Who Is Russell Horning, Viral ‘Backpack Kid,’ From Katy Perry’s ‘SNL’ Performance?

Katy Perry‘s Saturday Night Live performance featured a guest with unusual dance moves who attracted a lot of attention from social media.

To promote her new album Witness, Perry performed her song “Swish Swish” on SNL. One of the backup dancers had a long, awkward dance solo which quickly became viral.

The “Backpack Kid” as he was dubbed, was all over Facebook and Instagram today, prompting people to ask the question who the mysterious backup dancer is.

It turns out that “Backpack Kid” is actually named Russell Horning, and he was an internet sensation well before Perry’s performance. With nearly half a million Instagram followers, his wacky dance moves were famous to many.

Horning gained notoriety in January 2016, and he keeps finding success. In December, he went viral after Rihanna reposted a video of him.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNuvxCgAZpu/

“It was really nerve-wracking because half of the country was watching me,” Horning told Inside Edition about his SNL performance. “You can’t mess up on live TV.”

“It felt really good to be up on that stage since millions of kids want to be up there but Katy Perry picked me,” he added.

“I really expected all of this to happen. It is a really big show and what I did was really original,” he said about his performance.

See the full interview with Horning here: