How Cahlaflour Became One of Twitch’s Reigning Scream Queens

Orange fiery hair and a name that may spook a few veggie-averse schoolchildren, Cahlaflour is one of Twitch's reigning horror queens.

Cahlaflour blends occult-inspired cosplay looks and chill vibes with the nail-biting spooky gameplay of top games like Dead by Daylight with occasional dips in variety waters. Her name on Twitch is synonymous with horror and, even more, tied to success.

"I always wanted to work in the gaming world, but I was in Ohio, and there weren't a lot of options there," she said in a phone interview with Lifewire. "So, streaming was my way in, and it has been a great way to chase the dream."

Planting Seeds

Cahlaflour grew up in Ohio with her entrepreneurial parents and little sister. She inherited the self-starter aptitude of her mom and dad, who used to co-own a pet store and the latter also a construction company. 

Aside from an entrepreneurial spirit, she also inherited her love of gaming from an unlikely source: her father. She recalls her dad being a part of gaming clans growing up and introducing her to the world of video games like Diablo 2 and old-school jams from their Sega Saturn. 

This love would follow her throughout her life, but it would be hard to find friends who gamed later in life, which eventually led her to the world of live streaming. The driving force behind her ascent was a  desire for a community to share her passion for gaming with. "I never really found the gaming group that I wanted... I think that's where the initial excitement about streaming came in. I finally had people to game with and people who understood what I was talking about," she recalled. 

She started streaming part-time in 2014 after a friend at GameStop, where she worked, introduced her to popular variety streamer DansGaming. That night she set up her Xbox One and Kinect and broadcast her first stream. Seven years and 100,000 followers later, Cahlaflour is fully immersed in the ecosystem of live streaming. 

"I did that whole traditional thing. I had the real eight-to-five job. I had my two degrees. Then, one of my coworkers got this news that they didn't have long to live," she remembered. "It woke me up and made me realize you shouldn't be doing anything in life you don't enjoy, or at least you should take steps to get to the things you're passionate about, so I went full-time streaming."

Stream Queen

The renaissance of the horror video game is in full swing on Twitch. Due in no small part to the diverse community of content creators that make up the growing sector and popularity of creators across social media platforms like TikTok, which has created an enthusiasm for her exact brand of content. 

"I feel the horror genre, in general, hasn't been widely accepted that long, and neither has the LGBTQ+ community. So, you have all these people like this is ours, and we like it," Cahlaflour said. "The main reason I was able to come out recently was because of how inclusive the horror genre is, and I felt very uplifted by my peers. [It's] like a bunch of misfits who just like being a little weird, a little different, and [having] fun with all that."

With the help of those same peers in the horror world and supportive fans, Cahlaflour was named one of HyperX's Queued Up Class of 2021, a reward for her tenacity as a gaming streamer on the rise. Complete with a new sponsorship by Hyper X, this award reignited the fire that had been dimmed by the difficulties from the COVID-19 pandemic just a year prior. 

"That was my biggest career moment so far. It meant more because, at the time, I had been feeling so unsure," she said. "It kind of reassured, once again, that going full-time with streaming and doing content creation for a living was the right thing to do and that I am still on the right path all these years later."

With rekindled passion firmly in tow, Cahlaflour is looking to reinvent the wheel just a tad bit. She's looking for ways to smooth out the edges of her streaming career and signal her ability to traverse confines and streaming genres. 

"I'm thinking more of the same, but just better," she laughed. "I hit a point now where I can branch out and show people that I am a good creator and I can stream anything, and I promise we'll have a good time while we do it."