Hammy and Olivia
Who said stars had to be human? Hammy and Olivia, TikTok’s cutest corgis, are taking the internet by storm. Las Vegas natives, Hammy and Olivia live with their parents Chris and Sarah, Chris’ fiancé. After a long distance relationship between the two, Chris and Sarah first got Olivia, age 5, and then Hammy (short for Hamilton), age 3, two years later. Now, the siblings are best buds. Fans of Hammy and Olivia love to watch the paw-some pups play with each other, often putting on skits. A quick scroll through @hammyandolivia on TikTok, will show the dynamic duo having mock poker nights, mock fashion shows, mock debates, and even “hamscapades,” a series showing off Hammy’s mischievous nature. No matter what Hammy and Olivia do, they’re sure to never bark up the wrong tree, evident in the TikTok verification, 1.8 million followers, and over 33 million likes on their 174 videos. We recently spoke with Chris, Sarah, Hammy, and Olivia about where they draw inspiration from, the pooches in quarantine, and more!
Tell us a little about yourself.
Our Las Vegas home is made up of me (Chris), my fiance (Sarah), and our two pups, Hammy and Olivia. When I first met Sarah, I was traveling to and from California for work each week, so putting down roots in one particular place was very difficult for us to wrap our heads around when we first started dating. We've been together for over six years now (and engaged for one), but our work commitments in separate states have forced us to only see each other on weekends. I've flown home to Las Vegas on 392 separate occasions to see Sarah (but who's counting!). When we first got Olivia five years ago, she was the perfect companion for us. She kept mom company during the week and gave us the perfect "third wheel" to take on coffee dates and outdoor adventures on the weekends. We had so much love for Olivia that we felt the need to get her a brother that she could grow up with and enjoy, so we brought Hamilton into our family two years later!
Did you have any specific plans or ideas when you joined TikTok?
I think that anyone that first downloads TikTok is just genuinely curious to see what it's about. After quarantining together for a month, we needed a creative outlet to express ourselves. You find out pretty quickly that there isn't a massive time commitment to making a TikTok, so we felt that if we could put a smile on just one person's face each day, we'd be doing our part to help alleviate any stress someone might be feeling during a very tumultuous time. Hugging our dogs makes us happy. Juggling their lively personalities on a daily basis makes us laugh. So, we wanted to share that world of ours with others, and we thought we might be able to bring people joy that way.
Where do you get your inspiration for your content?
It was a super sudden change of circumstances to go from only seeing my fiance on weekends to spending every minute with each other during quarantine. It's been an absolute blessing, but, like all couples, we don't agree on everything. After a few weeks, if we couldn't agree on what to have for dinner or what to watch on tv, we started imagining what Hammy or Olivia would say if they were invited into the conversation! "Ok, you don't want Thai food tonight, and I'm not craving Italian. Hmmm, what do you want Olivia?" Is it crazy that we talk to our dogs? Absolutely. Are we embarrassed? Yes! We were fascinated by how they would handle these relatable, daily situations, so that's how we bring the dogs to life!
What's your favorite part about being a dog owner?
We don't have kids of our own at the moment, so these furry potatoes fill that parental void in our lives. Personally, I love having them as my scapegoat. Sarah is definitely the most put together in the house when it comes to organization and cleanliness, so if she finds that the cap was left off of the toothpaste, it's easy for me to point a finger at Hammy and say it was his fault. Oh, the laundry wasn't folded? It was Olivia's turn to do it! In all seriousness, the best part is the unconditional love that these two show us on a daily basis. If I were broke, sick or homeless, they would still look at me like I'm a superhero to them and would want to cuddle. So, I guess it's easy to forgive them for leaving the cap off of the toothpaste...
How have the corgis been dealing with quarantine boredom?
They can't sit still. Hammy is opening up his own restaurant, and Olivia hasn't stopped swiping my credit card. Their entrepreneurial nature is very impressive. Sarah and I started watching the first season of a show on Netflix, and by the end of it, Hammy had already opened a casino in the basement, was the sole proprietor for a curbside pick-up cafe, and finished a Vogue cover shoot. Olivia (on the other hand) is exploring the underground rave scene, creating her own necklace line on Etsy, and has a "glam team" arrive every morning at 8am. Sarah and I have been in the same sweatpants for five months. We finally looked at each other and said "we have to be more like our dogs."
How has the recent TikTok success changed your life?
We feel it's our responsibility to continue to put smiles on faces. These are unprecedented times, and even though we're all navigating the same storm, we aren't in the same boat...and it's something we remind ourselves of every single day. When we receive emails from terminally-ill children letting us know how much their daily dose of Hammy and Olivia means to them or a child that leans on our content to help them cope with the sudden loss of a family member, it reminds us that the world needs more silly humor. We just want to do our part, and if it means taking 30 minutes out of our day to share the same enjoyment we get from our dogs with others, we'll keep going! When it's 110 degrees in Las Vegas and most businesses are closed due to the global pandemic, we aren't getting out much, so our lives have been pretty status quo for the most part!
Who is your dream TikTok collab?
That's something we often think about, but we never in a million years thought we'd be asked that. I'm a fan of a ton of creators out there. I can watch cooking content for hours, and I love sports enthusiasts bringing their individual takes to the platform, but we're dog lovers and we keep our fingers on the pulse of the dog community more than anything else. Before we dipped our toes in the content creation world back in April, we followed our favorite dog influencers. We're big fans of Maxine (@madmax_fluffyroad). She has been the corgi standard for quite some time now, and we love the owner's Hollywood-inspired concept with her content. Maple and Morty (@mapleandmortycorgi) are two hilarious corgis whose owner brilliantly captions them. Those are Sarah's two favorite accounts, so if we could collaborate with any two creators right now, I'd have to go with one of those two to avoid sleeping on the couch.
What are some of your favorite trends out there?
As animal creators, we don't get to join in on the human crazes too often. For an app that is super dance focused, we don't get to participate in too many trends on the app, but we watch a lot. I'm the world's biggest Taylor Swift fan, so I wasn't opposed to the "Love Story" trend that everyone was doing recently. I'm a big fan of creators that execute on the dares they receive in their comments. Interacting with your followers is everything, and anytime a creator is able to break that fourth wall and make their followers feel like their input or recommendations are heard is powerful, and they get a ton of respect from me. I've seen more videos of creators ordering ridiculous items from fast food chains than I can count. Is it weird that a 10-patty cheeseburger from Wendy's is absolutely fascinating to me?
Anything special planned for the future?
We have a motto in our house to take life one day at a time. I think that if Sarah and I were to start holding ourselves accountable to future content plans with the dogs, we'd lose our minds trying to make sure we're tracking to those goals. We promised ourselves that this was going to be fun and we would only continue to do this so long as it's fun. If we were to focus too much on the future, it might take away some of the joy we experience from those daily waves of inspiration. We would love to create longer-form videos of the dogs in a sitcom environment. I think our followers would appreciate that, too. But, we're at the point in our relationship where we have to dedicate future planning to a wedding and buying our first home together, so Hammy and Olivia will have to come along for that ride in the backseat. We'll see how these two divas handle being taken out of the spotlight for a change!
