Former Baywatch lifeguard Erika Eleniak is reportedly on course to make $1 million in her first year on OnlyFans, and she’s only about three months in.
According to TMZ, which cited sources close to the actress, Eleniak has pulled in nearly $300,000 since launching her page in August. Those sources say “business is booming”.
That’s a pace most creators can only dream of, and it puts the 1990s TV favourite firmly in the growing club of mainstream stars discovering that fans will happily pay for direct access.
From the beach to the subscription feed
Eleniak played lifeguard Shauni McClain on Baywatch from 1989 to 1992. TMZ first reported her OnlyFans launch on 10 August, when she was 56.
The early signs were strong. Within about two weeks of launch she was reportedly earning around $10,000 a week and had passed 1,100 subscribers, according to TMZ figures reported by IBTimes UK at the end of August.
One important caveat: the new figures come from unnamed sources, and Eleniak herself isn’t quoted in TMZ’s report. So treat the $1 million as a projection rather than a payslip.
What $1 million actually means on OnlyFans
Put that number in context. OnlyFans’ UK parent company, Fenix International, reported that fans paid $7.2 billion through the platform in 2024, spread across more than 4.6 million creator accounts, according to Euronews. The platform keeps 20% of every payment.
Do the maths and the creators’ share works out at roughly $5.8 billion, or an average of about $1,250 per creator account for the whole year. On TMZ’s figures, Eleniak is clearing that in well under a day.
Averages hide a very long tail, of course. Plenty of accounts are dormant or tiny side projects. But it shows how far up the ladder a recognisable name can land from day one. We broke down who really gets rich in our look at OnlyFans’ $30 billion in creator payouts.
She’s not the only one
Eleniak’s numbers land in the middle of a proper wave of Gen-X and older stars making the move. American Pie actress Shannon Elizabeth reportedly hit seven figures within days of launching, as we reported in how she made $1 million in nine days.
TMZ also points to Knots Landing star Donna Mills, 85, and My Name Is Earl‘s Jaime Pressly. Mills launched in July, and Creators Inc. chief executive Andy Bachman said in August that her earnings were already “many six figures”, Fox News reported. We looked at why this generation keeps signing up in our Gen-X actresses piece and at why the platform’s creator base keeps getting older.
The pattern is hard to ignore. Hollywood has rarely known what to do with actresses past 40. Subscribers, it turns out, are more than happy to keep watching.
The creator angle: what other creators can take from this
- Nostalgia is a business model. Eleniak’s fans have known her face for more than three decades. If you’ve got a recognisable era, niche or persona, lean into it rather than reinventing yourself from scratch.
- You don’t have to go fully explicit to earn. Mills told ABC’s Nightline, “I think it’s sexier to be not just totally naked,” according to Fox News. Setting your own lines and sticking to them is a brand, not a limitation.
- Use celebrity numbers as a benchmark, not a target. These stars arrive with decades of audience-building already banked. The lesson for everyone else is the same one, though: owning the direct relationship with your fans is where the money sits.
- The real money is in the extras. Third-party data suggests tips and pay-per-view now make up nearly three-quarters of fan spending, as we covered in why subscriptions are no longer the main event. Price your page to get people through the door, then give them reasons to spend.
Thirty-odd years after she first ran down that beach, Erika Eleniak is reportedly proving the audience never really left. They just needed somewhere to subscribe.
