Meme-making during the Super Bowl has evolved into a sport of its own over the years, especially when it comes to the anticipated halftime show. But one particular moment really took social media by storm — or shall we say, made a splash — during the 2015 Big Game.
Katy Perry’s Super Bowl XLIX halftime show has gone down as the third most-watched to date, with a kaleidoscope of colors on stage mixed with surprise guests Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliot. While it attracted 118.5 million views on TV, a specific finned-backup dancer circled the internet: Left Shark.
Amid her 13-minute-long set of smash hits, a beachball-clad Perry danced alongside humanized palm trees, surfboards and other tropical objects while belting “Teenage Dream.” Then, she was joined by two dancers dressed as sharks on either side. The one on the right seemingly knew the steps, while the left… not so much. (So the internet thought).
In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE ahead of the 2025 Super Bowl, Left Shark — whose real name, unmasked, is Bryan Gaw — recalls what took place on that halftime stage 10 years ago, what Perry really thought of his viral moment and how his life has changed in the decade that followed.
“Where has the time gone?” Gaw, baffled, tells PEOPLE looking back at his iconic performance. “What do I remember? Honestly, it was everything you can imagine… if you can imagine.”
Picture taking center stage alongside one of the world’s biggest pop stars in front of 73,000 fans in Arizona’s University of Phoenix Stadium and hundreds of millions of eyes turning into one of the year’s most-watched telecasts from home. Adrenaline runs high — and to Gaw, it’s incomparable.
“The energy when you enter the stadium is unmatched. I’ve never felt such nervous, excited energy in my life,” he says. “It’s the pinnacle of so many people’s career paths. It is a culmination of hard work… and on top of it, you’re so nervous.”
But nerves look different on someone like Gaw, who landed the halftime gig with Perry after years of working as a professional dancer for brands like Disney and Nickelodeon and artists like Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and more. “My first job with Katy was in 2010 for the Teen Choice Awards,” he notes.
In the five years that followed, Gaw — who’s originally from Texas and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in dance — worked with Perry for promo shows and various gigs after auditions upon auditions, eventually securing a spot on her Prismatic World Tour.
“It is such a special part of a dancer’s career to basically ride the wave of stardom with somebody,” Gaw says. “Katy took off in such a big way. It was really, really cool… Everybody remembers that era of Katy,” he continues. “Just to be part of somebody’s experience is really, really special to me.”
He adds, “Katy gave me an amazing opportunity, an opportunity of a lifetime.”
So for someone with a lifetime of dance experience and years of professionally-trained work with the best in the biz, it’s hard to believe Left Shark flubbed the Super Bowl halftime choreography in comparison to Right Shark like the viral social media memes led the internet to believe. Right?
“The reality of it is, it was a free moment,” Gaw says of his steps that went viral, clarifying that he used that open count to freestyle because the dance allowed for it at that part in the song. Looking back, he notes “you actually don’t” see a huge difference between his moves and Right Shark.
As for why he went viral, the dancer thinks the credit should be attributed to the social media savvy user who exported the dance into a meme-making generator, posted it online and made it “a thing” — which evolved into the pop culture phenomenon we know today.
“It’s so funny because it was such a small thing, and the internet culture made it such a big thing,” he says. “I really love that basically America grabbed hold of it. Not [just] America, but the world really.”
Gaw, meanwhile, “didn’t realize” his performance had gone viral until the morning after the Super Bowl when he flew back to L.A. “To be honest with you, it scared me,” he admits. “My phone was full. My mailbox was full… from my agent, from every news source saying they want to talk to me.”
“Getting the attention, I guess, made me realize that it was a big thing,” the dancer adds.
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That’s in part why Gaw didn’t “break his silence” on his Left Shark moment immediately after, instead waiting three years to reveal his identity that was disguised by the shark jumpsuit that’s now sold in stores and has solidified itself as a popular Halloween costume in the years that followed.
“I was purposely not speaking to press about it because I was still working with Katy — and the thing is, the show is about Katy. It’s not about me,” he says. “It’s such a huge accomplishment for any performer to get asked to do the Super Bowl… and the moment should be rightfully still about her.”
Still, Perry — who’s widely known for her over-the-top looks, unique sense of humor and fun-loving personality — got a kick out of the Left Shark moment and even played into it herself. “We all kind of had a joke about it,” he says of the singer and his Right Shark counterpart.
“We went [back] on tour,” he recalls of the “funny” moment that happened the week after the Super Bowl. “We were in a foreign country and Katy pulled us into the dressing room and gave us a shark suit… like a onesie,” he reveals. “It was just very, very, very cute. We all laughed. We put them on.”
From his years of experience working alongside Perry, Gaw notes “she knows when and when not to take herself too seriously.” He says, “I think is a great lesson and metaphor for all of us. This is fun. This is entertaining, you know what I mean?”
“Katy is a fun person,” emphasizes Gaw, who says he would love to “go back” to those days surrounded by singing and dancing but has since pivoted his career in the decade after his Super Bowl performance.
“I finished out touring with Katy that year, and then I took a year off to get my cosmology license,” says Gaw, who now works for his self-started business as a hairstylist at Serrano Salon in L.A. “That is my bread and butter,” he adds.
“I always knew I still wanted to be part of the creative entertainment industry and have my hand in art, creativity and be involved with people as well,” Gaw explains. “I love that dance is such a mainstream thing, but it’s a lot of work… I wanted to pivot my transition gracefully.”
Still, rhythm is in Left Shark’s blood. “I do dance still. I haven’t taken a dance job in quite some time,” Gaw says. “I’m in my era of, ‘I want to dance for myself to have fun,’ going along with my life’s motto. … Not take it so seriously.”
This year, Kendrick Lamar and the recently-announced surprise performer SZA will take the halftime stage at Super Bowl LIX. While Gaw won’t be performing himself, he’s sure of one thing: he will be watching. “The Super Bowl is a huge thing for us. ‘Who’s performing? What’s going to happen?'”
The latter question, especially, rings true for Gaw, who ultimately became the unexpected, talked-about variable of his year. In fact, he says he didn’t fully realize the “grandiosity” of his halftime opportunity that he deemed the “pinnacle” of career paths because he was so dialed in at the time.
Now, 10 years later, Gaw is confidently riding that wave of Left Shark nostalgia as he “truly takes it in” and thinks, “Wow, that was such an awesome moment.”
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