Last year, Keauno Perez was a coordinator for residence education (CRE) at Pomfret Hall in the Honeycomb neighborhood. This year, he is a Netflix star after having been on Netflix’s Twenty Somethings. Seeing how these are two very different career paths, we wanted to sit down with him and see how his new “celebrity” life was going.

Housing’s own Maddie DeBucce, assistant director for residence education, talked with Perez over zoom recently and we recorded that conversation.

Perez entered a career in higher education right after he graduated from college. Since then, he worked with the University of Arkansas until he got cast on the show. Leaving higher education was difficult for him since he dedicated his 20s to it. However, he decided that he needed to put himself first. #NewYearNewKeauno

Coming out was difficult, he said. It wasn’t until his last year in the CRE role that he came out to his staff and students. Many students would come to him for advice, and he felt that he needed to be that representation for his students and not hide who he was anymore.

Moving to Austin changed his life for the better. This move not only meant a new place to live, but also the start of a new chapter for him. Austin and the show provided Perez a space to open up, understand his sexuality, and be who he truly wanted to be, he said.

Now he has almost 100k followers on Instagram and just accepted a job with Tik Tok. He hopes to be able to use his following to help nonprofits that don’t have the money or resources to market. At South by Southwest, he served as a monitor for a panel of nonprofit leaders under 30.

You can check in with @KeaunoPerez on Instagram.