Career
Karamo was most known for his television debut on the MTV reality series The Real World: Philadelphia in 2004. He later competed in the Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Inferno II, where he was eliminated in episode six.
Brown made a return to reality television on TV One's The Next 15 in 2016, which followed him and five other reality stars. Brown was a contributing host on HLN's Dr. Drew On Call, YouTube's The Young Turks, served as host and producer of HuffPost Live for Huffington Post and as a recurring guest host of Access Hollywood Live. In 2014, Brown became a host and segment producer for the Own Show.
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.
Brown published a memoir in March 2019 titled Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing, and Hope. 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. Brown spoke to Spicer about how the actions and policies against LGBTQ rights affect marginalized people. Brown explained he felt he could connect with Spicer as "he has the capacity to find out where others are coming from and to help them become more open-minded and educated."
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.
