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Tinley Park native Ismail Taher hands out a turkey on Nov. 17 as part of a giveaway he organized.
Tinley Park native Ismail Taher did not exactly think that TikTok was for him when he first heard about it.
“It was December 2019,” he recalled. “I saw a bunch of kids dancing on the app. When I saw all of these kids dancing on the app, I was like, ‘whatever.’
“I was saying ‘that’s not for me.’ It’s all lip-synchers and dancers. I’m more into acting with skits and stuff.”
Today, Taher is on TikTok doing skits and stuff and those skits and stuff have resulted in 4.2 million followers.
Taher is also an actor and one of his roles was playing the Super Hot Guy/Lost Kardashian Brother in the movie “The Thing About Harry.”
Thanks to his renown, this Super Hot Guy was out on a super cold day handing our turkeys Nov. 17. He teamed with Crescent Foods and Ohio’s Anthony Todd to give out 350 turkeys in Country Club Hills.
Taher, 28, grew up in Tinley Park and graduated from Lincoln-Way North High School. But he has a soft spot in his heart for Country Club Hills, where he had worked growing up.
“Honestly, the community has given me so much, and I’ve been able to grow a platform and become quite successful off of it,” Taher said. “When you are given stuff, it’s important to give back.
“This is my way of giving back to the community.”
Crescent Foods, based in Chicago with a facility in Tinley Park, donated 120 of the turkeys.
“This is a phenomenal idea,” Crescent Regional Sales Manager Mahmod Salah said. “It’s always good when you can give back. We’re excited and happy to be a part of it.”
Taher used social media and word of mouth to publicize his giveaway.
Cars started lining up at noon for the 3 p.m. event giveaway close to the Country Club Hills Theater Pavilion. There was a steady flow of traffic as Taher and others handed turkeys into cars.
Taher bragged about the quality of turkeys the Crescent provided.
“This is a high-quality turkey,” he said. “They have been vegetable-fed and properly raised. It’s top of the line.”
Taher has become a top-of-the-line internet entertainer. After his initial resistance to TikTok, he jumped aboard after the app started to change a little.
“At first I thought I was too old for it. Then I started seeing people do skits on there,” he said. “I thought I could do the same thing. People started liking it, and it took off.”
“I went with the flow. TikTok came around and I started posting on that and 2 1/2 years later and 4.2 million followers, we’re here. It’s a blessing, man, it’s a blessing.”
He is still interested in traditional acting, and he has a starring role in the Iraq-American film “Pomegranate,” which is in post-production.
Meanwhile, he is open for other movie and television work.
“Of course, it’s something that I really want to do,” he said. “If Nexflix or Hulu hits me up and says ‘hey, do you want your own series?’… when that day comes, I would be very happy.
“We’ll see what happens.”
He said he wants to continue charity work.
“This is the biggest thing I’ve done but hopefully it doesn’t stay the biggest thing,” Taher said of the turkey giveaway. “I hope to be able to do something bigger and bigger than this.”
Tinley Park native Ismail Taher uses TikTok fame to spearhead turkey giveaway.
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Tinley Park native Ismail Taher hands out a turkey on Nov. 17 as part of a giveaway he organized.
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