Bay Area woman who was laid off from her job turns to TikTok full time to make videos mocking the grimmest parts of her home state

A TikTok creator is making a lot of money from videos poking fun at the grittiest parts of California.

Diana Regan (@citiesbydiana), an Oakland-based content creator, has amassed 130,000 followers and 6.2 million followers by posting satirical videos that poke fun at American cities, particularly those in the Golden State.

By combining images from Google Earth, personal recordings and AI-generated voice-overs, Regan creates wondrous versions of California cities.

After being laid off from her job as an account manager in the SEO industry last year, she found a way to turn her creative outlet into a source of income.

She told SFGATE she makes about $1,400 a month, not including her sponsored content, which brings in between $500 and $1,500 per person.

After being laid off from her job as an Account Executive in the SEO industry last year, she found a way to turn her creative outlet into a source of income

“I decided to flip that format,” she told DailyMail.com, adding that she writes and edits all of her own content.

“They’re generally light parodies of the absurdity of urban design in the US, particularly the reliance on cars in many cities. I often throw in fun facts about interesting and positive things about those places.”

In the beginning, she didn’t earn enough from her videos to become a full-time content creator, so she had to survive on her savings.

“But when I first started making money, I expected to make $50-$100 a month at most,” she told DailyMail.com. “I’m definitely not making anywhere near what I was making with my full-time job, but I’ve been able to scrape by on a combination of platform advertising income, some fan donations, merchandise sales, sponsorships, savings and odd jobs.”

Her success has caught the attention of politicians and government officials who have not only shared her videos but also taken notes on what they can do better.

“Are you tired of getting ripped off on mass transit? Are you still miserable living in a walkable city? If you’re an oil-paved princess like me, check out San Jose, California,” she quipped in one of her TikTok posts videos .

“Are environmentalists shaming you for buying an electric car? Love Texas but still want an abortion every now and then? Come fuel your rocket in Bakersfield, California,” she said in another.

Regan doesn’t just ridicule AI-generated content; she embodies it. Posing as a “typical American conservative,” she satirizes the country’s infrastructure obsession.

By combining Google Earth imagery, personal recordings and AI-generated voiceovers, Regan creates wondrous versions of Californian cities

Two of her Instagram reels contrasting “real freedom” with Bay Area traffic jams have been viewed nearly two million times.

“I had no idea that so many of these songs would resonate with anyone,” Regan said SF-GATE“I just started making content for fun, and it really took off.”

Videos like these are the reason she got sponsored by Hedra, a website that helps people create videos using AI. Although she’s been offered dozens of ads, she says she turns down 90% of them because they either don’t pay enough or don’t resonate with her audience.

Additionally, these videos, which poke fun at the way local politicians handle public infrastructure, have caught the attention of influential people such as Assemblyman Alex Lee, who represents California’s 24th District, and South Lake Tahoe City Councilman Scott Robbins, who have shared her videos.

“Her sharp satire of our ‘one more lane makes a permanent improvement in traffic’ auto-centric development paradigm should be a must-read for anyone working in government at the state and local level, especially here in California,” Robbins told SFGATE.

Robbins noted that Regan’s satirical “Lane Man” character’s obsessive drive to solve traffic by adding more lanes bears a striking resemblance to real-world solutions.

She said algorithms are constantly changing, making the success of videos unpredictable.

Creators are under pressure to copy viral hits, while platforms like TikTok drastically cut their revenues without explanation. Furthermore, the creative efforts of content creators are plagued by the increasing focus on commercial and innocuous content.

‘I’ll be honest, that part REALLY hinders my creativity,’ Regan told DailyMail.com. ‘On Instagram, I can pretty much post whatever I want and be successful, but on TikTok, every video is like starting over.

‘Although on TikTok, when you hit a viral trend of a format that works, the algorithm motivates you to do that over and over again until people get tired of it. So I always try to find that balance between content that people know and expect, while also trying new things.’

“They force creators to become product sellers instead of authentically sharing their passion with viewers,” Regan said.

‘Luckily, I’ve been able to make up for a lot of this loss through the unexpected success I’ve seen on Instagram lately, but it hasn’t been easy.’

Today, she earns around $1,400 a month across both Instagram and TikTok, and to make ends meet, she does a mix of content creation and other odd jobs.

But she’s still busy, posting multiple videos a week about the latest trending topics. Her ultimate goal, she said, is to eventually grow her organic reach so much that she’s no longer forced to create content that she knows the algorithm will improve.

“The goal is primarily to make people laugh and maybe think about the absurdity of the environment we live in,” Regan said, “but also to explore the inner conflict that many of us have — that we love our cars, we enjoy the convenience, but we also know that the way we plan our cities is damaging in the long run.”