Inside Chanel West Coast And Rob Dyrdek's Relationship

Many people know Chanel West Coast and Rob Dyrdek as the co-hosts of MTV's Ridiculousness. Few know that they're actually friends off-screen. Surprisingly, their relationship goes way back. Chanel West Coast was originally buds with his cousin, Scott "Big Cat" Pfaff, and met Dyrdek through him, as she explained to WZRA TV. Needless to say, Chanel West Coast quickly became a part of the crew, and their real-life friendship was all documented on the reality series Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory.

Even when the beloved show left MTV in 2015, their relationship didn't end there. Dyrdek has taken Chanel West Coast along for all of his wild rides — from fighting a tiger to voicing a cartoon character. "We're just good friends and we just get to, like, hang out and film," she explained to People, and it doesn't seem as though their crazy adventures together will end anytime soon.

Read on for a look inside Chanel West Coast and Rob Dyrdek's relationship.

MySpace was definitely the place to be in the 2000s. As an aspiring rapper, Chanel West Coast was spending a majority of her time there trying to promote her own music. She was constantly expanding her network online, adding people left and right, and one of her new connections led her straight to the skateboarder Rob Dyrdek. As he describes it, Chanel West Coast "talked to my cousins and they were like, 'She's so dumb, she thinks she's a rapper,'" Dyrdek told SFGate in a since-removed interview. However, he didn't agree at all. He saw something in the aspiring musician and was immediately drawn to her.

Chanel West Coast was already a fan of Dyrdek's reality show on MTV Rob & Big, so when he approached her and told her he was a fan of her music, she was stunned. "When he said that, I was like, 'Wait, what?'" she admitted to NUVOtv. From there, their mutual fan-ship quickly morphed into a beautiful friendship.

Rob Dyrdek has never had much to do with rap music, but he clearly knew he needed Chanel West Coast in his life. Even though Dyrdek presumably knew the job wasn't the best fit for Chanel, he offered her a receptionist job and managed to make the job sound appealing. "He knew I was aspiring to be a rapper and that's why he was like, 'Do you want to be my rapping receptionist?'" she explained to 303 Magazine. "It sounded funny being a rapping receptionist." She was into the idea and took advantage of the opportunity.

As Dyrdek's receptionist, Chanel West Coast appeared quite often on his reality show Fantasy Factory. Yet, as their friendship grew, so did her role on the television series. She eventually became one of the stars for seven seasons, and the rest of her career took off from there. "Now she's signed a deal with Polo and is going to get a really big record deal doing all of these tracks with Snoop Dog and Lil Jon and Chris Brown," Dyrdek told SFGate (via Medium) less than two years after Fantasy Factory's premiere. "She's on her way."

While many MTV fans can only dream of starring on the network, Chanel West Coast was hesitant to head into the entertainment industry alongside Rob Dyrdek. "The first thing that crossed my head was, 'Is this going to ruin my chances of being taken seriously as an artist?'" she admitted to LA Weekly.

When their show, Fantasy Factory, first aired, Chanel West Coast's worries became a reality. Instead of being recognized as a serious rapper, viewers were beginning to recognize her as a reality star instead. "It kind of was a setback for my music because people, I think, thought it was a joke that I'm a rapping receptionist," she admitted to 303 Magazine. Because of that alone, her music career seemed to take a backseat. Yet, her success on the small screen seemed to be only the beginning.

Before her fame and fortune, Chanel West Coast had always classified herself as a rapper. Immediately after Rob Dyrdek met her, he realized, "She doesn't just think it, she really believes it," he explained to SFGate in an interview that's no long on the site, "and she's actually good at it." After growing up in such a musical family, Chanel West Coast knew she was destined to become an artist, too. 

Her determination to make something more of herself is exactly what drew Dyrdek to her. She was hustling and bustling, selling tickets to her own shows, and spending all day on social media to connect with other creative people in the industry. Dyrdek experienced something similar on his way to becoming a professional skateboarder. "I think Rob saw that I was a hustler and he really respected that," Chanel West Coast told Fat Joe in an interview. The duo's drive eventually led to starring roles on a second show for MTV called Ridiculousness in 2011.

