The TikToker who went viral for skateboarding while drinking cranberry juice and lip-syncing to Fleetwood Mac has parlayed his fame into an acting gig on a popular Hulu show
- Nathan Apodaca, a TikToker, went viral in 2020 for a video of himself skateboarding to work.
- In it, Apodaca drinks cranberry juice and lip-syncs to "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac.
Nathan Apodaca is best known for sending a jovial, relaxed wave through TikTok in the fall of 2020. Apodaca uploaded a video of himself serenely skateboarding, drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice from the bottle, and lip-syncing to Fleetwood Mac's 1977 song "Dreams." Now, he's landed a spot on the popular Hulu show "Reservation Dogs."
Within a week of posting his skateboarding TikTok in September 2020, Apodaca's video had racked up millions of views. The following week, Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" had its biggest streaming week ever, Billboard reported.
Apodaca's fame, in a way, came out of hardship.
The 37-year-old began skateboarding to work when his miles-weary 2005 Dodge Durango wouldn't start, he told The New York Times in 2020.
At the time, the 37-year-old was living in an RV with no running water. He filmed the video during a hitched ride to his job at a potato warehouse.
Apodaca's TikTok generated more than 13.4 million likes and spawned copycat videos from Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, Gordon Ramsay, and Shakira, among others. After his video went viral, an Ocean Spray representative showed up at his home in Idaho Falls, Idaho, with a gift: a cranberry red Nissan pickup — its truck bed full of Ocean Spray juice. Since then, he's appeared alongside Snoop Dogg in commercials and attended President Joe Biden's virtual inauguration parade.
Now, Apodaca, whose 7.1 million followers know him as @420doggface208, has parlayed his internet fame into a guest spot on the Peabody Award-winning show "Reservation Dogs."
"Reservation Dogs" is a comedy-drama that follows four indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma as they grieve the loss of a friend. Apodaca, whose mother is Northern Arapaho, plays Uncle Charley in at least two episodes of season two, his IMDb page showed.
Sterlin Harjo, the show's creator, told Time that he wants to use "Reservation Dogs" not for accolades (though it's been nominated for multiple), but to tell "real stories" and give other Native filmmakers opportunities for success. "I was the person no one opened doors for," Harjo said. "So it's my duty and my job to open those doors."
"It just, like, takes me to a fantasy that I've always dreamed of, you know, which is awesome," Apodaca said in an interview with KPVI News on August 11. "I'm not done until I've paid off my mom and dad's house, and I'm still striving to do that."
Season two of "Reservation Dogs" is streaming on Hulu.