On a rare day off from his typical shenanigans — cosplaying a therapy session with Kim Kardashian, constructing words in a spelling bee with Mariah Carey, singing old tunes with the Jonas Brothers — Kai Cenat scrolled on a computer in the world’s most recognizable basement bedroom.

Foam cushioning protruded from the side of his tattered leather chair, which was fastened together by tape. A customized Batman action figure and a can of whipped cream sat on a countertop. The cheetah-print carpet was uneven with dents.

Cenat, 23, knows that these surroundings would need a refurbishing to match the rest of his multimillion-dollar home’s sleek aesthetic. Guests must check in with a security guard, and the backyard has a basketball court and sprawling views of the Georgia mountains.

But downstairs, Cenat (pronounced seh-NAT) embraces the flaws. Each imperfection reminds him of a moment he shared in real time with a giant online audience.

“I try not to touch my room too much because it’s just memories,” Cenat said. An arcade machine and a Spider-Man villain’s mask decorated the space. The dark-brown patches of carpet? Blame the indoor fireworks. “This is where stuff goes crazy. All the stains on the floor happened on stream, so I look at them as trophies.”

For an internet-obsessed generation, Cenat’s bedroom is its version of Lorne Michaels’s Studio 8H or Oprah Winfrey’s beige sectional couch.

It is where the comedian Kevin Hart, one of his mentors, was doused with ice water while sleeping, as some of Cenat’s record 19 million Twitch followers watched. It is where Cenat and the rapper Nicki Minaj held a mini dance party. Even when there are no superstar guests, Cenat’s fans still faithfully observe. They watch him eat. They watch him play video games. They watch him sleep. They have made him one of the most successful streamers on the internet.

Nearly 50 million people tuned in during a monthlong Twitch stream last year, an audience that stacks well against your favorite reality show or drama series. With his nontraditional ascent to fame, Cenat is challenging, or perhaps redefining, the concept of appointment viewing.

“He is the new late-night talk show host,” said the rapper Snoop Dogg, who smoked marijuana with Cenat on stream. “He is the leader of that new wave which puts people in control of their own destiny.”

With nothing left to prove in streaming, Cenat hopes to further bridge the gap between content creators and traditional celebrities. He has had some crossover success with innovative streams at the Grammys and the Met Gala, and he will be making his lead acting debut in a feature film with Hart.

But does Hollywood know what to do with a figure whose devotees worship at a computer monitor instead of a silver screen? And does Cenat even need its cooperation when its biggest stars flock to his domain?

At least for now, Cenat said, it is a worthwhile test.

“I always think of it like there’s different demographics, different pods and lakes of people that just tap into different things,” he said. “I want to talk to another audience. I can talk to them directly so they can see my vision.”

‘A Different Motor’

His 5-foot-3 frame covered in a baggy denim outfit, Cenat appeared a tad nervous as he sat on a basement stool, his hands enveloped by the jacket’s sleeves. As he small talked about what was a relatively relaxed schedule for an August afternoon, his voice slightly stuttered.

The tranquil mood contrasted with his on-camera persona — boisterous, chaotic and frenzied. His video sessions, which often last multiple hours, include little downtime. They capture him eating McDonald’s sandwiches with John Cena and shooting flamethrowers.

“I just want to be entertaining and I want to have fun,” Cenat said. “I want the normal person to click on my stream and be like, ‘How the hell is he doing this?’”

Cenat’s antics have reached far beyond his basement. After his frequent use of the made-up word “rizz” — slang for “charisma” — spread to the real world, the Oxford University Press added the term to its dictionary in 2023.

One night the following year, Cenat reacted live to songs that Drake and Kendrick Lamar released during their rap feud, his platform temporarily becoming the beef’s epicenter. (Drake had direct messaged Cenat in advance, telling him to “stay on stream.”)

And last month, Cenat finished his third Mafiathon, a 30-day nonstop stream during which he documented almost every second of his life. He rented a mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif., to be closer to the actors and musicians who visited, and retrofitted nearly every crevice with cameras — underwater in the pool, inside the gym — to broadcast everything. It was “Big Brother” with your little brother.

