Two million followers: One of New Hampshire’s biggest TikTok stars is a 52-year-old Gilford actor

Ursula Minich-Boutwell is quite possibly the most-followed TikTokker in New Hampshire, but she is no prototypical content creator.

The 52-year-old, Gilford-based former semi-professional actor and mother of three boys does not dance or sing or conduct elaborate MrBeast-style gimmicks.

 Prior to launching her TikTok page in late 2020, she was not a public figure. And her studio on the second floor of her family’s home is a far cry from the content houses of Beverly Hills. 

But what Minich-Boutwell lacks in traditional background, she makes up for in a seemingly preternatural sense of grasping human attention. Her page, which boasts 2 million followers, is one of constant evolution, from short comedic skits in the early days to more recent videos of her opening toys.

The shape of her eyeglasses vacillates from red-white-and-blue hearts to strawberries, and her earrings range from unicorns, to crocs, to skeleton hands that dangle several inches below the earlobe – sometimes all in one video.

But it is perhaps Minich-Boutwell’s voice that is most captivating: a cross between that of an audio-book narrator and a kindergarten teacher, she draws out her vowels and enunciates her words in a way that sounds almost technologically enhanced, but is very much her own.

“I’m very, very entertaining,” Minich-Boutwell said. “The most important thing is you have to be able to hold people’s attention. And I’m very good at doing that.”

Minich-Boutwell first aspired to be an entertainer at the age of 5 when she attended a play that included her aunt. Afterward, she declared she was going to be an actor.

Prior to her foray into TikTok nearly four years ago, Minich-Boutwell voiced over videos for companies, acted in short films, did comedy, and worked in regional theater at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse and The Streetcar Company. 

She also dabbled in content creation on YouTube and Twitter, but didn’t take it particularly seriously. It was not until she learned that others were reposting her tweets on TikTok that she decided to get in the game herself.

“That’s actually what fueled my fire,” Minich-Boutwell said. “They’re making money off of my work and they’re claiming it as their own.”

Minich-Boutwell posted her first TikTok video in December 2020. Her initial premise was what she calls “barfly” videos, in which she delivers one-liners to a bartender out of view named Carl. 

In an early video, Minich-Boutwell – dressed in a gray winter hat and sweatshirt – regales Carl about a time her dentist asked her if she flossed.

“Well, I do floss, like if I’m drunk enough at wedding receptions,” she responded, then paused. “He wasn’t talking about dancing.”

On the basis of the barfly videos alone, Minich-Boutwell’s follower count grew to about 15,000 within six months.

And then she began to incorporate a new concept: mixing together strange types of alcohol and sampling the concoction on camera. Think smoky salted caramel whiskey mixed with Three Olives root beer vodka.

“Those are the one’s that exploded,” Minich-Boutwell said. “People like to watch people drink alcohol if it might not be good.”

She began to rack up a hundred thousand new followers each month – a rush of new attention that felt exhilarating.

“The biggest theater I’ve ever worked in is 1,500, so to be able to entertain millions of people from different countries and things, the whole idea of it excited me,” Minich-Boutwell said.

As her follower count rose, Minich-Boutwell also began to hone in on new ways to grasp scrollers’ attention.

She moved closer to the camera, upped the number of props, and added a signature “Rock on” to the end of her videos. Her video editing expertise also grew.

“Everybody in the world now has the attention span of a hummingbird, so it has to move,” she said. “You drag something on too long or whatever? People are swiping, because they can just easily move on to the next one.”

Ultimately though, it was Minich-Boutwell herself who tired of what she called her “asscrack shot glass” videos – albeit for a practical reason: she couldn’t make more than one per day without getting drunk.

The final evolution she has landed on – at least for now – is the niche genre of unboxing toys. Last June, in Minich-Boutwell’s most-viewed video (22.7 million), she opens a dragon egg to reveal a foot-long metallic purple reptilian toy.

“I just love these so much,” Minich-Boutwell says, holding up her new catch along with a previously-hatched dragon.

Despite her enthusiasm for dragons, Minich-Boutwell has not escaped the real-world realities of big tech. In January, her videos got de-emphasized by TikTok’s algorithm in favor of “TikTok shop” videos, in which creators promote products in exchange for a commission.

Minich-Boutwell dove right in, posting a “TikTok” shop video daily, and her videos have led to the sale of 65,000 products. She also produces sponsored content multiple times a month, where the company pays her directly for her video.

Minich-Boutwell wouldn’t say exactly how much she earns through her content, but she described her work as “very lucrative” and her income as enough for a healthy retirement within a few years. The prospect of a TikTok ban doesn’t phase her because she plans to be out of the business long before it goes into effect.

“It’s all going to be worked out in a court system for years. I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon,” she said.

Soon, Minich-Boutwell and her husband, who has worked in the military, will move to a new house in New London, complete with a bigger recording studio. 

For the woman who started posting videos less than four years ago to reclaim content stolen by others, rising to TikTok fame has been a rapid whirlwind. But for the 5-year-old who aspired to be an actor so she could entertain others, it has been the fulfillment of a nearly five-decade dream.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.