Creator Spotlight: Habtom Tesfaye

Creator Spotlight: Habtom Tesfaye

From Mekelle to Melbourne — Building a Tigrigna Comedy Empire

When Habtom Tesfaye moved from Mekelle to Melbourne in 2021 for his engineering degree, he felt the familiar ache of diaspora life: the food was different, the language was gone, and the comedy shows that made him laugh as a kid were nowhere to be found.

So he made them himself.

The Beginning

"I started with my phone propped against a stack of textbooks," Habtom says. "My first video was a skit about trying to explain injera to my Australian roommates. I posted it at midnight, went to sleep, and woke up to 4,000 views."

That was February 2024. By July, he had 50,000 subscribers. Today, at 180,000 subscribers across AdwaTimes and mirrored clips on other platforms, Habtom's Tigrigna comedy channel "ሃቦ ኮሜዲ" (Habo Comedy) is one of the fastest-growing Ethiopian diaspora channels anywhere.

What Makes It Work

Habtom's content sits at a specific intersection: the comedy of cultural collision. "I make content that Tigrigna speakers recognize immediately — the situations, the expressions, the way our parents talk. But I frame it so that non-Ethiopians watching with subtitles can also understand and laugh."

This dual-audience strategy is deliberate. AdwaTimes' multilingual subtitle system means his Tigrigna dialogue is automatically rendered in Amharic and English, exposing him to viewers who would never find him on platforms that don't support Ethiopian scripts.

The Earnings Reality

Habtom was hesitant to discuss numbers, but after some persuasion: "I made 38,000 ETB last month. That's about $640 USD. My engineering internship pays $580 a month."

His revenue breakdown:

"I never expected this. I thought maybe I'd get some tips from family back home. Now I'm thinking seriously about what this looks like in five years."

Advice for New Creators

"Don't wait until your Tigrigna is perfect or your accent is 'right.' The diaspora is hungry for authentic content. They don't want polished — they want real. They want to hear home."

*Habtom Tesfaye's channel "ሃቦ ኮሜዲ" is available on AdwaTimes. New episodes every Wednesday and Saturday.*