Amelia Dimoldenberg Speaking Fee: $30,000 to $50,000

Growing up on a diet of Hollywood teen heroines, from Mary Kate and Ashley’s cinematic empire to The Amanda Show, Amelia Dimoldenberg had early dreams of being The Main Character™. “I also wanted to be editor of Vogue growing up,” she admits, a role she sees now fulfilled by the curation and commissioning of her own online content platforms. Sitting at over 4.5 million followers on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram combined, at the centre of one of 2022’s most viral moments with Louis Theroux and ‘Jiggle Jiggle’ and having been awarded both a Streamy Award in 2021 and Woman of the Year by Glamour Magazine in 2022, it’s safe to say Amelia might just be the star of the show right now. But that kind of crossover appeal and loyal fandom didn’t materialize overnight. Her first ever video episode of Chicken Shop Date with rapper Ghetts was posted over 8 years ago on the channel and since then she’s stacked up 75 more dates. “At the beginning not that many people were seeing it, it wasn’t getting many eyeballs at all. I think growing my personal brand separate to [the show] and things like TikTok have really helped with that.” And as the viewership grew and grew, and so did the size of the guests, bringing her idiosyncratic interview style to brand new contexts and building a name for herself independently. In 2020, she launched a second show on her own channel called Amelia’s Cooking Show that does exactly what it says on the tin and offers a slightly more laid back but equally chaotic viewing affair, but started to firmly establish Dimoldenberg as one of the UK’s most exciting broadcasters. “I kind of want my YouTube channel to be essentially like a TV station, the new version of it.” When it comes to traditional television, Dimoldenberg has a stronghold there too, with spots on the investigative Meet The Markles (C4), presenting at the helm of Celebrity Rebrand (C4), Mystery Girl (Vice) and Who Cares (Dave) and as a guest on the Taskmaster NYD 2023 special. Though Amelia’s often deadpan delivery has connected with a distinctly British sense of humour over the years, the States have always been a source of inspiration for the comedian with some of the best and brightest in bizarro interview formats hailing from across the Atlantic. Whether that’s Zach Galifinakis’ painfully literal ‘Between Two Ferns’ or Nathan Fielder’s docu-series ‘Nathan For You’ that sees him consult rather unhelpfully on people with struggling businesses, “[both] blend an interview so well with a comedy skit. Sometimes I think I lean more towards being strictly comedy than an interview,” reckons Dimoldenberg, whose original degree was in Fashion Journalism from CSM. “I think I’m actually more interested in entertaining people rather than being somewhere where people learn about someone. Because I think there are so many other places that do that so well.” As far as influences closer to home, Amelia vividly recalls the awkward charm of 90s animated series Creature Comforts, as well as Simon Amstell’s Pop World interviews as having a huge impact: “he caught celebrities off guard and asked cheeky, naughty questions. He wasn’t afraid to make something feel uncomfortable.” Now famed for her own signature off-centre conversational style, situated in a versatile range of everyday contexts, Dimoldenberg has mastered the dance of the modern anti-interview. Alongside the thrill of toe- curling content, there’s a subtle defiance in her stolen glances to camera and perfectly placed awkward pauses that helps shatter the social conventions often placed on us, especially as women to be polished, pleasant and amicable at all times. The other part of the charm lies in her tactics’ ability to totally disarm those she meets with it, allowing them to drop the barriers of professionalism in favour of something more playful, charismatic or – in Amelia’s best-case scenario - a side of them they haven’t shown before. And having racked up over 194 million views across her YouTube channel alone with increasingly huge guest stars from Daniel Kaluuya to Rosalia to Louis Theroux, it’s clear that there is a massive appetite for exactly what she offers. (Chicken nuggets aside.) Tapping into even more of that “refreshingly awkward content” is precisely what Amelia wants to do with her production company Dimz Inc in the years to come. Having founded it in 2021, Dimoldenberg sought to solidify the DIY system that she’d long been heading up as the producer of her own comedic ventures: “I think content creators, by nature of being one, you are a production company anyway.” With Dimz Inc, her ambitions stretch beyond her own content too, with the eventual aim to facilitate and house other inimitable talents just like hers. “I would love in the future to be making shows for other people that I’m not [starring] in, at least one by next year hopefully” she says.” Branding itself in its manifesto as “allergic to being generic in any way” is a perfect nod to Amelia’s rise so far. Despite her ever-growing fanbase, she’s been careful to stay selective and specific with the work she does. “I have to believe in it, it has to make sense, be interesting or entertaining and it needs to feel like I’ve shaped it in a way where I’m the only person that could have done it.” And as an ambassador for fashion house Coach and skincare titan Olay alongside landing campaigns with universal brands such as Sky, Candy Crush, Google, Popchips, JD Sports, Rightguard and acting as full-scale creative lead on a campaign with VOXI, that discerning approach is proving to be wildly successful. Elsewhere, Amelia has been covered in profiles and features by New York Times, Sunday Times Culture, Vogue and on the cover of GQ Hype and 10 Magazine, as well as making appearances being interviewed for Pharrell’s OTHERtone podcast, or presenting at awards shows such as The BRITs, The NME Awards, The Mercury’s, Reading & Leeds Festival. British GQ’s Men of the Year Red Carpet and her U.S red carpet debut at the 2021 Golden Globes. After manifesting and creating her childhood dreams, as the star of her own show, making folks laugh for a living and topping her own media gem, Dimoldenberg is standing at the top of the mountain, surveying a future far more vast than even her most ambitious childhood self could have imagined. America feels the natural next step to take in priming for world domination: “I think it’s so exciting, like a new frontier that was so unexpected. I never thought that I would grow an audience [out there].” Elsewhere, she’s already written a script, taken screenwriting courses and directed a short film, all routes she’d love to explore in the long-term, as well as diving into the world of comedic acting. “I’m dying to get into Chicken Run 2,” she says with a totally straight face, “but it’s proving impossible!”