Today, we’d like to introduce you to Jamar Washington.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
From as far back as I can remember, I’ve always been creative and wanted to find new ways to express myself through that creativity. In my younger years, I remember being drawn to activities that allowed me to create my world and use my imagination. I discovered my talent for singing and music while singing in my church choir and began my YouTube channel doing covers of some of my favorite songs. I hadn’t yet developed the confidence to perform in front of an audience, so the camera at the time was my safe place.
From doing covers, I started to discover other content creators on YouTube who would discuss topics around music, such as album reviews, coverage of award shows, music-related television programming, etc., which inspired me to start sharing my opinions on the matter on my platform. That’s when my channel started going from covers to more current events, reviews, and whatever crazy idea popped into my head. During this period, I met many amazing people who are still my friends to this day. We were all creating content on YouTube around popular reality TV shows at the time, and I had started to develop a following, which was unexpected but exciting! This was the era of my channel where I would discuss Bad Girls Club, MTV Video Music Award Shows, Love & Hip Hop, Real Housewives, and many more!
After a few years, I grew weary of the network television shows. I wanted something fresh and new, and that’s when one of my best friends to this day and fellow YouTuber Scotty Heath told me about this YouTube web reality platform called “Chasing: Atlanta,” and he recommended I watch and review that show for my channel. I was a bit skeptical at the time as I initially didn’t see the potential of a web show to pull my audience in like a network show would, but boy was I wrong! Chasing: Atlanta was and still is the highest YouTube web-reality show on the internet, so I started to recap episodes of their latest season, which led to Scotty and I starting our podcast show called “The Prelude,” where we interviewed cast members from the show along with the shows’ CEO himself An’Darrio Abrams! One of my other proudest moments from creating this podcast with my co-host Scotty is our platform had grown so much that not only were we awarded “Best Podcast of the Year” at the 2023 Boss Babe Awards, but in September of 2022, we were given both the honor and the pleasure of interviewing Kandi Burruss from the 90s girl group Xscape, and Real Housewives of Atlanta!
As my relationship with Chasing, Atlanta’s CEO, An’darrio Abrams, grew, we became close. He asked me if I would like to come on as a producer for his current season of the show, and of course, I wouldn’t pass up such an awesome opportunity! He tested me out during their 5th season part-time and brought me on full-time for their 6th season as the lead producer, and I wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything! Now, we have some other amazing projects in the works, but the world must stay tuned for those.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I would say some of the struggles I had along the way were questioning what I wanted to do and if I had the talent to do it. Even to this day, with all the things I have been able to achieve, I still have moments of ‘Imposter Syndrome’ where I’ll downplay my success and convince myself that I don’t deserve all that I have.
Still, luckily, I have an awesome support system of friends and family who remind me of all the groundwork I’ve done over the years that has prepared me for where I am today and where I am headed in the future.
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?
Well right now I am currently a Lead Producer with the Chasing: Reality online platform, a panelist on multiple YouTube channels such as ScottyByNature and Matty Rants, a makeup artist, singer, and an actor.
I would say I specialize in content creation as I love to have my hand in many different posts and learn a plethora of skills. I am mostly known for my interviews on the ScottyByNature channel, where we co-host ‘The Prelude,’ and as a panelist on Matty Rants channel discussing all things RuPaul’s Drag Race and the drag community as a whole.
I would say I am most proud of going out on a limb and trying out the art form of acting, which is something I always wanted to try but never knew how to get started. It wasn’t until good friends of mine, Alex Jante from Jante Productions and Wesley Henderson, who is over WatchACTV, allowed me to audition for their productions ‘The Assistant 2: Reconnected’ and ‘Online Dating for Men’, respectively.
Those experiences taught me that you can do whatever you set your mind to, and if you treat other creators’ projects with the same love and care as your own, you will always find the right opportunities. I would say my willingness to not be pigeonholed into a single box and do whatever makes me happy is what allows me to stand out from others who may only be considered one note. Is that shady? Haha.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
In the next 5-10 years, the entertainment industry and content creator platforms will only continue to elevate and become more lucrative. People are now seeing that they can create their own entertainment on their platforms, and there’s a large audience for that type of content that is being displayed across social media platforms.
Cable TV has already lost to streaming platforms, and I feel online platforms like YouTube will continue to build up some of the greatest artists and creators and push them further and further into the mainstream.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @jamar84
- Twitter: @jamar84
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Jamar84
