From being too shy to raise his hand in class or mingle with his peers growing up, Luke Field is now making a living by doing the very thing he once feared most — speaking.

By talking into a camera from his bedroom, the 21-year-old Durban creator — better known as Garfield — has built a large and loyal fan base who tune in daily to hear what he has to say.

And while many might think Garfield is just a playful stage name borrowed from the lazy, lasagna-loving cartoon strip cat, for Field, it became a persona that gave him the courage he never had.

“My surname is Field, so Garfield was just a quick jump from that,” the TikTok and Instagram creator told Independent Online.

“Growing up, I also had light brown hair that occasionally looked ginger, hence the jump to Garfield.”

Field was born in Johannesburg, but the city’s cold winters made him sick, so his parents had no choice but to pack up and start over in Durban.

“I was getting really sick in the Johannesburg climate, and the doctor recommended to my parents that we move to a warmer climate for my health,” he said.

He said he grew up in “Durbs” and attended Clifton School, an independent all-boys school.

“In my first few years of school, I was a quiet kid and very introverted,” the youngster, who is known for making short videos ranging from skits to quick listicles, said.

“I had quite bad social anxiety, and talking to people was always quite daunting to me.

“After I established a good group of friends, I came out of my shell a bit and became a bit more extroverted, but I still kept to myself a lot.

“I only really started to become outgoing in my early years of high school, but around the end of matric, I was pretty much fully out of my shell.”

Before “Garfield”, Field worked part-time, bartending during matric, then waiting tables and coaching sport while studying Strategic Brand Management.

“While working as a waiter, I started my social media page and people used to recognise me while I was at work,” he said.

His first taste of online traction came with CNQR Motivational (Conquer), a motivational brand he started that grew to about half a million TikTok followers and another 150,000 on Instagram.

“I used to post daily motivational videos and did nightly live streams,” he said.

“One of the regular viewers, Jordyn, recommended to me that I start a separate account just being myself because he thought I was funny.

“So that’s what I did and I ended up enjoying that more than running the brand which is what led to me selling the accounts.”

That was the beginning of Garfield.

He said he became popular after his Facebook Marketplace reaction series — where he reacted to “bizarre things” listed online — quickly became a sensation.

“People really enjoyed my reactions and that’s what got my social media journey kicked off,” he said.

The numbers, he said, were overwhelming.

“The first time one of my videos hit a million views, I couldn’t believe it. I just sat there staring at my phone,” he said.

“I always wanted to be a recognised figure with an influence, but I never really understood the influence I would have.”

That influence hit home in an unlikely setting.

“I went on a road trip with my family to a small town called Barrydale in the Western Cape in the middle of nowhere … it has a population of about 4,000.

“Here someone asked me for a photo and then I really realised that my presence was bigger than I had thought. Durban is one thing, but Barrydale? That blew my mind.”

Consistency, he said, is what drove his following.

“Once I started taking social media seriously and posting every day, people knew that they could expect a daily video from me and that encouraged them to follow me just to stay up to date with what I was posting.

“When I was inconsistent people didn’t know when my next video was going to be and that unencouraged people to follow me.”

But for him, the reward was making people happy.

“I feel content when people message me and say ‘you made my day’ or ‘you helped me through something’ … that means more than the views,” he said.

He said the grind came with pressure.

“People think it’s just sitting in front of a camera, but it’s not always easy.

“You’re putting yourself out there every day. There are trolls, there’s negativity. I’ve received many death threats before and a lot of hate, much like any creator, but you learn to block it out and ignore it.

“I remind myself why I started and that is because I love doing it.”

Despite the millions of views, he said he was keeping things simple.

“All my reactions are real, I’ve never faked a reaction to something and I never plan to,” he said.

“I can’t bring myself to faking reactions just for views because I feel like its really easy to see when something is inauthentic.”

Many of his skits are drawn from people and experiences around him.

He is known for playing the roles of a typical Life Orientation teacher and a “Joburg boet”.

A “Joburg boet” is a rough-around-the-edges, “slang-using oke” often seen hanging out with his crew, always loud, confident, and acting like he knows best.

“A lot of my characters are based on real people,” he said.

“Similarly, a lot of my skits are based on a real events that happened and I witnessed.

“The ‘Joburg boet’ role is more of a satirical part as it is just a very big stereotype which I find quite funny.

“In my skits I’d say my favourite to perform is the teacher because it jogs my memory of when I was in high school and brings back a bit of nostalgia.”

He added: “It is also nice to see comments from people being able to relate to the teacher skits as I think it is quite funny to see that so many South Africans have had similar teaching experiences.”

Field said he has since collaborated with big brands, including KFC, while remaining selective about partnerships.

“I only work with brands that produce products that I would use myself.” he said.

“I would never promote something I wouldn’t do. For example, I don’t vape/smoke so I’ll never promote a vape/smoking brand, but I do drink so I would promote an alcohol brand,” he said.

Looking ahead, Field said the Mother City may be next.

“In the next few years I hope to continuously grow so that I can make more people laugh and relate to my content,” he said.

“Next year I’ll probably be moving to Cape Town to pursue my social media journey further.

“I could definitely see myself moving into acting and I’d love to. I’ve acted in a music video before which was a surreal experience and I got a lot of positive feedback from it as well as an offer to act in a short film which I will probably do.”

For now, Field said he remained true to the advice he would have given his younger self.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.

“Social media is unpredictable and sometimes videos just won’t do well for no reason and sometimes they will do well for some reason.”

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