DeStorm Power

Life and career[edit]

The fourth of eight siblings, Power was born in Arlington County, Virginia and raised in Baltimore, Maryland by his mother, who left his father early in his life.^[1][2] Frequently moving schools, he dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and was regularly sent to juvenile detention for various petty crimes before he began dancing and rapping. Motivated by the birth of his son Tayvion, as well as the local success of his song "We", which featured one of his brothers, Power moved from Baltimore to New York to California to pursue a career in music in 2001, where he spent time homeless before being handed a business card by a talent scout. After interning and ghostwriting at Atlantic Records, Universal and various other record labels,^[3] Power set out to establish himself as a performer, using YouTube as a platform to share his singing, songwriting and production skills with the online community.^[4] Power's videos are typically comedic, and also often incorporate rapping and beatboxing.^[5] He was an accomplished triple jumper and Master personal trainer, and was notably invited to the Olympic Trials.^[3] Power appeared as Mr. T in the first season of Epic Rap Battles of History^[6] from which he achieved a gold record. In 2008 he lost his mother Mashala to stomach cancer. He moved to Los Angeles, California in 2011, where he joined his manager Sara Pena and started Big Frame, a Multi Channel Network and founded Forefront.TV, which focuses on urban lifestyle and music.^[7][8] Power moved on to Paradigm Talent Agency for his acting career, and then William Morris Endeavor, before deciding to go independent. In August 2015, Power hosted the reboot of MTV's Punk'd with co-host King Bach, which aired on BET.^[9] He is a founder and president of The Zeus Network which launched July 13, 2018 ^[10] He is a 2011 American Music Awards honoree and was nominated for five Streamy Awards, winning three. He was Emmy Nominated for Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series in 2018 for his original creation Caught The Series.^[11]