Christopher Boykin

Boykin, who was from an Afro-American ethnicity, was born on January 13, 1972 in Raleigh, Smith County, Mississippi, United States. As a child, he aspired to become a musician and received all the support that he needed from his parents.

In 2008, he married his long-time girlfriend Shannon Turley. Shannon and Boykin were blessed with a daughter on February 15 whom they named Isis Rea Boykin. His marriage, however, culminated in divorce in 2009. On May 9, 2017, Boykin, who had a history of heart ailments, succumbed to heart attack in Plano, Texas, US.

Boykin began his journey in the world of entertainment after serving in the United States Navy. Rob Dyrdek, a then professional skateboarder,hired Boykin as a bodyguard for a DC Shoes’ skit where the latter was to protecthim from security guards. In the year 2004, theyportrayed the samecharacters again in ‘The DC Video: Deluxe Edition DVD’.

Boykin then went on to star in the American reality television series ‘Rob & Big’whicheventually emerged as one of the mostpopular shows of that time,givinghimboth money and fame. The series,which waspremiered in MTV on November 4, 2006, followed the lives of Boykin and Dyrdek. Created by the duo, along withJeff Tremaine and Ruben Fleischer, the series ran for three successful seasons before coming to an end on April 15, 2008.

‘Rob & Big’, which amalgamated a task or event into theeveryday lives of Rob and Boykin,saw the latter setting two Guinness World Records.During the series, Rob and Boykin were seen working on the skateboarding video game,‘Skate’.The gamewas then developed by EA Black Box and released in 2007to be played on platforms like PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and mobile phones.

In January 2009, ‘Skate 2’, a sequel to ‘Skate’ was released and this game too, featured Boykin and Rob.In 2006,Boykin starred in the Wyeth Clarkson directed drama ‘Sk8 Life’ which also had Mark Bajcar and Silas Borsos in starring roles.

Boykin went on to appearin another American reality television series ‘Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory’ which was premiered in MTV on February 8, 2009. Boykin joined the main cast of the show in its fourth season in 2011.He remained to be a part of the show till its seventh and final season.He thenappeared in three episodes of American comedy clip show ‘Ridiculousness’,hosted and produced by Dyrdek. Boykin also appeared in the MTV comedy series, ‘Guy Code’, and in thecooking show, ‘Snack Off’.

In 2007, Boykin ventured into business and thrived as an entrepreneur after launching his own clothing brand, ‘Big Black’. The brand offered products like hats and T-shirts, bearing his catchphrase ‘Do Work’.