Karamo Brown

Karamo Karega Brown (born November 2, 1980) is an American television host, reality television personality, author, actor, and activist. Brown began his career in 2004 on the MTV reality show The Real World: Philadelphia. He currently stars as the culture expert in the Netflix series Queer Eye.

In September 2022, Brown began hosting an eponymous talk show titled Karamo for NBCUniversal.

Personal life Brown was born in Houston to parents from Jamaica and has three older sisters. He came out as gay at age 14. Brown grew up in Coral Springs, Florida and graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 1999. He graduated from Florida A&M University, a historically black university, and has worked in social services.

In 2007, Brown was notified that he was the father of a ten-year-old boy, Jason, and he received custody of him that year. Brown adopted his son's half-brother in 2010; he moved to Los Angeles with his two sons in 2011, where they currently reside. In May 2018, Brown became engaged to director Ian Jordan. They split amicably around June 2020. On May 15, 2021, Karamo began dating photographer Carlos Medel. He and Carlos split in early 2025.

Career Karamo was most known for his television debut on the MTV reality series The Real World: Philadelphia in 2004. Brown was a contributing host on HLN's Dr. Drew On Call, YouTube's The Young Turks,

Brown hosted MTV's Are You the One? Second Chances. Brown is the culture expert in the Netflix revival of Queer Eye. The first season was released on Netflix in February 2018. In June 2019, Brown had a cameo role in Taylor Swift's "You Need to Calm Down" music video, along with a long list of other celebrities.

In 2019 Brown competed on the 28th season of celebrity dance competition Dancing with the Stars. He was paired with professional dancer Jenna Johnson. Brown and Johnson were the fourth couple eliminated. Brown publicly defended his fellow contestant, former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who was seen as a divisive and controversial choice for the show. Brown called Spicer "a good guy" and "a friend," and said that he "was proud of him," but also said he did not appreciate Spicer serving as a mouthpiece for many lies in service of Trump. Brown was criticized by many, including author Roxane Gay for normalizing Spicer and his work in the White House. Brown's trailer at DWTS shared a wall with Spicer's; Brown intentionally had transgender friends over, and invited Spicer to socialize.

Starting in 2018, Brown shared some of his best advice about promoting self-esteem to students at multiple universities.

In November 2019, Brown published a children's book, I Am Perfectly Designed, written with his son Jason "Rachel" Brown, illustrated by Anoosha Syed, and published by Henry Holt and Company. Jason said that the title of the book is a phrase Brown often said to Jason growing up.

In 2020, Karamo Brown teamed up with Honest Company alumni to create MANTL, a premium personal care brand for bald and or balding men.

In 2020, Brown was named to the Ebony Power 100 List.

He judged an episode of Is It Cake?, which premiered on Netflix in March 2022.

Brown guest-hosted several episodes of Maury in the 2021–22 season. In March 2022, Brown was announced as host Maury Povich's successor; Povich retired and Brown hosted a new talk show for NBCUniversal Television Distribution, with Karamo starting recording in August and premiering September 19.

In September 2022, Brown featured TikToker creators Chef Pii and Allured Beauty on the Karamo Show in response to Allured Beauty's discovery that Pii's Pink Sauce product was not safe for human consumption after getting it tested by a lab. Her discovery came after multiple similar accounts from other consumers. Brown received backlash for defending Chef Pii and criticizing Allured Beauty, with viewers pointing out that he was 'gaslighting' Allured Beauty during the episode. In February 2023, Brown released a follow-up segment in which he apologized to Alle for how the original "Pink Sauce" episode had been handled.

In March 2026, it was announced by NBCUniversal, was canceling Karamo. It was stated to be due to local station programming preferences. Other shows announced in the cancellations included Steve Wilkos, Access Hollywood, and Access Live.

Activism In 2014, Brown partnered with the pharmaceutical company Janssen as part of the Positively Fearless campaign to empower the gay and bisexual community.

In 2015, Brown co-founded 6in10.org, an organization that works to combat HIV stigma and provides mental health support and HIV education to the black LGBT community.

He was invited by the Obama Administration to work with the White House to create policies and legislations that helped with supporting the aspiring LGBTQ youth and their community along with their allies after school hours. He worked directly with President Barack Obama to support the president Obama Foundation and the My Brother's Keeper Alliance.

In April 2018, he joined Creative Coalition members in traveling to Capitol Hill to petition legislators and the office of Second Lady Karen Pence for increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. He is also a national co-chair for Health Care Voter. Brown's activism does not remain local; he travels around the country to speak and host focus groups with HIV organizations, churches, and schools to address the issues the LGBTQ community is facing.

Filmography Television and web Year Title Role Notes2003The 5th WheelHimself 2004–2005 The Real World: Philadelphia 26 episodes 2005 Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno II 6 episodes 2007 The DL Chronicles Agent No. 1 Episode: "Robert" 2012–2013 Bethenny Himself Panelist/Correspondent, 4 episodes 2013–2014 Where the Bears Are! Ronnie Bishop/Reporter 7 episodes 2014–2016 Dr. Drew On Call Himself Host/Correspondent/Panelist, 54 episodes 2015 HuffPost Live Host, 8 episodes Steam Room Stories Karamo 4 episodes Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood Himself Episode: "Out in Hip Hop" 2016 Access Hollywood Live Host; 7 episodes 2016 The Next :15 7 episodes2016The Unexplained 2017 Are You the One: Second Chances Host, 10 episodes 2018 The Real Princess Diaries: From Diana to Meghan TV movie documentary 2018–2026 Queer Eye Main cast 2018 Nailed It! Episode: "Bonus: 3, 2, 1, Ya Not Done!!"GMA Digital"Take it from Karamo Brown: Own who you are"ELLE"Queer Eye'''s Karamo Brown Insta-Stalks the Fab Five"

The Daily Show With Trevor Noah|"The Popularity of Queer Eye & Embracing Growth in Karamo" MTV|"Karamo Brown Reacts to The Real World: Philadelphia" Yahoo Lifestyle|"It was love at first sight for Queer Eye star Karamo Brown" Good Morning America|"Karamo Brown motivates and inspires with his new memoir" Broadly "Queer Eye's Karamo Brown Gives Sex Advice: Broadly Hotline" Big Mouth|Voice role, Season 3 Episode "Disclousure: The Movie: The Musical!" The Wendy Williams Show

"Karamo on Fatherhood"

Miss Americana| The Thing About Harry|Paul Freeform original film Raven's Home|Miguel Harris "Slammed"

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?|2 episodes Miracle Workers|Patriotic Man Season 3, Episode 6: "Independence Rock"

Is It Cake?| Judge Netflix 2022–2026 Karamo'' Himself Talk show host 2021 2022 2023 Outstanding Structured Reality Program 2024 2025

Miscellaneous awards Year Award Category Work Result Ref. 2018 Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award Himself 2024 GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode Karamo 2025