Fanum (streamer)

Roberto Gonzalez (born August 22, 1997), better known online as Fanum, is an American streamer and content creator. Fanum emerged online around 2016. He is known for being the originator of the vernacular "''Fanum tax''". He won "Breakout Streamer of the Year" at the 13th Streamy Awards and the "Best Roleplay Streamer" of the year award at the 2022 Streamer Awards and 2023 Streamer Awards. He is a member of the streamer collective Any Means Possible (AMP).

Early life

Fanum was born on August 22, 1997, in The Bronx, New York City to parents from the Dominican Republic. He has a younger brother who has appeared in his videos. He speaks English and Spanish. After graduating from Bronx Early College Academy, Fanum enrolled in New York City College of Technology but left mid semester to focus on earning money for his YouTube equipment.

Career

Fanum began streaming on Twitch in November 2016 and made his YouTube channel, JustFanum, in May 2017. He posted his first video in February 2019. He streamed NBA 2K and later expanded to IRL vlogs, which often drew upon his experiences in New York.

In March 2023, he won "Best Roleplay Streamer" at the 2022 Streamer Awards. On August 27, 2023 Fanum won "Breakout Streamer of the Year" at the 13th Streamy Awards. Fanum has been featured on the music video for Offset's September 2023 single " Fan" alongside Kai Cenat.

In February 2024, he won "Best Roleplay Streamer" at the 2023 Streamer Awards. On June 2, 2024, he played in a soccer charity match hosted by British YouTube group Beta Squad and American YouTube group AMP at Selhurst Park, London, England, where he played for team AMP. The event raised money for The Water Project. Later that month, he appeared as a contestant in the Sidemen reality competition series ''Inside''. The series features 10 guests who compete in challenges to secure a prize fund totalled at £1 million, with everything they buy or do costing money from the prize fund. He was in the show for seven days and finished in 4th place. Later in December 2024, he was nominated for "Best Roleplay Streamer" at the 2024 Streamer Awards.

On February 14, 2025, Fanum participated in "Match for Hope 2025", a soccer charity event hosted in Doha, Qatar, as a player for team AboFlah & KSI, facing off against team Chunkz & IShowSpeed. The match ended with team AboFlah & KSI's 6-5 victory over team Chunkz & IShowSpeed. The event managed to raise more than $10.7 million for charity.

On March 8, 2025, Fanum participated in the 2025 Sidemen Charity Match, held at Wembley Stadium in London, United Kingdom, playing for the YouTube Allstars team.

AMP Group

Fanum is an original and prominent member of the American content collective known as Any Means Possible (AMP). He contributes to the group's collaborative challenge videos. Fanum invited popular streamer Kai Cenat to the AMP group. In August 2023, Kai Cenat was arrested following a meet-and-greet he hosted with Fanum in Union Square Park that resulted in at least 2,000 people crowding the park. The event resulted in property destruction and several injuries. While no charges were placed against Fanum, Cenat was charged with inciting a riot.

Fanum tax

''Fanum tax'' is an Internet slang term describing the theft of food between friends. The first usage of ''Fanum tax'' referred exclusively to Fanum, who jokingly "taxed" snacks by taking bites of food from fellow content creators during streams. The term circulated among the YouTube collective AMP in late 2022 and was popularized especially during Fanum's Twitch streams with popular American YouTuber Kai Cenat, where Fanum would take Cenat's cookies. In an interview with ''Wired'', Fanum defined the term as:

Let's say your friend having a meal, he's having a good meal, and you just want a piece of that meal. Like, you know what I'm saying? You need a share. That's your friend and the friend's share, right? Get you a little piece of the meal. It's the Fanum tax. You just go ahead and just like, lemme get a little bit of 5%, 10% of the meal, maybe 20%.

On October 2, 2023, a TikTok account under the username @ovp.9 posted a short video of a character from the online video game ''Fortnite'' "singing" to a musical parody of the 2021 song " Ecstasy" by Suicidal Idol. The parody, titled either "Sticking Out Your Gyat for the Rizzler" or "You're so skibidi, you’re so fanum tax", features multiple internet culture terms including '' gyatt'', ''Skibidi Toilet'', ''rizz'' and '' Sigma male''. The song was used in many videos on TikTok, inspiring the mass creation of videos featuring ''Minecraft''-inspired games on the platform. The sound was used in over 195,000 videos and amassed over 321 million views on TikTok. ''The New York Times'' referred to the term as "the language of Gen Alpha."

Filmography

Awards

References

External links

Fanum Twitch channel

FanumLive YouTube channel

JustFanum YouTube channel

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fanum
American video bloggers
American Twitch (service) streamers
YouTubers from the Bronx
Living people
Streamer Award winners
English-language YouTube channels
1997 births
American people of Dominican Republic descent