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Danny Roberts is well known for his role on the ninth season of MTV's The Real World in 2000. The series was first broadcast in 1992, inspired by by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family, and was the longest-running series on the television network. The show as well as its cast were credited for launching the reality TV genre, and filmed seven to eight young adults living together in a new city.
Since the show, Danny has been public about his struggles with HIV as well as his sexual identity. The star has spoken at schools across the country on diversity in sexuality, coming out, and public policy, among many others.
22 years later, Danny Roberts joins the rest of the cast: Melissa Beck, David "Tokyo" Broom, Jamie Murray, Matt Smith, Julie Stoffer and Kelley Wolf for The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans. While a lot has happened since the original show last aired, the new series will uncover an adequate amount of drama that will be addressed by the housemates that remained unsolved in the show back then.
Who is The Real World franchise star Danny Roberts?
Danny Roberts was born on July 19, 1977 in Rockmart, Georgia, USA. He is an actor known for his roles in Dawson's Creek (1998), The Challenge (1998), and DTLA (2012).
The Real World: New Orleans star graduated in 1999 from the University of Georgia. His parents' names are Freida and Steve, and has two younger brothers, Josh and Drew. He is active on social media with close to 12k followers. He constantly documents his visits to various parts of the country, some along with his daughter, on his social media accounts.
Since 2011, Danny has been working in the HR industry, mostly as a recruitment specialist. After spending ten years in New York and Seattle, the star returned to Georgia where he worked in HR for the email software company MailChimp. The Real World: New Orleans star worked there from 2014 to 2017, following which he joined InVision App, a digital design tool, as a Senior Talent Recruiter in Boston, Massachusetts.
He married Wes Pereria in 2013, but the duo divorced in 2018 and share custody of their adoptive daughter Naiya. The father-daughter duo spend a lot of time together, as clearly seen on the star's social media where he is seen uploading pictures of his fun activities with her.
He rose to fame with his reality TV career on The Real World: New Orleans. Danny was charismatic, handsome and a rational person on television, who identifies as gay and became the "poster child" for the movement against the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that banned openly gay people from serving in the military.
The term Don't Ask Don't Tell was coined in 1993 when then President Clinton signed a law directing that military personnel “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue, and don’t harass.” The policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive on December 21, 1993, and was in effect from February 28, 1994, until September 20, 2011. It prohibits personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual members of the military.
When The Real World: New Orleans star began dating Paul Dill, a U.S. Army captain stationed in Vicenza, Italy, MTV decided to obscure the boyfriend's face throughout the show, leading to much of the national attention focused on the issue. In early 2004, the television network aired a special where Paul, who was then out of the military, revealed his face for the first time.
However, in November 2006, Danny announced in The Advocate magazine that the duo had split up. Looking back at this relationship 22 years later, the star revealed to MTV that he shouldn't have brought this relationship to the show.
"I think I would have gone back and encouraged Paul not to be on camera. We could have had a more peaceful life afterward had he protected his identity more. We would have been in a lot more peace when our relationship picked up after filming stopped."
Reality star Danny Roberts opens up about being diagnosed with HIV
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2020, Danny revealed that he was diagnosed with HIV back in 2011. One weekend, he passed out and woke up in a pool of blood. Worried, he called his doctor to explain the situation. The doctor had given him a check-up the previous week and knew that the star was HIV positive, but waited to tell him in person.
Danny recalled his reaction after the doctor informed him about his medical condition. He said:
“My first reaction was shock. Then I was angry, then lots of denial. Those early years were very difficult and very lonely. You don’t know whom to turn to have conversation and people don’t know what to say. It’s not something that people have experience with. There’s also the potential likelihood of massive judgments about what behaviors led to this and what kind of people this happens to.”
Speaking about his reason for sharing the story publicly, he confessed:
“The reason I want to share this story is that I spent so long battling and beating myself up for my own misconceptions and bigotry. It is difficult to admit the negative feelings you had about a set of people and state of being based on made-up stories. The last thing I ever want is pity. I just want people to know and be aware. I knew so little myself so I get it.”
Fortunately, The Real World: New Orleans star has been "undetectable" since his diagnosis, which means that the viral count is so low that it cannot be s**ually transmitted to another person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Speaking about the advancement in the medical field for HIV, he said:
"Medicine has come so far — it’s incredible where we are and where we could be not far in the future. [Living with HIV is like] having a crappy old cell phone with a huge app eating your energy.”
The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans premieres April 20 on Paramount+.
