Karamo Brown, 38, is one of the celebrity contestants who will be competing for the coveted mirrorball trophy on Dancing With the Stars season 28. The new season premieres Sept. 16 on ABC. There are so many contestants at the start of the season, so who is Karamo Brown? HollywoodLife has come up with 5 crucial things to know about the star!
1. Karamo is best known for being one of the stars of Netflix’s Queer Eye. Karamo is the culture expert on the series. He stars alongside the rest of the Fab Five — Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France, and Bobby Berk. The fourth season of Queer Eye was released in July 2019. The series has been renewed for a fifth season.
2. He first became famous after appearing on The Real World. He was a cast member on The Real World: Philadelphia in 2004. Karamo made history as the first out gay black man on reality TV.
3. He was one of the many stars featured in Taylor Swift’s “You Need To Calm Down” video. Karamo appeared alongside his Queer Eye co-stars, Adam Rippon, Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry, RuPaul, Ryan Reynolds, and more. The music video won Video of the Year at the 2019 VMAs.
4. Karamo is the father of two boys. Karamo came out as gay when he was 16 years old. He had fathered a child with his ex-girlfriend at 15 but he was unaware he was a father until the child was 10 years old. Once he found out about his child, he took full custody of his son, Jason. “I was confused, sad, angry, and weirdly excited to be a dad, but felt lost nonetheless,” Karamo told Parents. “We were both kids and don’t blame her for the decision she made because the choice was not hers, it was the adults around us.” Jason also has a half-brother named Chris and Karamo adopted him.
5. He’s engaged! Karamo popped the question to his boyfriend of 8 years, director Ian Jordan, in May 2018. Karamo proposed at a surprise birthday party for Ian.