Riley Knoxx
Riley Knoxx
Riley Knoxx is a singer, performer and Beyoncé impersonator. She became the first openly transgender woman to perform during an NBA halftime show.
Career
Riley Knoxx started her career as a professional impersonator in 2003 when Beyoncé released “Crazy in Love,” the lead single of her first solo album, as she told NPR in 2017.[6] Knoxx appeared in Taylor Swift's "You Need to Calm Down" music video and performed with other popular artists like Miley Cyrus and Jennifer Hudson.[1] She also performed at reality shows "R&B Divas," "The Real Housewives of the Potomac" and "Braxton Family Values."[3]
She performed on the court during halftime at March, 6, 2020 Washington Wizards' Pride Night game against the Atlanta Hawks. She was joined by Wizards dancers and performed a three-song Beyoncé medley. Knoxx started with “Formation”, then transitioned to “End of Time” and concluded with “Crazy In Love” in the five-minute, thirty-second performance.[4] In a recent interview with Good Morning America, she said:
"They reached out to me, believe it or not.
They have been watching for a while and they've been wanting me to perform at their events, but they were just waiting for the right time and space.
And it just worked out that because they were watching, that's how I got this chance."[1]
Knoxx has been performing for 17 years.
She said she put in a lot of hard work to get to where she is today:
"People often ask me, 'Well how did you get this or how did you get that?' and I say, 'Years and years of preparation, years and years of putting in the hard work,'" she said.
"I've worked and worked and worked until I was blue in the face and I still do.
I still have the drive and the love for this after all these years."[1]
"People always ask me, 'How does it feel to be living your dreams?
Or did you dream of this?' And I'm always like, 'No!' I couldn't have dreamed of this.
I'm living beyond anything I could have dreamed of.
So I tell people to never put a cap on their dreams—dream without limitations."[1]
Personal Life
Knoxx moved to Washington, D.C. as a teenager, running away from her parent's home in California and her grandmother's home in South Carolina after her family rejected her gender identity.[3] Knoxx told GMA:
"It was either [Washington, D.C.], or death.
I didn't think I would make it past a certain age.
I never thought I would make it past 18.
I was just trying to survive in a world that didn't understand me.
I didn't have a plan B. My plan B was to make plan A work."[3]