How MaKenzie Marshall and her dad turned tragedy into TikTok success

MaKenzie Marshall and her dad are a comedic duo who skyrocketed to online fame during the pandemic. Now they’re seeing where this whole TikTok thing takes them, as told in an interview with Dexerto as part of our Rising Stars series.

MaKenzie is the textbook definition of ‘a ray of sunshine.’ She’s upbeat, optimistic, and endlessly funny — all traits that have helped her reach over 2.7 million followers on TikTok. But she didn’t get there all on her own; in fact, a big part of why she’s a rising creator is thanks to her father.

It’s safe to say that she gets her humor from her dad, a military veteran who lost an arm and a leg on duty during an overseas tour. He hasn’t let his handicaps slow him down one bit, and in fact uses his status as a double amputee for comedic affect in his daughter’s TikTok videos — something that’s endeared them both to the online community.

MaKenzie’s most viral video is a good example of this; as MaKenzie remarks on the new tires her dad bought for his souped-up truck, she asks him how much they cost, only for him to come into frame boasting a prosthetic arm and leg saying he “doesn’t wanna talk about it.”

Started from the bottom, now she’s here

To MaKenzie, her dad’s unwavering positivity and his ability to roll with life’s punches has been instrumental in her success as an online creator, along with her family’s unwavering support over the years.

“I was really blessed, and I had a really great childhood,” she told us. “I had a family that was so full of love. To give you an example, every single night before we go to bed, everybody gives each other hugs and says, ‘I love you, good night,’ stuff like that. …my parents were always super loving and caring. They were always super supportive in anything I wanted to do, whether it was cheer or gymnastics, anything I did in school.”

Although MaKenzie admits she had a charmed life growing up, things got hard when COVID hit. On top of navigating an identity crisis in college, her education was stopped short due to the pandemic, forcing her to go back home where her sister was embroiled in a toxic relationship.

“I went back home with my parents, and my sister ended up leaving,” she told us. “She ran away with a guy who was really bad news, and was really disrespectful to my dad. It was a heartbreaking experience. So it ended up just being me moving back home with my parents and in the spiral.

“The week after that, my dad’s mom, my grandma, passed away. And then the week after that, his first service dog passed away. Her name was Lucy. She had blood cancer for a long time, so we kind of knew it was coming, but it was still really sad.

“My sister had also run away and cut off contact with us. And then my grandma passed away. So, it was a lot all in one time span. And on top of it, you can’t leave your house to force yourself to do anything to heal or grieve or distract yourself. You’re literally forced to sit there and be depressed in your house and think about it all the time, so I started brain-rotting on the internet like everybody else was.”

‘Explosive’ dad & daughter duo take over TikTok

After dealing with the loss of so many family members, MaKenzie started making content on TikTok, putting her expertise as a former theater major to good use. It wasn’t long before her dad got addicted to the app — and one day, he had the perfect idea for a video.

“One day he came over to my room and he was like, MaKenzie, I have the best idea ever. Come down here in five minutes and bring your phone.’ It was a Tuesday. I’ll never forget it,” she said, laughing.

“I followed him and we went out into the driveway and he’s hiding behind the Jeep with his little toilet paper, because this was when you couldn’t find toilet paper anywhere and everybody was raging over not being able to find toilet paper. And he’s like, ‘Just tell me when you’re recording.’

“And I’m like, ‘Okay.’ And he holds out his toilet paper while he’s hiding behind the Jeep. He’s like, ‘Kenzie, I got some toilet paper, but you’re not gonna believe what it cost me.’ And he walks out from the Jeep, and you can see he’s missing an arm and a leg. And that was the video that started it all.”

The video went viral almost instantly, and MaKenzie’s father was so excited over his newfound fame that he called his wife and told her to call out of work and come home to show her the clip.

The power of a positive mindset

Since then, MaKenzie has racked up millions of followers, who regularly tune in to witness her dad’s hijinks — something she’s been recording since her high school days. She used to upload short sagas with her dad on SnapChat, which became extremely popular among her classmates. Now, she’s entertaining the entire world.

MaKenzie is using her platform to put a smile on people’s faces, with both herself and her father showing that one’s circumstances only limit you as much as you allow them to.

“My dad’s mindset ever since getting blown up has always been, ‘You simply can’t let the bad things that have happened to you control your life,'” she said. “I feel like a lot of people look at him and his humor and feel like it’s a way to cope, but truly it’s just an altered mindset of, ‘This is what happened. Am I going to sit around and be sad about it? No, I’m going to have fun, ’cause I’m only going to be alive for who knows how long, and I was lucky enough to still be alive. So I’m going to use it to the best of my advantage and have fun with it.'”

MaKenzie was inspired by her father’s powerful mindset, telling us that he took care of herself and her sister when they were infants after he underwent his amputation. She told us that it took him over a month to get back state-side from where he was stationed overseas, and in that time, he had no access to painkillers or much comfort.

Despite it all, he came out of that crucible a gentler, kinder man and a loving father who’s raised a woman that’s using her audience to spread a message of positivity in spite of the world’s negativity.

“A lot of people feel like the world is out to get them, but they don’t realize that really the world is theirs to take,” MaKenzie said. “It’s all there in front of you. Honestly, sometimes it’s so easy to get wrapped up in all the bad things and to ask yourself, ‘Why is this stuff happening?’ I feel like those things shape us into the person that we are. And if I hadn’t been through all of those bad things that have happened to me before in my life, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”