Imane Anys

Imane Anys (; Arabic: إِيمَان أَنِيس, born 14 May 1996), known professionally as Pokimane ( or ), is a Canadian online streamer, YouTuber and influencer. She is best known for gameplay and commentary livestreams on Twitch, most notably in ''Valorant'' and ''Fortnite''. She is a co-founder of OfflineTV, an online social entertainment group of content creators.

Early life

Imane Anys was born in Morocco on 14 May 1996. Her parents were academics who immigrated to Quebec, Canada. She grew up in St. Catharines, Ontario. In middle school, Anys began playing massively multiplayer online games such as ''MapleStory'' and ''Endless Online'', where she focused on customization and socializing with other players. Anys studied chemical engineering at McMaster University but later dropped out to pursue her streaming career full-time.

Career

Twitch streaming

Anys created her Twitch account in June 2013. She began streaming later that year with a $250 PC she bought after reaching Platinum rank in ''League of Legends''. The name Pokimane is a portmanteau of ''Pokémon'' and her name, Imane.

She gained 450,000 followers on Twitch in 2017, earning her account a place within the 100 most followed on the platform. As a result of her account's rise on the platform in 2017, the Shorty Awards named her as the Best Twitch Streamer of the year. The Shorty Awards detailed that her gameplay and commentary on the popular game ''League of Legends'' propelled her to popularity on Twitch. Anys had a cameo appearance in a ''League of Legends'' trailer announcing a new game mode.

Anys has been known to stream gameplay and commentary of ''Fortnite'', which she first streamed as part of a sponsorship. At E3 in 2018, Epic Games, the developers of ''Fortnite'', arranged a pro–am event. The event paired streamers with mainstream celebrities in a match of ''Fortnite''s ''Battle Royale'' mode; Anys was paired with rapper Desiigner but shortly before the event, he was replaced with basketball player Josh Hart. In mid-March 2019, Anys addressed her declining amount of ''Fortnite'' streams, stating that she needed to "think about what I like or dislike about the content that I've been making."

Tech news website ''Digital Trends'' detailed that Anys frequently interacts with her audience and described her "laidback but enthusiastic personality" as "perfectly suited to long-form streams." Aside from streaming gaming content, Anys also podcasts and streams miscellaneous real-world moments.

As one of the more popular streamers on the platform, Twitch has directly partnered with Anys. In July 2018, Twitch selected her as one of 15 ambassadors for the 2018 iteration of their TwitchCon event. Later that month, Twitch also scheduled Anys as a partner for their Twitch Creator Camp, a series of broadcasts and articles designed to help content creators build successful channels. In March 2020, Anys signed a multi-year exclusivity with Twitch. Social Blade listed Anys as the 9th-most-followed user on Twitch, with over 8.5 million followers as of 21 December 2021. In late October 2020, Anys collaborated with U.S. representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar along with several other notable streamers including Disguised Toast and HasanAbi for a session of ''Among Us'' as part of a get-out-the-vote initiative for the 2020 United States presidential election.

Anys was named a featured honoree in the 2021 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 under the category of "Games", which noted her prominence as the largest female streamer on Twitch and as one of the founders of OfflineTV. She had 8.5 million followers on Twitch as of July 2021.

On 8 January 2022, Anys' Twitch account was suspended for 48 hours midway through an ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' watch stream following a DMCA claim from ViacomCBS. Later in the month, Anys' stream was hate raided by viewers of JiDion. He was later banned, which received the attention of streamer Ninja, who stated he would use his connections to get the ban reversed. Anys criticized this response from Ninja, particularly calling out Ninja's use of the word ''bitches'' when speaking on the issue. Anys and JiDion have since made amends. Later in February 2022, Anys re-signed with Twitch.

On 30 January 2024, Anys announced that she would stop streaming on Twitch stating that she was "done with Twitch's messy behaviour" citing the changes that the company has made in recent years. However, she has continued to stream. On 22 October 2024, Anys and fellow streamer Valkyrae hosted a livestream featuring U.S. senator Bernie Sanders in support of the Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign, along with streamers AustinShow and Sykkuno, and other popular figures such as Hank Green, Mark Cuban, and Mark Hamill.

YouTube

In addition to streaming on the Twitch platform, Anys also has multiple YouTube channels: Pokimane, Pokimane Too, Pokimane VODS, Poki ASMR, and imane. However, in 2021, Anys publicly announced that she had stopped doing ASMR, due to the amount of time and dedication it takes to make ASMR videos. The Pokimane channel features edited gaming clips from streams while Pokimane Too includes unrelated clips of her gaming content, vlogs, and podcast. On the Pokimane VODS channel, full unedited VOD clips of streams are uploaded. The Poki ASMR channel featured videos that are part of a broader YouTube community of ASMR content, though Anys has ceased uploading on the channel. In 2021, Anys launched a new channel entitled simply 'imane' which covers more personal topics and vlogs rather than gaming-related topics.

Anys was also a member of OfflineTV, a collaborative YouTube channel made up of content creators. Speaking about the channel, Anys stated, "it's not fun being a streamer and living alone, so we decided to come together in a way so we not only keep each other company but we can also collab and actually do good work and content for everyone else."

Other ventures

In October 2021, it was announced that Anys had helped launch a talent management and brand consulting firm called RTS, where she will serve as the Chief Creative Officer.

On 13 November 2023, Anys announced she launched Myna, a company that sells "healthy snack alternative" cookies. One four-pack of the company's midnight mini cookies product were sold for $28, drawing criticism from some calling the cookies overpriced. On November 18, during a livestream, she responded to the criticism stating, "When people are like 'oh my god $28 for cookies'. It's four bags, that's $7 per bag. I know, I know math is hard when you're an idiot. But, if you're a broke boy just say so". Her usage of "broke" as an insult attracted further backlash.

On 12 December 2023, Anys launched her first podcast called ''Don't Tell Anyone''.

On 17 January 2024, Anys made a special guest appearance at Samsung's biannual Galaxy Unpacked event, where she demonstrated the new gaming features of the S24 Series of devices' adaptive displays.

Acting

In October 2019, it was announced that Anys, among a number of other internet personalities, would appear in the film ''Free Guy'', directed by Shawn Levy, which was released in August 2021. She also appeared in the music video for Bella Poarch's song "Inferno", released in August 2021. In March 2025, she starred in the music video for d4vd's song "What Are You Waiting For".

Personal life

In May 2024, Anys disclosed her diagnosis with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

She endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election.

Filmography

Film

Music videos

Awards and nominations

See also

* List of most-followed Twitch channels

References

External links

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{{Authority control

1996 births
Living people
21st-century Canadian women
21st-century Moroccan women
Canadian expatriates in the United States
Canadian podcasters
Canadian Twitch (service) streamers
Canadian women podcasters
Canadian gaming YouTubers
Let's Players
McMaster University alumni
Minecraft YouTubers
Moroccan emigrants to Canada
Practitioners of autonomous sensory meridian response
Shorty Award winners
Streamer Award winners
Victims of cyberbullying
Video game commentators
Women video bloggers
YouTube channels launched in 2014
YouTubers from Ontario
YouTube vloggers