Whatever Happened To The Man Behind Left Shark?

Even in its earliest days, the fun side of the internet was populated by strangely captivating cultural moments that somehow managed to capture the online world's collective imagination. The 1990s had the 3D dancing baby, while the 2000s saw the emergence of the "Badger Badger Badger" Flash cartoon and the LOLCats meme. And in the 2010s, when meme culture really hit its stride, there was Rebecca Black's "Friday" in 2011, the emergence of Doge in 2013, and, of course, Left Shark in 2015.

Left Shark is a meme that takes some explaining. Probably most widely circulated in the form of a GIF, the clip shows a figure in a blue, cartoonish shark costume, dancing somewhat awkwardly and arhythmically. There's nothing too notable about that, you might think. But this dance actually took place at the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show, alongside pop superstar Katy Perry, who was then at the height of her fame and performing for a television audience in the region of 118 million people. The performer in question was one of two shark dancers in the performance — hence the name Left Shark — though unlike the performer on the right, he appeared to have forgotten the routine at a crucial moment.

In the aftermath of the performance, internet users sent the Left Shark clip trending, creating a meme that is still familiar to many people a decade later. But while Left Shark was an instant hit, it took years for the world to find out who he was: Bryan Gaw, a professional dancer who by that point had worked with Katy Perry since 2010. As Gaw seemingly knew, memes can ruin lives, so his next steps after finding viral fame were important.

On the 10th anniversary of the Left Shark incident, People published an in-depth interview with the man behind the performance, tracing his steps from his early career to his defining performance on one of the biggest stages in the world. A Texan who relocated to Los Angeles in the early part of his career to pursue his dreams of being a dancer, Bryan Gaw found his feet in the industry working for kids-focused entertainment companies such as Nickelodeon. He made his debut with Katy Perry at the 2010 Teen Choice Awards and worked with her continuously until the 2015 Super Bowl. The massive event took place as Perry was on her blockbuster Prismatic World Tour, in which Gaw also took part.

Gaw's undoubted experience as a professional dancer, a job that requires a great deal of ability, seems at odds with his performance during the Super Bowl. The internet came to see it as a monumental mess-up on the world stage. But as he explained to NPR in 2018, the section of the performance that he was deemed to have forgotten was actually when the dancers were instructed to freestyle — and Gaw decided to be as goofy as possible. "So there's a set choreography," he said. "There's also what's called free-style choreography, or, like, you get to move around or play your character as a dancer. ... I'm in a 7-foot blue shark costume. There's no cool in that. So what's the other option? Well, I'm gonna play a different character."

Though Katy Perry's Super Bowl halftime show was deemed by many viewers and critics to have been a success, there is no doubt that Left Shark was the most memorable element of the show. And indeed, Bryan Gaw found himself suddenly struck by the huge amount of attention that he received from his performance. He claims that his agent was receiving countless calls from people wanting to find out who Left Shark was and to offer work. Left Shark also became a particularly prominent Halloween costume that year.

However, Gaw decided to keep his head low, only coming out as Left Shark publicly in 2018, when the incendiary online power of the meme derived from him had died down. Gaw claims that Perry, who is no stranger to the wild attention of internet users — some have spread a conspiracy theory that she is JonBenét Ramsey — loved the Left Shark phenomenon. He posed in images of the shark on her social media channels and even gifted the dancers involved shark onesies as a memento.

Gaw still loves to dance, but today says he prefers to dance for himself, rather than as a career. Today, he is a hair stylist in Los Angeles and is happy with his change of direction, telling People: "I always knew I still wanted to be part of the creative entertainment industry and have my hand in art, creativity and be involved with people as well. I love that dance is such a mainstream thing, but it's a lot of work ... I wanted to pivot my transition gracefully."