Plenty of celebrities — Drea de Matteo among them, most recently — have monetized their fan bases by launching accounts on OnlyFans, the subscription platform where they can share exclusive material or racy adult content and get paid for it.
High-profile folks own their own content and make a substantial buck from it on OnlyFans, unlike many other platforms. Users of all stripes can share anything from cooking tutorials to hard-core porn on the app, which grew in popularity during the pandemic, especially among displaced sex workers.
The London-based company took on celebrity cachet after actor Bella Thorne joined joined in August 2020 and quickly announced she had made $2 million in less than two weeks. But veteran users were upset about her intrusion, arguing that she and other celebrities were pricing out the competition with their famous names and taking opportunities away from people who rely on the subscriptions as their only source of income.
Indeed, more celebrities have joined OnlyFans since then, but others have also left. Here are some notable actors, musicians and other celebrities who have appeared on the embattled platform since it launched in 2016.
Iggy Azalea
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
The “Fancy” rapper joined the platform in January 2023 to release exclusive content for her fourth album, “Hotter Than Hell.” But in her first month, she reportedly made so much money that she couldn’t “even say how much it is.” Iggy told Emily Ratajkowski on the “High Low With EmRata” podcast in February that she’s comfortable showing her breasts and being naked in her content.
“I’ve made record labels so much money off my body. I’ve made a lot of people so much money off my body, and I got the smallest cut off my own f— body, and my own work, and my own ideas,” she said. “I don’t think that I have to say sorry that I want to commodify my own s—. It’s been commodified, and I wasn’t even the main f— benefactor of it.”
Cardi B
(Charles Sykes / Invision / Associated Press)
The Grammy-winning rapper joined the platform in 2020 to promote her polarizing “WAP” duet with Megan Thee Stallion.
“On my OnlyFans, I will be putting the [behind the scenes] of the music video — not only the day of that music video — but the whole process of it,” Cardi B announced at the time. “I want to know what my fans would like to see there — what type of content would they like you guys to see there. We will be talking about personal stuff … straight-up real-life content.”
The recording artist also made it clear that she would not be posting any nudity on the platform. Nevertheless, she has reportedly remained among its top earners.
Blac Chyna
Blac Chyna in Pasadena in February 2023.
In March 2023, the model and “Rob & Chyna” star announced she would be leaving her lucrative OnlyFans account in the past as she followed her born-again faith. The performer, who got her break when rapper Drake saw her working in a Miami strip club and named her in a song, launched her OnlyFans in April 2020 and charged $10 to $50 each month for NSFW photos and videos of her.
She reportedly made $2 million over a two-year period, though estimated figures have varied widely.
Whitney Cummings
(Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)
The “Whitney” star and “2 Broke Girls” producer announced in November 2022 that she had made a pact with the company to produce “Unfiltered Original Roast Series,” an original show for the streaming platform and app, OFTV. Charging $10 a month for her subscription, she was the first “roastee” on the uncensored series, which also includes roasts of politics and various cities. She also made it clear that she would not post nudes of herself or anyone else on her account.
“I want to experiment with jokes,” Cummings told Variety. “I love the idea of writing and performing incendiary jokes … and talk about what is happening right now. On Twitter, people will want to take it out of context.”
“I know people like to make fun of [OnlyFans] because there are naked ladies on there … I just decided, if the audience is going here, as a comedian there’s something worth checking out here. … If it’s good enough for Cardi B, it’s good enough for me.”
Drea de Matteo
(Paul Archuleta / Getty Images)
The Emmy-winning “Sopranos” alum launched her account last week. Her bio on the page simply reads: “THE SOPORNOS.” Interested viewers can expect to pay a $15 monthly subscription fee to see De Matteo’s content.
Carmen Electra
(Chris Pizzello / Chris Pizzello/invision/ap)
The “Baywatch” and “Scary Movie” alum offers a free subscription to her fans, but has solicited pay-per-view “tips” — as in, “tip in $12 if you want the full video 🥵 xoxo” — for more involved content.
“At first I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to do, but I really looked into it and I realized I could be my own boss,” Electra told Fox News Digital in July 2023. “I love being a part of OnlyFans because I shoot when I want to shoot. I have creative control of doing whatever I want to do.”
Electra said she she gets “a lot of requests for my feet, and it cracks me up. People want to see feet.”
DJ Khaled and Fat Joe
(Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)
The musicians decided to launch their free subscription page in 2021 because they’re always together.
“welcome to the LIGHT — the page for fans to get exclusive motivational and inspirational content, where we will be guiding fans to ‘the light’ while sharing uplifting insights and behind-the-scenes of our personal lives,” their joint account says.
“We’ll be sharing content that’s not anywhere else … it’s the light,” Khaled said in a statement upon joining (via Complex).
“We also wanted to create a community that’s full of positivity and hypes each other up! We want to get to know our actual fans,” Fat Joe added.
