WHITEFIELD, Maine — One of the most followed TikTok accounts in Maine belongs to MisterMainer. The account was a pandemic creation by 24-year-old Dmitry Pepper and the adventures he has with his dog Biscuit. The account has more than 13 million followers and keeps growing by the day.
TikTok is a social media platform where people can produce videos typically of pranks, tricks, jokes, dances, and other entertainment videos.
Pepper, from Whitefield, started creating videos with his dog Biscuit when the pandemic hit, and two of them immediately went viral.
"Everyone was still kind of indoors and the videos I created were so different, so often unusual, mostly wholesome and I think it gave people... It just brought them joy in their life that they needed," Pepper said.
Pepper says he has partnerships with Animal Planet, PetSmart, and other companies.
In the videos Biscuit wears wigs for special "Karen" segments, dances, sings, flies, and also does typical dog things to entertain people.
Pepper says Biscuit is a rescue dog. He adopted her and they became best friends. Now, they get to work together every day.
Pepper says he is going to highlight some Maine landmarks this summer with Biscuit as a way to promote the state.
"During the pandemic, I got messages every day [from] people saying they were going through hard times and when they watch my videos it gives them hope, and I've been through parts of life where I've watched videos and TikTok helped me and it's nice to see my videos are helping people," Pepper said. "It helped people cope with hard times."
Pepper is a photographer and music composer and says editing and shooting the videos comes naturally to him.
You can follow MisterMainer's work here on his website.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Dmitry Pepper's first name.