KSI's Real Name: KSI

Quick answer: KSI's documented professional name is KSI. A 2020 BBC profile gives the fuller form Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji and a 1993 birth. A 2019 BBC Sport preview independently uses Olajide William Olatunji — a shorter form that drops Olayinka and spells William without a final s — and describes him as a 26-year-old from Watford (BBC; BBC Sport).

Real name and early life

He is known professionally as KSI, and friends call him JJ, according to both BBC accounts. Because the two BBC pieces disagree on the exact fuller form, this biography titles the public name and records both versions in the body. The 2020 profile says he was born in 1993 to a Nigerian immigrant couple; his mother worked as a PA and his father managed a bingo hall, and they sent him to Berkhamsted School. It does not give a calendar day or a town of birth. BBC Sport, in a November 2019 preview, calls him a 26-year-old from Watford, which is compatible with a 1993 birth but is not itself a birthplace. The 2020 profile says the name KSI stands for knowledge, strength, and integrity, and that he registered his main YouTube channel after his GCSEs, following earlier study-rap uploads on a first, later-defunct channel.

Career highlights

The 2020 profile says those early main-channel videos were mostly of him playing FIFA and Call of Duty, and that within two years he was earning £1,500 a month. BBC Sport independently says he began on YouTube by uploading FIFA videos with commentary on his goals, then became a rapper, comedian, and actor. Sport dates an amateur win over YouTuber Joe Weller to February 2018 and a later amateur bout with Logan Paul at Manchester Arena in August 2018 that ended in a draw, then a professional rematch on November 9, 2019, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, promoted by Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing. The 2020 profile independently notes that more than 1.2 million people bought pay-per-view subscriptions for that Logan Paul fight. Logan Paul does not have a live RealNameOf biography and is not linked here; Jake Paul, named by BBC Sport as Logan's brother and as part of the earlier Manchester card, does.

Name notes for searchers

KSI is the professional name. BBC News uses Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji; BBC Sport uses Olajide William Olatunji. Searchers looking for the FIFA YouTuber or the 2019 Logan Paul boxing opponent are usually aiming at the same person.