Rising Stars: Meet Byron Knight Williams of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Byron Knight Williams.

Hi Byron, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
It seems like all paths have led here. This isn’t my first Voyage, but I believe this is the one that the first one was leading toward. For the past 12 years I’ have lived and worked in Los Angeles. From inside the Hollywood machine itself. I have seen just about every side of this city as well as the industry. From the hills of Beverly and Calabasas, to the row of skid. I’ve lived and worked across every aspect of entertainment, from production to performing in front of the camera. I say that to say; in 2026, the world is more uncertain than ever, which means the future is being written in real time.

For me, it started in Cincinnati, Ohio at University Hospital. That’s where I was born. I was two weeks early, ,4 pounds, with drugs in my system. My mom was a heavy user. Because of that she wasn’t able to keep me. I was sent to be with a foster family, then adopted within months.

I spent the next 18 years in public schools, talking a lot, dancing around, mildly disrupting class, not doing homework, but always showing up for gym, lunch, and picture day. I wish I knew then that this would become the theme of my whole life. I knew I wanted to play and be creative for the rest of my life and not have to sign up for traditional adulthood.

At 19, I drove to Florida to work my first job at Disney World. I was accepted into the Disney college program where I was a custodian for over 60 hours a week, cleaning toilets and picking up popcorn. And picking up parade shifts every chance I got just to wear a different costume from time to time. It was a dream for me since I had never left my city until then. I’m from the west side of Cincinnati so all I knew was hood related stuff. This wasn’t a culture shock for me but more like an expansion.

From that point I knew I couldn’t go back home the same way I left, so after completing the internship I returned to Cincinnati where I worked multiple jobs and landed another internship at Fox 19 news, while eyeing Los Angeles as my next landing spot.

I wanted to do television and that became crystal clear to me. In 2014 I made the move. It was just me my vision, my confidence, some fresh news experience and a car full of clothes because I knew I wasn’t coming back…

I had no job when I first got to Los Angeles, and I happened to stumble a a studio apartment for $750 per month in the middle of downtown with $125 parking the same day I arrived.

I originally had a roommate, who was a pretty but reserved light skinned girl I connected with at Disney a couple years prior. Both of our moms thought it would be smart if we moved together at the same time to make things easier. Our apartment had roaches and even some bedbugs. But at the time that was the least of my worries as I was a 21-year-old who had just drove across the country from Cincy to Los Angeles. By this point, I felt like I was already living a dream.

I had no idea at the time that a small simple dream would evolve into something so big that I wouldn’t be able hold it alone…

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Every aspect of the road was difficult. I would be lying to say it’s been easy although it’s probably looked like it.

Before moving to California, I saved up about $2500 working three part-time jobs doing an internship 30 hours a week unpaid, and creating content because it wasn’t a big thing then, but I figured it was going to move the needle for me faster than most other things at the time. I’m glad I was right about that part.

I moved to LA in 2014 in January. Got a job within three days. Lost that same job within three months. Fell behind in rent for the first time in my life.

The next year in 2025 I landed my dream job at TMZ which also happened to be the first ever full-time job I ever had outside of my Disney internship. The day I got hired at TMZ. I called my mom and told her that she wouldn’t have to worry about money and healthcare anymore (She was in the hospital at the time). My mom was always my hero and a couple months before I moved to Los Angeles. She came home out of breath and asked if I could take her to the hospital. It turns out she had respiratory issues from a life of smoking and working nonstop. She was about 70 years old at the time. This was the woman that adopted me. And right when I hit the peak of my life, she had reached the end of hers. I called her from the TMZ parking lot that day to let her know that I got my dream job and that I was going to take care of her and move her to California. She passed away the next day.

Because she instilled Jesus in my heart, I understood that it was her time and that she just wanted to make sure I was good before she left. She just wanted to stick around to hear the good news.

I didn’t cry for a month because I couldn’t. I understood that it was bigger and I carry her in my heart daily. Everything I do is for her as well.

Right before 2016 I was let go from the TMZ job, my lease ran out at the same time and with no income, and no other prospects I moved in with a friend. Paying $500 a month for a bed. He was a choreographer for another dancer stayed there too. After an argument over beds, I moved out to keep the peace and I spent the next year in my car. Then it was repossessed.

By this time it was 2017 I had made enough friends to where I could couch surf. I did that for another year.

In 2018 I moved in with a church friend who had an extra bedroomand we rebuilt our lives at the same time as we were both homeless than 2016 in our cars, so it’s all almost as if fate brought us back together, or maybe faith.

