Highlights
- Tyriq Withers opens up on grief after losing his brother, Kionte, in 2021.
- The actor reveals why he walked away from football after his Orange Bowl win.
- Withers says fame feels “lonely” as he processes loss while chasing success.
Tyriq Withers is opening up about the emotional toll of fame — and the heartbreak that pushed him away from football and into acting.
The 28-year-old Reminders of Him star lost his older brother, Kionte, in a car crash in 2021. Kionte had largely helped raise him alongside their mother, and his death continues to shape how Withers experiences success today.
“It’s painful, because I’m blessed to have all these opportunities, but I don’t feel happy like you thought you would,” Withers said. “It’s a lonely experience; it’s hard to communicate when you get off the phone with your team, and there’s this silence.”
The actor recalled the moment he learned he had booked a role on Atlanta, a milestone that should have felt triumphant. Instead, grief crept in. “You hear the words over the phone, and you know what it’s supposed to feel like, but it would never feel as you’d think it would,” he told Variety. “All I could think about was my relationship with my brother, and how much better it would be to call him on the phone and say, ‘Wow, we’re going on vacation!'”
Withers, who plays a character helping raise his late best friend’s child in Reminders of Him, has drawn directly from his own life. He remains involved in raising Kionte’s son, and has previously said he nearly stepped away from acting altogether to help raise his nephew.
Before Hollywood, Withers built his identity on the football field. He played wide receiver at Florida State University and won the Orange Bowl with the Seminoles in 2016 — a career he could have continued for years to come.
“I had an Orange Bowl ring — we won the Orange Bowl, so I could have kept playing, and potentially been in the league for four or five years,” he explained to Variety. “Why I played sports was to prove something to my mom. Self-worth was poured into if I played well,” he said. “It makes your parent happy, and you strive to keep them happy. I have a stepdad who left, a dad …and you just think sports is going to make them want to be around you more.”
Walking away from football forced Withers to confront questions he had spent years avoiding. “That was an identity crisis. The first time being away from home — Who am I? My identity was within sports,” he said, adding that competitive athletics left little room for reflection. “You don’t get time to think about emotions. You make a decision — execute, execute, be perfect, practice, practice, practice — and then, when you take that out of your life, you’re like, What am I witnessing?”
He also opened up about the added weight Kionte carried as the eldest sibling. “He witnessed more than me, trauma-wise. There was more pressure being the firstborn,” Withers reflected.
Withers has said grief doesn’t always look like sorrow. “I think grief is joy. Grief is going to the coffee shop or grabbing a beer that you and your brother used to share,” he said, adding that he feels closest to Kionte during moments of laughter on set.
Now starring opposite Isabel May in the upcoming romantic comedy Love Love, Withers continues to build a career that, by his own account, is inseparable from the loss that reshaped him.