“His fans are just as engaging with him as he is with them,” said the comedian Druski, a frequent collaborator with Cenat. “Once you notice that and the stream is live, it’s like you’re on a stage and they notice every single movement. You can’t pick your nose around him.”

More than 160,000 Twitch users watched Cenat take a shower in swimming trunks. There was not much privacy. Even the bathroom breaks were calculated. “I try not to be too long in there because I don’t want anybody to be like, ‘Yo, he’s slacking,’” Cenat said.

During his second Mafiathon, a nurse administered intravenous therapy fluids on camera after Cenat coughed blood one morning. More often, he relies on energy drinks. He frequently uses profanity, but also recites the Lord’s Prayer to calm anxiety.

LeBron James, 40, the oldest player in the N.B.A., said he was impressed with Cenat’s stamina.

“You have to have a different motor to be doing that the way he does it all the time and still keep a positive attitude,” said James, who cut off Cenat’s dreadlocks on the final day of Mafiathon 3. “I don’t know how he can top what he’s doing, but if it’s up to Kai, he will figure it out.”

Personalities like MrBeast, Jake Paul and Ninja had already demonstrated that content creation could be a multibillion-dollar industry. But with his bubbly personality, Cenat has transformed the playbook. Instead of pranks and video game walk-throughs, he regularly creates buzzy moments with some of the world’s most recognizable celebrities. They visit to promote projects or simply have fun.

“I think a lot of companies out there are scratching their heads because they’re like, ‘What is this guy doing? How is this the most popular thing in the world?’” said Joe Jonas, whose band the Jonas Brothers led Cenat through a songwriting exercise last month. “What I think is most inspiring is it comes from his heart.”

Anything Can Happen

Alongside the plaques in Cenat’s bedroom that honor his accomplishments (e.g., one million YouTube subscribers) is a map of the Bronx that serves as a reminder of his modest past.

Cenat was born in New York and raised in a single-parent household by his Trinidadian mother. They and his three siblings settled in an apartment in the Bronx for Cenat’s high school years after briefly spending time in a homeless shelter in Georgia.

Cenat abandoned sports after trying basketball, track and soccer, and soon began uploading short videos of skits online. He tried to mimic relatable scenarios like tense student-teacher relationships; in one video, he attached paper clips to his fingers to portray a woman with long nails.

“I look back at it, I kind of cringe at them,” he said. “But it was the start.”

Cenat eventually enrolled at the State University of New York at Morrisville, a four-hour drive from Yankee Stadium. Internet personality was not an academic track. So in 2019 he made the goal to upload at least one video to YouTube every two days, regardless of the demands of coursework or social events.

Those videos caught the attention of Fanum, who periodically invited Cenat to visit his content-creator group in Georgia — known as Any Means Possible, or AMP — to learn the trade. (Cenat now lives with Fanum and other AMP members in a $2.7 million home they bought together in the Atlanta suburbs.)

As the coronavirus pandemic halted in-person classes, Cenat dropped out of school. He migrated from YouTube to Twitch when he noticed he could cultivate a more intimate, interactive connection with his audience during livestreams.

Cenat said he was initially hesitant about the raw, unfiltered nature of that content. Observers would see and hear things he could have removed from a YouTube video, such as his mother yelling at him to turn off his computer. But Fanum encouraged him to embrace it.

“That’s what people want to see,” Cenat said, recalling his conversation with Fanum. “People want to see that relatable stuff because, at home, they are going through the same exact thing. You’re human, you need to show that.”

Heeding that advice led to one of Cenat’s first viral sequences on Twitch. As he was doing push-ups in his room, a rodent scurried across the floor.

“I said, ‘It’s over, nobody’s going to like me,’” Cenat said. “‘Everybody’s going to think I’m dirty.’”

But the reception was mostly positive, with people laughing on social media and in the live chat. From there, Cenat’s online following and reputation grew. He would soon learn that also came with responsibilities.

