The real-life roommates living like ‘Broad City’
Cymone and Kayla are taking their sudden virality seriously.
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Roommates Cymone and Kayla met for the fourth time when Kalya moved into Cymone’s Los Angeles apartment two months ago. Since then, they haven’t just nested—they’ve gained 20,000 followers on a TikTok account they started on a whim. “There have been comments where it’s like, ‘I know you guys have so much fun,’” Cymone says over Zoom. “I’m like, ‘We really do.’”
By day, Cymone manages the social media and assists in production for a content agency, and Kayla works as a host at a restaurant. But they both came to the city to pursue modeling and acting, respectively. “I don’t like to say I’m ‘trying’ to be an actor because I’ve been acting,” Kayla says. “I always say I’m just not being paid for it yet.”
It was on TikTok where the pair first struck gold, posting skits based on their everyday interactions. Almost immediately, they were all over For You pages. “this is the third time i’m seeing yall in one day im following,” one comment reads.
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In this interview, we talk about their whirlwind month online, how they approach their comedy, and why TikTok is a necessary stepping stone for all aspiring performers—even if, like Kayla, you haven’t posted on Instagram in three years.
Were you making content on social media independently before you started creating together?
Cymone: I was, yeah. I’ve always been very photogenic in the sense that I’ve always loved getting dressed up and taking pictures, and then I started modeling, and so then I would model and I would post the pictures from whatever shoot it was. And Reels became very important on Instagram. So it was like, okay, BTS of my shoot, posting my shoot, posting, posting, posting, posting, posting. I’m starting to do UGC, I’m starting to try and create a brand for myself. And then on top of that, like I said, I’m a production assistant for a content creation agency, and so while I help actively on set, my boss also has me take BTS and I use that BTS and the final to post on our page. So I’m constantly doing content. Kayla, I’ll let her get into it, but Kayla has not posted in three years on her own account.
It’s really funny because us moving in together was like our third or fourth time meeting. We’re not long time friends. We were mostly mutuals. And then I would go see my friend in Florida, she was his roommate. But then she moved here and we were just having such a great time, so many laughs. And one day I was just like, “That’s it. We’re gonna make a TikTok.” I don’t know what happened, but we were on the couch as we always are, just laughing. A lot of it really is like situational things where it’s just like, “Oh, this happened in real life.” And we’re like, “Actually, that’d be really funny.” So we record it. And so that’s kind of how our TikTok came about.
Kayla: I’ve never been big on posting. I think I haven’t posted on my Instagram—not like the timeline. I post on my Story regularly. I’m very updated about what’s happening in the world. I post about the things I believe in, what’s going on. But on my actual timeline, I don’t think I’ve posted in three years. Junior year of college I posted like four times or something. And then I dropped off the internet and I haven’t posted anything since. And I never wanted to get on TikTok. I love watching TikToks, but I was just never interested in actually creating TikToks. And I’ve been told—’cause you know, I’m a little funny. Just a little bit. And so I’ve heard that from my friends for years: “You should get on TikTok, you should post on TikTok.” And I’ve always just been like, “I just don’t think it’s my thing.” I got here and Cymone was like, “Come on, let’s just post. It doesn’t have to be a big deal. We’ll just post.” And I was like, “Okay, fine. We can do it.” And then I guess everybody was right.
It’s like, you’re in LA now. Get on TikTok.
Kayla: And I’m slowly working towards making my first post on Instagram again.
That’ll be huge. When you’re having those moments with friends and then you’re like, “This is really funny, we should post it.” That’s such a common thing, but rarely does it translate the way that yours actually has. What has that been like?
Cymone: The first couple of videos were getting like 2000 views. The first big one might have been the Wicked video that we posted. In my head I’m just like, “If I find this funny, like other people will find this funny.” And I was really happy to see it translate, because for me, my favorite compliment is, “You’re so funny.” Like, skip “pretty,” skip “you’re so cool.” Something about making people laugh, I have a different relationship with it for whatever reason. Think about how it feels when you’re scrolling on TikTok and something you watch just really has you floored. I love being that video for people.
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Kayla: I feel the same way as Cymone. I’ve always been the funny friend, even from middle school onward. And I really leaned into that. Obviously I had other strong suits, but the nice part about that is like, I know one of the comments I’ve seen a couple of times is people talking about my facial expressions. And for me, physical comedy was the first thing I realized I was good at when it came to performing, the ability to pull a face. The ability to alter my voice. Those things are what made me realize that I have somewhat of a stage presence. And I feel the same way as her, which I think is why it’s worked out so well. I love being entertainment for people. I love making people laugh, being the court jester, like that is not a problem. To get the laugh, I’ll do just about anything and I have done anything. So to put it online, I think it was very unexpected for me. And probably for Cymone as well.
Cymone: It’s crazier for me because I’ve been posting for so long. I’ve never had a page grow this fast and as consistently as this is. I have a couple videos on my personal TikTok where I would post my modeling stuff and I had I think three videos go viral. But it was just one of those things where it was like, even though I would be posting consistently, I wasn’t getting that consistent engagement. And so for our page in one month to have 20,000 followers, I’m personally blown away. Not that we’re not talented and we’re not funny and we’re not cool, but I’ve always been those things and like, why haven’t we blown up before? And so to finally get this kind of validation that I’ve been trying to pursue for so long, I would love to keep this momentum going.
I saw a video of someone else being like, “I cannot stop watching these roommates’ videos.” You’ve started to become your own moment. When did you realize things were getting real?
Cymone: I feel like it might have been “Pop my butt” because we got like two people who remade it.
