Emmanuel Kellam Olaniyan (born 27 November 1997) is a Nigerian-British media personality better known as Eman Kellam. He is best known for his presenting work and his webshows British Slang With Eman Kellam & Eman Kellam & Friends.
Personal life
Olaniyan was born and raised in South London, to parents of Nigerian origin. He attended Forest Hill School, and then The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology where he studied Broadcasting and Digital Communications.
Career
YouTube
Olaniyan started creating content on his YouTube channel “EmansBlogs” in 2012.[3] He created video blogs in his kitchen. In 2014 he uploaded his most viewed video, “Pranking My African Dad”, in which at 16 years old he pranked his father by telling him he had impregnated a 14-year-old girl.
This video has had over 500 million views across the internet (9 million on his YouTube channel as of April 2025) and has been discussed and shared across various platforms including WorldStarHipHop and Bossip.
Olaniyan and his father are often credited as key figures in African meme culture because their prank video has spawned several one liners that have been used in African music, comedy and films.
French Montana collaboration
On 5 November 2016, French Montana released his album MC4 on the Apple Music show OVO Sound Radio. The show was curated by Noah “40” Shebib and Oliver El-Khatib who founded OVO Sound radio with Drake.
Olaniyan and his father featured on the show via an intro skit on French Montana’s MC4 album entitled “Check Come“. The skit was taken from Olaniyan’s “Pranking My African Dad” video.
Lifebabble, CBBC and BBC “Own It”
In January 2016, he appeared on the CBBC Channel on Lifebabble.
In February 2018 Olaniyan appeared on the same channel as a guest presenter to promote “BBC Own It”, a new online learning resource commissioned by the BBC aimed at 9-12 year olds. Covering a range of topics that would relate to children growing up in the digital age. Own It launched nationally on Tuesday 7 February 2018. He then made several guest presenting appearances on the channel along with featuring in other CBBC shows.
YouTube Black Voices
In January 2021 YouTube announced the international list of creators of the inaugural YouTube Black Voices Class of 2021, of which Olaniyan was a UK class member.
Some members of the class of 2021 were also featured in the September 2021 issue of British Vogue in which Olaniyan was also included. Quote from British Vogue feature “As YouTube expands its diverse community, the Class of 2021 are the new figureheads in the making to follow. Prepare to watch those featured here go stratospheric”.
British Slang With Eman Kellam Series
Olaniyan produces a “British Slang With Eman Kellam” series on his YouTube channel. In it he asks predominantly American actors to try and figure out the meaning of linguistics commonly used by youth in the United Kingdom. (“Multicultural London English”) also known as MLE.
Celebrity guests include Gabrielle Union, Denzel Washington, Childish Gambino, Regina Hall, Keke Palmer, Daniel Kaluuya and Issa Rae.
Olaniyan has been given praise by Vogue Business for his “authentic style” in which audiences have gravitated towards across various different platforms.[