Austin Mahone
(Danny Moloshok / Invision / Associated Press)
The “All I Ever Need” and “Mmm Yeah” singer-songwriter joined OnlyFans in 2020. While the former YouTube star‘s subscription is free, he still posts plenty of steamy content — naked singing and content not suitable for those under 16. In June 2021, he started a VIP experience, offering free chats, future posts, custom content requests and Zoom calls for those who tip him $100.
(John Salangsang / Invision / Associated Press)
The “Love & Hip Hop: New York” star and model was one of the first celebrities to join the platform. Offering fans the opportunity to “Be a fly on my wall” with a free subscription, the reality star also shares explicit content of herself and made a notorious name for herself with content featuring ex-husband Safaree Samuels, sometimes with a $50 add-on price tag.
Sonja Morgan
(Dia Dipasupil / Getty Images for Tribeca TV)
Although she hasn’t posted since September 2022, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Luann and Sonja” star still charges $4.99 a month for fans to see her content. One such offering is an “exclusive behind the scenes look” at the Bravo star’s “favorite beauty products” that she brings on the road with her for her “#SonjainYourCity comedy tour.”
Larsa Pippen
(Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)
“The Real Housewives of Miami” star says she uses the platform to model the swimsuits, dresses and jewelry designs she’s “most passionate about,” but also gives users a chance to go on virtual dates with her, opening up about her love life and “what it’s like being chased by the world’s richest, most athletic and handsome men and still not finding that connection I’ve been looking for.”
Pippen, the ex-wife of NBA star Scottie Pippen, doesn’t charge a subscription fee but revealed that she once received a lump sum of $200,000 from a fan. However, her business has taken a hit since she started dating Marcus Jordan, the son of NBA legend Michael Jordan.
“It’s not been good for business since I’ve been with you,” Pippen told her boyfriend on the “Separation Anxiety” podcast in June. “Literally, the people that write to me on there are not happy that I’m in a relationship with you, but it’s fun.”
Tyler Posey
(Richard Shotwell / Invision / Associated Press)
Although the “Teen Wolf” and “Doc” alum has since scrubbed his account, he came out as sexually fluid on the platform in October 2021.
“I did this live on OnlyFans and they were asking me stuff that horny people would ask you: ‘Have you been with a man? Have you been with the opposite sex? What was it like?’ And I was just being honest about it, because no one’s ever asked me before,” he told Variety.
Earlier that year, he called the platform “bizarre” and “really, sort of mentally draining,” despite his love of being nude on social media.
“You really feel like an object on OnlyFans. I’m trying my hardest to be artistic as possible with the content I put out ‘cause I don’t want it to just be porn, you know? That’s not what I do and I don’t want to take it away from the people that are doing that. I just want to be artistic and stay in touch with my fans,” he told E!.
Denise Richards
(Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)
In 2022, the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star showed support when daughter Sami Sheen joined OnlyFans by launching her own account on the Fourth of July.
“I thought, ‘Is that going to be a little odd?’” Richards told KTLA at the time. “Then she said, ‘We’re both on Instagram,’ and I said, ‘You’re right!’”
Richards admitted that she “wasn’t educated on what OnlyFans was” at first but became a fan of the platform once she started learning more.
“My daughter got a lot of backlash for opening the account,” she told KTLA. “I really think that the creators of the site really took the best of every platform of social media and put it into one site.”
She added: “We all post pictures with ourselves with bathing suits on Instagram and some of the other sites that there’s no difference other than you actually own the content.”
Bella Thorne
Bella Thorne attends a fashion show in Miami.
(Scott Roth / Invision / Associated Press)
The former Disney child star said she made more than $1 million in less than a day after setting her subscription at $20 per month. But her enlistment on the platform, which caused an uproar among other creators, was short lived. She said she joined OnlyFans as an experiment, not only as a source of additional income, but also to do research for a movie she wanted to make with “The Florida Project” director Sean Baker. Upon joining, she posed a series of questions to users asking them about the platform. But her membership coincided with “transaction limits” that the site enacted that same month. Baker also disavowed any connection to Thorne’s project.
OnlyFans members have also claimed that Thorne scammed users into believing she would be nude on the site — referencing a screenshot in which she supposedly promised a naked photo in exchange for $200. Thorne told The Times that she has never offered nudity on her page and said the exchange floating around on social media was falsified.
Her page is no longer active.
Tyga
(Jordan Strauss / Invision / Associated Press)
The “Taste” and “Loco Contigo” rapper, who became famous on the platform for creating sexually explicit content — including images of his genitals — joined the platform in September 2020 but left in August 2021 after OnlyFans announced plans to bar users from sharing explicit images or videos. He deleted his account to start his own platform, Myystar.
“I know how many people make a lot of money on OnlyFans, and that’s where most of their revenue is at,” Tyga told Forbes. “I want to give those people hope.”
Tyga, who charged subscribers $20 a month, reportedly had earned about $8 million by that time, making him the fourth highest-earning celebrity on the platform. Thorne, Cardi B and his ex-girlfriend Blac Chyna were the only ones who out-earned him, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.
