imane has rapidly grown by branching out into other games like Fortnite and Valorant, quickly increasing her fanbase to over 4 million followers on Twitch. Thanks to these breakthroughs, Pokimane has become the top female streamer on Twitch and ranks among the top 10 most successful Twitch streamers of all time. Here are some more interesting facts about this talented and beautiful girl that not everyone knows, for those who are interested in Pokimane, the leading female streamer on Twitch today.
Poki dropped out of university to dedicate all her time to livestreaming.
Pokimane was previously a student in engineering at McMaster University. She has shared about the school she attended in her Draw My Life video, and one can see that McMaster has a heavy and rigorous curriculum, demanding a lot from its students. This led many of Imane’s friends to switch to different majors and made her feel lonely and stressed. On the other hand, the intensive curriculum also left Imane with little time to stream, which forced her to make a tough decision.
Due to the extensive time required for studying, Imane had little time for streaming, but what she earned from this work was extremely impressive. Ultimately, Imane decided to convince her parents to allow her to become a full-time streamer, believing this would be the right move. And now, with what she has achieved, we can see how correct Imane’s decision was; it makes her happy, and she encourages her fans to follow their hearts, just like she did.
Pokimane is represented by a talent agency with a roster of high-profile clients.
When you are a streamer famous enough that even your small streams have tens of thousands of viewers, it is clear that you need a representative of commensurate caliber. And with Pokimane among the top ten streamers on Twitch, having a reputable agency to represent her is essentially a necessity. That’s why United Talent Agency, a leading professional company that manages big names in North America, became Pokimane’s choice.
United Talent Agency has a large and diverse clientele across various fields such as television shows, actors, musicians, comedians, digital talents, esports players, and more. Some notable UTA clients include Eric Andre, Will Ferrell, Bo Burnham, Chris Pratt, Paramore, and Pink Floyd. With such an impressive roster, it is clearly a great choice for Pokimane, but what’s interesting is that being represented by United Talent Agency is a significant affirmation of Pokimane’s star status.
She will appear in Ryan Reynolds’ movie Free Guy.
At New York Comic-Con in 2019, a new movie titled Free Guy was officially revealed. The film tells the story of a bank teller, played by Ryan Reynolds, who realizes he is a non-playable character in an open-world game. Given the game’s theme, Free Guy announced that this film project would feature many guest appearances from gamers and streamers, including Ninja, Lazarbeam, Jacksepticeye, and of course, Pokimane. She even couldn’t hide her excitement when she got to act alongside Ryan Reynolds, tweeting enthusiastically, “Mom, I’m going to be in a movie with Ryan Reynolds!”
In the past, many YouTube stars like Fred or Smosh transitioned from being streamers to actors, so clearly, the Free Guy project could serve as a stepping stone for Pokimane to appear as an actress in films.
Pokimane has signed an exclusive deal with Twitch.
After successful streamers like Ninja and Disguised Toast left Twitch for competing platforms, Pokimane promised her fans during a livestream in March 2020 that she would not be going anywhere.
Imane said, “I decided to stay on Twitch even though many companies offered higher payment. Twitch has provided me with the best, most engaging, and exciting experiences, so I won’t choose the highest bidder to follow.” Pokimane did not disclose which company offered a higher payment than Twitch to invite her to switch, but she shared details about the careful considerations she made to reach this decision, such as chat stability, infrastructure, servers, streamer community, exposure, etc. Overall, her choice was not entirely personal; as Pokimane shared, “For many reasons, it’s better to take less money in exchange for happiness and not to trouble my supporting community by forcing them to switch to another platform.”