Real-Life Chaos

From his basement setup, Cenat informed his followers in August 2023 that he would soon be giving away PlayStation 5 video game consoles at Union Square in Manhattan.

“You have to pull up,” Cenat said on stream.

They pulled up — about 6,000 of them — a legion of young people summoned by their idol. But what Cenat hoped would be a jovial afternoon descended into lawless mayhem. Fans threw objects at New York Police Department officers. They climbed lampposts, banged on cars and blocked traffic.

“I believe he saw that day how much influence he really has,” Jeffrey Maddrey, who was then the chief of police, said in a television interview that week.

Cenat and more than 60 other people — nearly half of whom were under 18 — were arrested, and Cenat was charged with inciting a riot. The authorities later dropped the charges after he posted a social media apology and paid $55,000 in restitution.

”It was a day to learn a lesson, and in order to learn, you got to lose some times,” Cenat said. Although he spoke openly about that day’s events, his responses were polished, repeating phrases (“It was not my intention” and “I didn’t truly understand my influence”) from previous public statements.

Cenat said that he wished he had communicated with the police beforehand and that he would do another giveaway in the future with proper planning.

The legal challenges did not kill Cenat’s momentum. A-list talent kept visiting his basement, and he picked up sponsorships from Nike and McDonald’s. But the chaos in Union Square is often in the back of his mind.

“Whenever I’m at a public event, I get PTSD,” Cenat said with a chuckle.

After Cenat recorded a podcast in June that included James and the retired N.F.L. quarterback Tom Brady at Fanatics Fest, a sports convention in Manhattan, a sea of bodies descended upon him, causing a standstill.

Security walled off the fans, their arms flailing for autographs or selfies. Viewers watching the madness online — of course a camera man was following Cenat to stream the action — typed “PTSD” in the chat.

A Transition Period

“I never give him any warning,” Snoop Dogg said, grabbing one of his phones during a break from a television shoot in a Los Angeles suburb. Snoop Dogg, 53, and Cenat bonded last year when the streamer stole the rapper’s candy from his dressing room while they filmed a commercial for T-Mobile.

After a few rings, Cenat answered the FaceTime call.

“Nephew!” Snoop Dogg exclaimed.

“Unc Unc!” Cenat responded, using slang for “uncle.”

Streaming is a natural transition in entertainment, argued Snoop Dogg, similar to how vinyl records became iTunes downloads. “I think the world will find its way to receiving people like him and giving him positions of power,” he said.

As his career enters its next phase, Cenat wants to blend the new and old regimes. This year, he started Streamer University, an in-person camp-like seminar — streamed live — to teach young content creators the best business practices.

He has appeared on talk shows with the hosts Jimmy Fallon and Jennifer Hudson, and livestreamed the red carpet arrivals and behind-the scenes vantage points of this year’s Grammy Awards and a Met Gala after-party. The Grammys stream drew 3.3 million live views even as the award ceremony’s broadcast viewership has declined.

“Kai brings additional eyeballs,” said Harvey Mason Jr., the chief executive of the Recording Academy, which puts on the Grammys. “He’s shifting how people are consuming, how they’re watching and listening.”

During a backstage conversation at the BET Awards this year, Hart informed Cenat that he had given the network an ultimatum: He would host the ceremony only if the network gave Cenat permission to stream it. (A spokeswoman for Hart said he was unavailable for comment.)

“Yes, he wants to come into your world, but you have to be willing to step into his,” said Matt Alsberg, Cenat’s agent at United Talent Agency.

Last week, Cenat shared a movie trailer for “Livestream From Hell,” a thriller comedy with Hart and Druski that is based on their frequent sleepovers on Twitch. Cenat said he eventually wanted to create his own production company to direct theatrical movies.

“I’m a perfectionist, I want everything to be exactly how I want it,” Cenat said. “And I’ve achieved a lot of things so I don’t want to ever let anybody down.”

When he finished talking, Cenat walked up to his computer desk and sat in his tattered chair. To his right was one of the cleaner parts of the basement. On a white board covered in blue marker were some goals and a to-do list.