Education Crossroads High School Years active 1981–present Role Actor | Occupation Entrepreneur Name R. Williams Organizations founded Young Hollywood | |
Full Name Robert Jackson Williams Born July 19, 1978 (age 45) ( 1978-07-19 ) Los Angeles, California, U.S. Known for Founder of Young Hollywood Notable work Sam Baxter in Wake, Rattle and Roll
Kit Cloudkicker in TaleSpin Alma mater University of Southern California Movies and TV shows Wake - Rattle - and Roll, Kissyfur, Dink - the Little Dinosaur, Disney's Adventures of the Gu, American Anthem Similar People Jymn Magon, Albert Magnoli, Larry Latham, Freddie Fields, Saul Bass | ||
Robert Jackson Williams (born July 19, 1978), commonly known as R. J. Williams, is an actor, television host, television producer and entrepreneur. He is the Founder and CEO of Young Hollywood.
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Young Hollywood
RJ Williams created the Young Hollywood brand from the ground up. Young Hollywood creates and distributes celebrity and lifestyle programming globally; owns several leading entertainment websites, licenses the Young Hollywood trademark internationally for a range of consumer products and services; and works closely with brands in the advertising world to help find innovative ways to touch consumers
In 2014, Wlliams announced plans to launch a streaming network with long form content. Young Hollywood TV is a celebrity-focused digital network built for Millennials. The network produces more than 500 original hours of exclusive programming annually. Williams also announced plans to expand into several new content verticals including reality and scripted programming and to heavily invest in their own IP, as well as work with outside talent and creators, to continue to expand content offerings.
Young Hollywood owns a library of over 2000 hours of content, and a distribution network that reaches hundreds of millions of viewers a month. Young Hollywood has become one of the largest producers of original celebrity online programming in Hollywood; forming partnerships with companies such as Yahoo, Hulu, Google, TV Guide, Blinkx, and Metacafe.
In 2010, they built a brand new million dollar hi-definition broadcast studio at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. and grew to 24 employees. ABC News online called Young Hollywood "one of Hollywood's hottest websites"
In addition, Williams works closely advising several brands including Coca-Cola, Samsung, AT&T, Unilever, Subway, Rayban, Intuit and Electronic Arts on content production, product integration, experiential marketing and maximizing their social reach.
Williams was named to The Hollywood Reporter Power 50 list joining the top execs from such places as Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, YouTube and Netflix. It was said that "Everything Young Hollywood Founder and CEO RJ Williams does is counterintuitive and effective" Fast Company recently included Williams on their list of "today's most innovative business thought leaders" joining Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, Legendary CEO Thomas Tull, and Tumblr CEO David Karp.
Williams is represented by the Creative Artists Agency.
YouTube Partnership
Notable projects include YouTube Live and The Young Hollywood Network:
September 13, 2010 marked the day YouTube confirmed their first ever live streaming project that had been in stealth mode for quite some time. They selected Young Hollywood to be their partner and kick things off with segments featuring pro skater Tony Hawk, comedian Dane Cook and "Jackass" star Steve-O.
January 16, 2012 Williams was behind the launch of a new network in partnership with Google (YHN), giving Young Hollywood a platform that reaches a global audience of over 800 million people. YouTube spent 100 million dollars on launching this venture In June 2012, Williams was the subject of a cover story on BBC World News about the 100 Million dollar initiative and Young Hollywood's key role in it. The Young Hollywood Network has become a “barker channel” for other new YouTube channels — like a Leno for the YouTube set introducing audiences to other YouTube stars.
Acting and Hosting
R.J. Williams was a child actor on movies and television shows, one of his credits being the child character Rowdy for two seasons of General Hospital, for which he became a winner of the Young Artist Award for best Actor in a Daytime Series for his role in General Hospital at the 12th annual Youth In Film Awards.
Additionally, he was the voice of the title cartoon bear Kissyfur, which started in 1986. He also guest starred in a few episodes of Full House and an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation (The Child in 1988). In the early 1990s, Williams provided the voice of Kit Cloudkicker in the animated show TaleSpin, and for Cavin in the final season of Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. He also played the boy whose friend was a robot on the 1990s syndicated children's TV show Wake, Rattle and Roll, a daily syndicated interview show that ran for 130 episodes. Once Wake, Rattle and Roll stopped producing episodes, Williams decided to take a hiatus from show business to attend both Crossroads High School, and the film school at University of Southern California (USC).
In 2004, Williams worked alongside NSYNC's Lance Bass and together they co-hosted a one-hour, primetime American Music Awards Pre-Show with Dick Clark Productions and ABC
Williams continued his work in front of the camera by hosting hundreds of celebrity interviews for Young Hollywood with such notables as Cameron Diaz, Taylor Lautner, Jessie Eisenberg, Zac Efron, Justin Timberlake, Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull, Megan Fox, Sigourney Weaver, Nicolas Cage, and Selena Gomez.
Producing
After graduation, Williams formed a production company, Arjay Entertainment which focused on celebrity and lifestyle programming. Between 2003-2006, his company went on to produce multiple specials and series that were distributed by Showtime Networks. RJ was the creator, host and executive producer of these shows.
The company formed several distribution alliances and provided content for ABC, Showtime, TV Guide Channel, America Online and various Fox Cable channels and became known for creating Young Hollywood related content.