Facebook Benicio Bryant with his father Jeremy, mother Marolo, and little sister Riley.
Benicio “Beni” Bryant is a 14-year-old singer who’s made it to the final round of America’s Got Talent. The young performer, who’s already received national attention after becoming the only American to compete on The Voice Kids in Germany, and made his primetime TV debut performing alongside Grammy Award-winner Brandi Carlile on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2018, is now a fan favorite to win Season 14 of AGT.
Born in Maple Valley, Washington, and a graduate of Summit Trail Middle School, Bryant’s parents, Marlo and Jeremy Bryant, are extremely supportive of their son’s singing career. While Benicio was competing on The Voice Kids, Jeremy told the Covington Reporter that he got so nervous watching his son perform. “The feeling of having your kid up there — there’s nothing you can do,” he explained. “They’re up there and the whole world is watching them and it’s just so nerve racking, especially during the finals.”
Now, Jeremy and Marlo, along with his little sister, Ryder, will watch from the audience as Beni takes the stage for yet another nerve-wracking final round performance. While Benicio didn’t win the $20,000 grand prize on The Voice Kids, he finished in second place, the young singer could walk away from AGT as champion, and take home the $1 million grand prize on Wednesday night.
Here’s what you need to know about Benicio Bryant’s parents and family…
1. Jeremy & Marlo Bryant Were High School Sweethearts
FacebookJeremy and Marlo Bryant
Marlo and Jeremy Bryant both grew up in Rainer Beach and met while attending Ingraham High School in Seattle, Washington. Together, they have two children, Benicio and Ryder.
Jeremy used to work for the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. He was known as “Big J,” and was the MLB team’s head chef. While the family remains big fans of their local MLB team, and Benicio has sung the national anthem at the stadium, Benicio’s father now works as the owner and chef at Rain City Catering.
2. Benicio’s Little Sister Is Into Gymnastics
Benicio’s little sister Riley has her own passions in life, and she is super into gymnastics. While she’s too young to have social media accounts of her own, both Jeremy and Marlo Bryant love sharing videos of her newest tricks on Instagram and Facebook.
Much like her big brother, Ryder enjoys hanging out with their cousin JJ, cheering on Seattle sports teams, and sledding. She’s also Beni’s No. 1 fan. Her parents video-taped her doing lip-sync karaoke performance at home to Benicio’s music.
3. Benicio Is the Only Musician in His Family
While many artists discover their own talent in singing and play music while tryin to mimic someone in their family, Benicio naturally started at age 2. “It’s not like it’s a hobby. It’s a passion. It’s so amazing.” And while Bryant’s parents have always supported him in pursue singing, they never expected his career to take off so soon. Beyond guitar lessons, Benicio is self-taught.
Jeremy Bryant told the Seattle Times, “I bought him a drum set when he was 4 because he’d literally drummed on everything. We had little nicks on all the furniture.” At age 8, Benicio asked to perform at a local talent competition, where he placed second.
“I think I was convinced at that moment when I was 8,” Benicio said, of his future career. “It was so crazy. I’ve never really had anything else that I can remember. I’m not good at math. I’m not good at anything in school. So I was like, what else would I do? I really love this. It’s so much fun. I’d rather do this than anything else.”
His father Jeremy told the Covington Reporter that he’s incredibly proud of what he’s been able to accomplish. “It’s been a crazy, exciting journey because Beni has been singing for so long now, and he’s always been performing at every family function,” he said. “[He] sings on the table in front of people, so we kind of felt like this was the direction he was heading, but this Germany thing, like he was saying, it didn’t feel real at first.”
4. The Family Almost Decided to Skip Competing on ‘AGT’
While there are a lot of fun perks that come along with Benicio’s blossoming career, when Brandi Carlile asked Benicio to join her during a performance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the singer flew his entire family out to New York City for the live show. And now, the whole Bryant crew is in Hollywood in order to watch Benicio’s AGT finale performance at the Dolby Theatre, the competition itself is incredibly stressful.
In between rounds of competition for The Voice Kids Jeremy Bryant said of his son, “He would just cry: ‘I just sent Flavio back to Austria.'” He felt so bad about it.” So when AGT called, we were like, ‘eh.’ But he said, ‘Dad, it’s America. I’m not going to win that show, but I’d love to get some American fans.’”
5. Simon Cowell Might Try to Adopt Him (Slightly Kidding)
After Bryant sang an original song, “Who I Am,” during AGT’s Quarterfinals 3 episode, the typically acerbic Simon Cowell couldn’t pour out enough compliments to the 14-year-old performer.
Cowell gushed, “I love you. I absolutely love you. You’ve just got a natural, natural talent. Look, my advice would have been I would have stripped the song down. The backing track overwhelmed it. The lights were ridiculous in the background. What it needed was just you, your voice, maybe just one instrument, no production. You are someone, I guarantee you this, has a great future ahead of you. You really, really do. But going forward you don’t need all that stuff going on behind you. It’s you, your talent, the voice, the lyrics, everything that really counts and there’s more to come.”
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