What is the process? KevOnStage is building a better entertainment industry

"I consider the best method to describe how I came to be this position is to talk about just one person at a or one clip at a go," says the comedian, creator and actor Kevin Fredericks - better known under the online moniker KevOnStage. Kev is speaking to us from his studio and office in Los Angeles, the epicenter of his most creative venture to date: KevOnStage Studios. However, the creator of digital media did not get Hollywood-sized production space immediately. Kev's business grew from a side hustle to full-time gig over nearly 10 years of digital grind.

"Before, a comic's path was to relocate towards L.A., get on The Tonight Show, and try to convince an agent," he says. "Now, with the proliferation of social media it is possible to reach your own fans and create yourself into a superstar." Since the year 2011, KevOnStage has slowly but slowly amassed over 1M+ Instagram followers and 800K+ YouTube users, through sharing candid bits of comedy and his dedicated online audience who affectionately call him the Stage Crew.

"I consider that charting your personal path, in my opinion, is so important," adds Kev. "Right moment, I'm putting together my own show which I produced and shot, and paid for that nobody from Hollywood required to approve. I'm in a position to make everything and present the show directly to my fans."

 The basics of HTML0

Kev has been building his online community over 10 years ago, however he says things took a while to take off. "I did not see any significant success as KevOnStage prior to 2017," says Kev. "Before this I just worked extremely hard, but not getting much views, like many people."

In that period Kev had to figure out the north star of his life when it came to making content that was true to him and his values. "When creators don't work from their core, the achievement is exhausting," states Kev. "I have always been content not blowing up every now and then and just being able to create content I enjoyed. It's this is why I've seen more success rather than doing whatever was working."

In the beginning, as his career began to gain momentum, Kev took to touring the country with other comics, but the pandemic brought the in-person gatherings to a grinding halt. Keen to find new ways to sustain the momentum his brother approached Kev with an idea of his own that was streaming.

 Taking the power back

Kev is the first person to acknowledge that an OTT service was not considered by him for a possible next move in business. "We were first just trying to create our own independent films and my brother suggested, 'Yo, I've found a way we might be able make this happen on our own platform in the future,'" he says. "I wasn't even thinking about that as possibility."

Kev reached out to his business partner and producer Brennon Edwards, and inquired if Brennon would be interested in working on the idea of creating an OTT application. "It was a no brainer," says Brennon, currently the president of KevOnStage Studios, because it gave them the power to develop (and earn money from) their content at their own pace. "We live in an age in which the barriers to entry when it comes to becoming a creator is so much smaller. It has changed the game for us."

"We could step over what we'd been expecting Hollywood to accomplish for us, and begin to take on the task ourself," he says. "We work directly with the viewers we've. They are the ones giving us the money to be able to do whatever we like. They give us our power back, as creators."

 Enabling fellow creators

Since launching KOSS, Brennon, Kev and Co-Founder and Co-CEO Melissa Fredericks have consciously created an environment that is supportive and inspiring that allows the other Black creators to explore their work. "I simply am thankful that the space is there and that there are people working here, that people get to pursue their goals at KOSS," says Kev.

The most appealing aspect of this adventure is that we're taking things, regardless of what conventional Hollywood claims, and putting it into our own hands," she adds Melissa. "We're creating a positive impact on people. This isn't waiting for Hollywood to accredit your name. We have done this by ourselves. Period. This is something we can handle ourselves. Period. In addition, we are able to provide the opportunities they couldn't receive. Period."