Delaney Rowe isn’t a terrible actor in real life; she just plays one on social media.
This Idaho-raised content creator found internet fame during lockdown, skewering clichés of film and TV (from "the absolutely insufferable female lead of an indie movie" to "the terminally ill character in every movie with a wry sense of humor and ironic zest for life"), and highlighting the laziness of less obvious tropes ("the found footage of the wife who dies in the beginning of a holiday movie").
Rowe’s 4 million followers on Instagram and TikTok have made her a Fashion Week and red carpet favorite, working with publishers such as Nylon, Marie Claire, and Elle, and drawing major advertisers, including Gucci. Rowe's authenticity comes out even in her paid partnerships, which feel seamless, self-aware, and hilarious. One highlight is a Venmo-sponsored post entitled, “What I spend in a day as a niche micro internet celebrity.” Plus, she's writing her first book of comedy essays.
However, Rowe always keeps her primary platforms in mind.
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"I think that TikTok is performing, but it's also writing," Rowe told Mashable a few years ago. "I write all of these videos. And so I just think that it's helped not so much my actual prose, but it's helped to enrich my creativity as a whole. It just makes my life feel full of creative opportunities.
"I can film a video or I can stop and then go write, or I can go audition for something," Rowe said. "And that's the ultimate blessing of this job. It's a day that is rich in creativity. It's helped me take my writing less seriously."
Rowe joked that her writing was "really pretentious" in years past.
"And now it's really weird and much more representative of what goes on inside my head," she said. "That's definitely due to being on TikTok."