Former Baywatch Star Finds Control, New Sense Of Self on OnlyFans

Brande Roderick is no stranger to being in front of the camera. The model and sometime actress is most well known for her work on the television series Baywatch, and for her tenure at Playboy as one of Hugh Hefner’s Playmates. Given the current trend of celebrities choosing to take ownership of their careers rather than let a middleman make the calls, it’s no surprise that Roderick has joined the ranks of the over 40 crew of OnlyFans content creators. Carmen Electra, Denise Richards, Amber Rose, and Larsa Pippen are just a few of her peers who have not only joined the platform, but enjoyed widespread success and satisfaction in the work they do there.

Why success? Well, a quick Google search will give you an idea of how many zeros these women are bringing in via running a business as an OnlyFans content creator.

But the satisfaction? The money helps, yes. But that’s not the only reason so many women— former Playboy cover girls and the average citizen alike— take so much pride in the work they’re putting out into the world via OnlyFans.

You see, unlike posing for traditional media outlets, OnlyFans gives all of the power and creative direction back into the hands of the content creators.

When it comes to financial, creative, and physical control over what they produce, OnlyFans makes sure that their models have what they need in order to feel empowered to keep their businesses running. That sense of control has brought millions of content creators to the platform, and those content creators have made OnlyFans worth at least $6.6 billion as of 2023.

Why is this so attractive to models?

For former Playmates like Brande Roderick, they’ve always been at the mercy of someone else deciding whether or not they had work at all, let alone enough work to pay the bills. Says Roderick, “It's been great honestly. Me being a single mom of two boys with no financial support from their father, I have to take care of my family.” And OnlyFans certainly allows her to do that, even if she views her work there as more of a side hustle. Here, content creators don’t have to wait for a tastemaker to decide they’re relevant or for an editor to sign off on their work, nor are they paying an agent to negotiate a fair pay rate on their behalf. While the platform does take a cut of their earnings, they don’t have to snake-charm as many gatekeepers— or a bunny obsessed magazine owner.

Roderick has also stated that she enjoys the creative control that OnlyFans has given her. “You only put out the images that you love and that you want, you know, the world to see, whereas when you were doing Playboy, you really had no control over it. So, it's like I'm my own Hugh Hefner, I guess,” says Roderick of being able to produce the work that she wants to do.

The former Baywatch actress loves being able to produce what she considers her art— beautiful photographs, artfully posed— without being told what she can and cannot do.

In an age where women whose youth and beauty were exploited for the sake of lining producers pockets, you’ve gotta love watching them have another wave of fame wash over them on their own terms.

Good for you, Brande Roderick. Good for you.