Renato Shippee has gained huge recognition over the last three years by creating the character Karen Kardasha. The humorous drag queen gained almost 6 million followers on Instagram, became an influencer and became the public’s darling on the web. The actor and model, however, didn’t feel completely fulfilled hiding behind a wig and lots of make-up. In 2023, he sought to connect even more with himself and show the public who he really is.
He then decided to distance himself from Karen in a way that ended up bringing him even more visibility: he created an OnlyFans page. Anyone who thinks he performs fetishes like his character is mistaken; no, the actor decided to be 100% himself and bring the public closer to this side of him.
“I think the interesting thing for me is to show people another side, I think what caught my attention most about OnlyFans was exactly this opportunity to distance my image from Karen. I thought that, by joining this platform, I had the chance for people to see me as Renato, and no longer as Karen”, says the actor in an exclusive interview with Notícias da TV.
Shippee moved to the United States about seven years ago in search of opportunities in the entertainment industry. With the creation of Karen Kardasha, however, he found himself stuck in a single type of role and it became increasingly difficult to get chances to show his versatility as an actor. “They just reused and recycled the character I was already playing, so there was no challenge,” he adds.
“Before Karen, I had never dressed as a woman, worn make-up, long hair or heels. It was a great challenge, but that’s not all I am. When the OnlyFans opportunity came up, I saw that I could distance my image from hers in some way, as well as obviously being a platform where you make money without depending on brands,” he explains, adding that Karen has always done a lot of advertising, while he didn’t have as much visibility.
“From that moment on, it became almost the same. Renato’s and Karen’s incomes were very similar, so OnlyFans brought everything together for me: the financial issue and the possibility of distancing myself from the character”, he ponders.
Renato Shippee says that even his relationship with his physique changed after he started working on the adult content platform. Whereas before he tried to make his body more feminine, now he bets on his masculinity and dedicates himself to the gym more and more. “I feel much more like myself. I was given over to Karen, so I shaved off my eyebrows, lost weight so I wouldn’t have muscles and so on. When you see me today, you can tell: ‘Really, you’re two different people’. Now there’s Renato,” he celebrates.
Hollywood role
Renato Shippee opened his OnlyFans account just over a month ago, but has already seen results for his career. He is looking for opportunities as an actor and has been cast in a role he has never done before.
Shippee will be part of the movie The Black Box, by Brazilian director and screenwriter Vitor Cardoso. The contact even came about because of his profile on the platform. “They said: ‘You’ve changed your image a lot, haven’t you? We saw your profile on OnlyFans and we’ve never seen you like this before. You’ll be perfect for the role,'” he says. “In the script, they needed a Latin man who all the girls who pass him look at, whose aesthetic draws attention. I’ve never been offered a role even close to that.”
In addition to the visibility, Shippee was also shocked by the earnings he made in a single month on the site. “We know that one month isn’t much, since it works like a subscription. The monthly fee starts out low and when it turns into a year, I earn a bit more. As I only have this first month as a parameter, I can say that it was very big. I joined the 1% of OnlyFans creators,” he says.
“Without making any kind of video with other people, just posting my own content, which is photo shoots on my own. It was well worth it,” he concludes.