Around this time, I decided to get back into television while I worked for companies such as AFTERBUZZ TV, BuzzFeed, Universal Studios, and other small collaborations. This was me building my confidence and presence back after being a ghost in the system for the previous couple years.

By 2019 I had transitioned into marketing and I worked as a cultural ambassador for the company that created Red Bull. This was right before the pandemic, when everything changed.

In 2020, my job was one of the first jobs to go remote, and with that I had a lot of time and energy on my hands and office work was almost nonexistent for me because of my unique position. During the shutdown I was presented with uninterrupted time to explore just about anything. The thing I decided to explore was rollerskating. I seen some videos on TikTok, and I was exposed to skaters who open my eyes to what this world was and eventually become my friends.

I only had two goals starting out: 1. Get comfortable within a year. 2. Skate like a pro in two.

Long story short, within one year I was doing brand partnerships booking professional jobs, and progressing just as fast as anybody.

2020 was a year that flipped everything for me. And then 2021 was better. And then 2022 was better. And then 2023 I got signed. I booked two commercials which immediately change the trajectory of my life. One was TurboTax and the other was dominoes. This was the first time that I ever saw if a 5 figure check. This was also the first time I was able to move into my own apartment in LA with no roommates and pay the rent myself. Not only that, but I was making residuals which I had only heard about in school and in rich people conversations. For me making thousands every month for work that I had done one day a year ago was crazy. But it was real and I didn’t need to work another job for years.

It was at that point that I looked at money a lot differently, and I saw how rich people get rich and stay rich and why most people never do. It was one of those situations where you can’t unsee what you see. And I had seen enough.

Now this was in 2023 and around that same time, around May, I started feeling numbness in my hands and feet. It was persistent, annoying, and a little scary. I had no idea what it was. I just knew that I couldn’t walk more than 100 feet anymore without my body going numb and collapsing. It all seemed so sudden. I just got signed. I was just starting to truly live the Hollywood dream and now I could barely move…

It wasn’t until 2025, after numerous doctor visits, x-rays and MRIs, where I found out that I had MS, aggressive MS at that was over 20 lesion spread across my brain and spinal cord, my neurologist, was surprised that I could even rollerskate still, and she was even more surprised when I told her that I literally couldn’t and that I had to learn again, twice.

Because skating paid my bills at that point and also made me happier than anything else on earth I could not fathom just stopping forever so after a few months of me being depressed, I decided to put my skates on again, even though I couldn’t feel them, and I said I would keep doing it until I could.

During that time I got into herbalism and I learned a lot about different compounds, vitamins, minerals, etc. I started creating my own medicine in between movement and plant medicine I was able to correct some deficiencies get Sensation back in my hands and feet, although not fully, and start skating again. I’ve been skating almost every day since.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As of right now, I am a full stack artist, creator, leader, and builder.

Skating still pays the bills. Although I’m not quite where I was at before, in some ways I’m better and the rest is coming back as we speak. I recently got certified as a personal trainer in February 2025 and I been doing that as a way to balance out income when I’m not performing. So far in the past year I’ve trained hundreds of clients. However, the stage and the screen has my heart and probably always will.

I think the thing that sets me apart is my unwillingness to give up. I just don’t know how to do that. I never learned that part. So I push forward through all the things that would stop most people. There is no secret sauce or information. Just a real man doing real shit I’m the real world.

What are your plans for the future?
The biggest project for me right now is the Flow Zone! It’s a quarter acre in California that I own. I gave up everything including my apartment that I just told you about, my comfort, my safety and my bed so that I could save up enough money to buy land. In other words, 10 years after being homeless in 2016, I decided to do it all again, but this time with an actual finish line in sight. Not only that but I documented the whole thing on YouTube to help other people who would one day follow a similar path.

Around mid April 2026 I was able to complete the purchase. I am now in the permitting process and getting everything ready to build a quarter acre compound and seasonal retreat.

None of this is random. This is actually part of a bigger vision that I’ve had since I was a kid. I used to watch the fantasy factory on MTV and wish that I had something like that. This is my version and it sits right in the Mojave desert. I’ve never done anything so big in my life yet here we are. I recently had a 8,000lb metal structure delivered. And I been driving back-and-forth from LA to the Mojave to prep the land over the past month or so.

This curated, small footprint, micro climate is not only going to change the trajectory of my life, but the lives are just about every person who steps foot inside of the Flow Zone. I’m branding it as a place to live, move, and flow. It’s in a high density multifamily zoned district so the possibilities are endless as to what I can do there. And the cool part is that I’ve never seen it done the way that I’m doing it so I get to be the blueprint for something new. And I know it’s going to happen because it’s already happening.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herofromthe90s
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/herofromthe90s
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/officialflowzone