Any Fantasy Factory fan has dreamed of all the fun they could have in Rob Dyrdek's offices, and eight lucky kids made this dream their reality. These kids' biggest wish was to spend time with Dyrdek and Chanel West Coast, and the stars were pretty excited about it, too. For the show's series finale, Dyrdek and West Coast partnered with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for the ultimate farewell festivity (via MTV News). "It's their dream to enjoy the Fantasy Factory, so we're going to do something for these kids," Drydek told his crew in the episode. The team set up the ultimate experience that they and the kids would surely remember forever.

Unfortunately for West Coast, she was tasked with being dropped from an up-high dunk tank. While she wasn't super excited about it, she conquered her fear and fell down into the iconic foam pit. Why? "I love kids," she said.

The kids all got in at a good time, too. Unfortunately, no one else will ever get to dream of entering the Fantasy Factory. Not too long after airing this series finale, the iconic offices were destroyed (via Twitter).

When Fantasy Factory came to an end in 2015, Chanel West Coast and Rob Dyrdek continued to work together on a new series called Ridiculousness. "The entire thing is basically a 45-minute improv comedy show with two people you have great chemistry with," Dyrdek described to The Inside Reel, so, naturally, he brought his bestie West Coast on board.

Though Ridiculousness wasn't what they were used to in the reality show realm, this viral video show became one of the most popular to ever air on MTV. In fact, it was the second highest-rated show in 2011, only behind Jersey Shore, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Yet, when Dyrdek asked West Coast to be a part of it, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. "I didn't think Ridiculousness was going to be bigger than Fantasy Factory," she admitted to CBS Boston. While she continued creating her own music off-screen, she told TooFab that she still considers working with Dyrdek on Ridiculousness "the greatest job in the world."

Working on MTV's Ridiculousness keeps Chanel West Coast busy, but many fans of the show may be surprised to know that she still works on her rapping career behind the scenes. "I don't think people realize that my life 24/7 outside of Ridiculousness is touring, in the studio recording, working with my choreographer Laurieann Gibson," she explained to TV Insider. She knows she's more than a reality star. She's really a rapper. Luckily, her co-star, Rob Dyrdek, seems to be one of her greatest supporters.

During Season 15 of Ridiculousness, Dyrdek decided to show Chanel West Coast's newest music video for her single "Anchors." "Such an amazing song that @mtv decided to show the video during our [all-new] episode of @ridiculousness tonight!" he tweeted out to fans, encouraging them to watch.

It was a great move for Dyrdek to make. "I've been on MTV for a long time, and I think they've looked over my music just a drop," West Coast told TV Insider. Dyrdek surely won't ever let her down!

While many of us know Rob Dyrdek as a daring television star doing the craziest stunts, Chanel West Coast has admitted that he's a different person off-screen. "It's almost like the camera turns on and, like, that side of him turns on," she told People. While his sense of humor is never lost when he steps foot off stage, "when the cameras aren't on, he's a lot more chill," she revealed.

Though Dyrdek isn't an actor, he clearly understands the entertainment industry. He went big when he launched Fantasy Factory because he clearly knows that everything on-screen needs to be bigger than ever, too. The ratings, after all, showed that Dyrdek's adrenaline-packed stunts are a big success. His personality has made him an MTV icon for nearly two decades.

He even agrees with West Coast when it comes to how he acts off-screen. Behind the scenes, Dyrdek is all business. "I'm so serious with the stuff I do in my normal life," he told The New York Times. "It's almost like the television stuff is an outlet to be crazy." And fans obviously love it.

Skateboarding was the start of Rob Dyrdek's successful career after becoming a pro at only 12 years old. Seeing as his co-star Chanel West Coast spends an awful lot of time alongside him, it only makes sense that she's picked up some skateboarding skills.

In 2013, she was asked to perform at the X Games, a skateboarding competition that Dyrdek has been a part of. In between rapping, Chanel West Coast could be seen skating up and down ramps while chatting with fans.

One of her "craziest" skateboarding stunts, she admitted, was when she was dared to skate down a steep hill while shooting an episode of Fantasy Factory. "Even professional skateboarders, they don't just randomly skate down steep hills like that," she explained to WZRA TV, so it was truly a success when she made it all the way to the foot of the hill without falling. While she presumably doesn't spend as much time on a skateboard since Fantasy Factory ended its run in 2015, she still tells fans that she considers herself a "skater girl" (via In Touch Weekly).

