Digital content creator King Kenny is among the 21 celebrities joining Claudia Winkleman for the second series of The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One. The 29-year-old has more than 2 million YouTube subscribers and co-founded the Beta Squad collective. The Faithfuls and Traitors will compete for a prize fund of £100,000, which will be donated to a charity of their choice.
Real name and YouTube career
King Kenny's real name is Kenny Ojuederie. He launched his YouTube account in 2013 at 16 years old with entertainment, vlogs and pranking videos. He has since accumulated 2.25 million YouTube subscribers on his main channel and 449,000 on his More Kenny account. He also has 777,000 Instagram followers and 673,300 on TikTok.
Arrest at university
Three years after starting his YouTube channel, while studying media at Brunel University, Kenny was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence. He was filming a prank dressed as an evil clown and wielding a chainsaw around campus. The Sun reported in 2019 that he was arrested and later released on bail.
He apologised, saying: "I'm really nervous. I don't know what is going to happen. It's such a mess. First of all I want to say a massive sorry to anyone I have scared. Secondly, this was a YouTube video. All those people in the video, they were my friends. It was a pre-planned thing, and none of the people who I chased were strangers. Everyone could see me talking to my friends beforehand. There are 400 cameras on the campus and you can check them and see that the people I chased are my friends. People are making me out to be a terrorist."
Beta Squad and boxing
In 2019, Kenny became co-founder of the YouTube collective Beta Squad, which also features previous Celebrity Traitors contestant Niko Omilana and internet star Chunkz. They moved into a London mansion together, creating daily social media content. The collective has 11.7 million YouTube subscribers and more than three million TikTok followers.
Kenny is also an aspiring boxer, taught by his sibling Daley Perales, who appeared as a Big Brother housemate in 2013. He entered the ring in 2021 at the YouTubers vs. TikTokers event and has since taken part in numerous exhibition and professional bouts. Earlier this year, he announced his retirement from boxing after breaking a rib during a sparring session.
Fans can watch him on The Celebrity Traitors on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 8pm on Thursday, October 1.