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Kayla: There was one guy, I don’t remember what his account was, some guy made a video where he was singing something. And from our Wicked video, someone had taken screenshots of both of our faces and spliced the image together. So we’re both like looking at each other. And this guy was making a singing video about something and he messed something up and he edited the video and put that image in the video and it had like a booming sound effect. And someone sent that to us and I was like holy shit. We’ve talked about putting a camera in our apartment, just ‘cause that’s what it’s like when the camera’s not on. It stays like that. We’re trying to make each other laugh.
Cymone: There, there have been comments where it’s like, “I know you guys have so much fun.” I’m like, “We really do.”
Kayla: We cannot watch an episode of a television show without pausing it. Even a show we love, we cannot watch it for ten minutes without pausing it. And then just clowning on it or reenacting. And it’s always physical. Like someone has to get up and reenact the entire thing.
Cymone: We had “pop my butt,” we had the Bad Girls Club one, and the White Chicks sound. And it got to a point where we were in our elevator and one tenant who I always see, he was like, “Oh my God. I think I saw your guys’ TikTok. I thought it was so funny. You have a new follower.” And I was like, “Oh my God, thank you so much.” We go to Trader Joe’s and this girl is like, “Hey, I saw you guys on TikTok.” So I guess that for me was probably, to answer your question, when we were like, okay, so we’re a little bit popular. A little bit.
Has this changed at all how you approach making videos? Like, okay, we need to do a schedule?
Cymone: We definitely have a schedule. Depending on our work weeks, it’s like, “Okay, I’m off Wednesday. You’re off Wednesday. We can get a few videos in this day.” But at first we were doing two videos a day. And Kayla was like, “I wanna sit down.” And I was like, I get it. That’s on me. I’m used to just setting up a camera and go. And so we started a schedule. We also have a shared note in our phone. Like if either of us see something, an idea on social media or we come up with an idea, add it to the note so that on content making days, it’s like, “Okay, which ones do we wanna do today?”
Kayla: And you have to hit a certain number of followers and then you start getting monetized. I really think it’s an opportunity for us to show off what our skills are. And so it’s finding a balance of, “Okay, we have to do these few trending audios because that keeps people engaged in our content.” But also I wanna actually do this minute long skit, because then we can show people that it’s not just one-off trending audios. Like we are funny people inherently, we can write a script, we can do a little physical comedy. We could do all of that.
You mentioned skits, but now that you do have this platform, are there any other things you’re hoping to do?
Cymone: My friend, she and her boyfriend have a TikTok and you can qualify them as TikTok famous. And when they first started, she was living with me and I would consistently be sending her ideas like, “Oh, you and him do this. You and Connor can do this, do this, do this.” So now that we’ve started up, she’ll send us, “Oh, this is funny. You guys can do this. This is how you guys can do this.” And so a recent one that we’ve got is a spoof on Disney Channel scenes.
When it comes to future ideas, I think for me, I would just love to keep the momentum we have in terms of thinking of something and executing it well enough for it to still be as funny as it is in our head. With this page, it’s challenging my creative ability. And I’m excited to challenge it because I think we’re the funniest people ever.
Do you have a goal of what you’d ultimately like this to turn into?
Kayla: I want to pursue acting in a professional capacity, and for me that includes all things. I don’t want to just be limited to comedy. Like I said, I’ve been studying theater and acting since I was nine years old and I do an array of things. I think we were talking about it and I was like, “Look, if Bridgeton calls...I’m available.I can do the posh English accent.” And so I guess what I’m kind of hoping comes from this is getting enough attention and acknowledgement that I can get into spaces where I would actually be considered for things I want to do. And whether that’s in a comedic capacity or dramatic capacity, I would love to see both. But like, we both love Broad City. That’s an all time favorite show of ours. And seeing people comment that under our video, “Broad City vibes” or “Broad City LA version.” I would absolutely something like that to happen. I think we also said if Quinta Brunson calls and needs two people to just make coffees on set of Abbott, we’re free. We are available. I’ll mop the floors of the set. I don’t care. Of course, I’m more the acting route and Cymone’s a little more like the model route, so I’ll let her take that as well.
Cymone: I love the things that exposure and having eyes on you does, especially in the capacity that we have it now, because you just never know what kind of doors it can open. Like even her acting route, I’ve seen a handful of TikTokkers on shows that I watch and on commercials and I’m like, “Oh my God. I know them from TikTok.” I was even telling her, a lot of these casting directors, a lot of people who are making shows, they like that people know you from something else.
But for me, I’ve been doing and auditioning for a lot of commercials recently. And I mean, I love a good commercial. I love a good funny spot. My ultimate goal is to model. And so I would love some brand campaign that’s like, “We’d love to see you model for our show.” Like, “Oh, she’s funny and she can pull a face. I love that for her. We wanna have her on this on that.” And even if having this kind of exposure leads to a big agency that’s like, “Hey, we’d love to represent you.” And then on top of that, like I said, they like that people know your face already. So it does help situations, but I would love for it to take off for our ultimate goals of modeling and acting.
Kayla: It’s the stepping stones. They say you have to know people in the industry and you have to do all this, but we also live in a very different world than they did ten years, 15 years ago. And so this is kind of the way now, which I’m coming to terms with as someone who didn’t wanna be on social media, I see that this is the way of the world and unfortunately I don’t have a famous parent.
Cymone: Social media, it’s all marketing yourself. And I would love even if we start getting brand deals and stuff like that.
Kayla: Spindrift!
Cymone: She wants to work with Spindrift
Kayla: I love Spindrift Sparkling Water. The second Spindrift calls, I will be their lifelong brand ambassador.