When Rob Dyrdek was creating his own cartoon for Nicktoons in 2012, he already had the perfect name in mind — Wild Grinders. "I came up with the name when I was eleven years old, when I needed a name for my first skate crew," he explained to Cartoon Brew. While he obviously wasn't surrounding himself with the same individuals in the entertainment industry, he still had the perfect people in mind to voice the characters along with him. And so Chanel West Coast became a part of his cartoon crew. 

Surprisingly, when the series first aired, West Coast may have been intended as only a guest star. However, she had something more permanent in mind. "That was kind of my goal. I'm like, I really want to be a part of the Wild Grinders permanently," she admitted at the time to WZRA TV. It was after showing Dyrdek her serious skateboarding skills off-screen that he decided to hire her to voice the character of FLIPZ full-time. After all, she understands exactly what it means to be a part of his skating squad.

Many times, Rob Dyrdek has put his co-stars in pretty uncomfortable situations. From that time he entered Chanel West Coast into a beauty pageant to compete with kids to that time he hired a hypnotist to try and make her funnier, let's just say that she's been through a lot. While she may find it extremely embarrassing, many of us at home find it extremely entertaining — and that seems to be Dyrdek's end goal (via MTV News).

On Fantasy Factory, fans never knew what Dyrdek had in store for the day. It turns out, neither did his crew. West Coast would even try and get information from the camera guys to see what she should expect. "I never know what we're getting into," she told WZRA TV. "It's, like, every day Rob has the craziest ideas."

Yet, however crazy their days turned out to be, West Coast was always seen taking it like a champ. She somehow turned her most embarrassing moments into the most memorable ones. "You never knew what you were going to get," Dyrdek said in a promo. "But it's always priceless."

Rob Dyrdek gave Chanel West Coast her big break in the entertainment industry. Along with it came a big paycheck, too. However, few know that during the first few seasons of Fantasy Factory, West Coast was still struggling behind the scenes. "I was so broke," she explained to 303 Magazine, adding, "It was weird because you're on a TV show and people know you from being on TV, but I couldn't even afford a car." In fact, the day Dyrdek approached her about being a part of the show, she barely had enough money to afford food. Luckily, she's come a long way since then — a very long way. According to Celebrity Net Worth, she's now worth an estimated $3 million. Clearly, Chanel West Coast has had a gorgeous transformation!

Since West Coast spent a majority of her childhood watching her parents make it in the music industry, too, her pay days are a sign of her success. "I can help my mom out who struggles," she said. "When I just saw my family in New York, [I was able] to pay for the whole dinner for my family — that's a cool feeling."

Though many fans may have suspected some heat between Chanel West Coast and Rob Dyrdek, the two have never dated. "He lives in a mansion with the cutest family," she even gushed to InStyle. "So he's super happy."

In 2015, Dyrdek married girlfriend Bryiana Noelle Flores. The two are so madly in love that they even recreated their wedding after five years. "I love my wife so much and am so thankful for the life we have created together," he shared on Facebook. "Can't wait to do it again and again every five years!"

Though Chanel West Coast is not a wedded woman, she's previously been linked to two famous men — Liam Horne and Solo Lucci. Lately, she's been busy focusing on her rapping career, though it seems she aspires to have a family just like Dyrdek one day. "Can a successful and powerful man marry me already so this industry can finally stop holding me down?" she reportedly wrote on Instagram in 2019, before taking the post down (via In Touch Weekly). She's also revealed on Ridiculousness that she would love to have kids. Someday, Chanel!

After meeting Rob Dyrdek over a decade ago, it's obvious that he and Chanel West Coast have grown close. "We're kind of like family," she told In Touch Weekly. After all, they've spent so many hours filming together since Fantasy Factory first aired in 2009.

Fans are loving whatever they do together, and MTV is, too. Ridiculousness has been around since 2011, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. "The show is made the same way you and your friends would all sit around and watch this stuff and what would pop into your head," Dyrdek explained to HuffPost, and their show certainly wouldn't be the same if they weren't as close off-screen as well.

Not only have they navigated the entertainment industry together, but they've experienced a lot of life together, too. "I've basically grown up in my 20s on this show," West Coast told People.

After watching every episode of their reality series, it's obvious that Dyrdek has learned an awful lot about his co-star, including all the ways he can make her feel the most embarrassed. Let's be honest, though: That's what family does best.