Who Is Pokimane? The Twitch Star Behind the Name, Explained

If you have spent any time on Twitch, you have probably heard the name Pokimane. She is one of the biggest streamers on the platform, and she has been trending again after she spoke on stream this week about a controversy from 2023. So who is she, really, and how did she get here?

Who Is Pokimane?

Pokimane is the online name of Imane Anys, a Moroccan-Canadian streamer, YouTuber, and podcaster. She is best known for gameplay and chat livestreams on Twitch, mostly in games like Valorant, Fortnite, and League of Legends. With more than 9.4 million Twitch followers, she is the most-followed female streamer on the platform.

Her story did not start with fame. It started with a cheap secondhand computer and a game she loved.

Early Life: From Morocco to Canada

Imane Anys was born on May 14, 1996, in Morocco. Her parents, both academics, moved the family to Quebec, Canada, when she was four years old, and she grew up in Ontario.

She went on to study chemical engineering at McMaster University. It was a serious, steady career path. But gaming kept pulling her in another direction, and she eventually left university to stream full-time.

How She Started on Twitch

Anys created her Twitch account in June 2013. She had just reached Platinum rank in League of Legends, and she wanted to share her games with other people. She bought a $250 PC secondhand from Kijiji, a Canadian classifieds site, and started streaming from it.

The name Pokimane is a mix of Pokémon and her own first name, Imane.

Growth came slowly at first, then all at once. In 2017 she gained 450,000 Twitch followers, which put her account among the 100 most-followed on the platform. That same year she won Best Twitch Streamer at the Shorty Awards.

OfflineTV and Life Beyond Streaming

Pokimane is a co-founder of OfflineTV, a group of creators who live and work together and make videos and streams as a team. It helped turn her from a solo streamer into a central figure in creator culture.

She has also built things outside of streaming. She co-founded RTS, a talent management company for gaming creators. In November 2023 she launched Myna, a snack company. In 2021 she was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and had a cameo in the Ryan Reynolds film Free Guy, alongside other streamers.

One of her most talked-about streams came in October 2020, when she played Among Us live on Twitch with US Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar to encourage voter registration.

Why Is Pokimane Trending Now?

On October 29, 2026, Pokimane responded on stream to criticism over a censored screenshot she had shown during a livestream about the 2023 deepfake controversy involving fellow streamer Brandon “Atrioc” Ewing. She said the screenshot showed material that had already been visible during Atrioc’s original broadcast, but she acknowledged that showing even a censored image could cause further harm.

That response is why her name is back in the headlines. It is also a reminder of a wider conversation in streaming about privacy and harassment online, a topic Pokimane has spoken about often over the years.

Did Pokimane Leave Twitch?

In January 2024, Pokimane said she planned to step back from Twitch, saying she was frustrated with the direction of the platform. She described it as the end of an era. In practice, though, she has kept streaming regularly since then, while also working on other projects.

Why She Matters

Pokimane did not become famous from one viral moment. She built her audience stream by stream, over more than a decade, and then used that audience to start companies and shape how creators work together.

That is why, even now, a single stream from her can set off a week of conversation across the internet.