O'Neal McKnight's Long Road To 'Kosher Soul'

If you want to make it big in the entertainment world, you sometimes have to learn how to be flexible with your career choices. And few performers have been as willing to change career paths mid-stream as designer/stand-up comedian O'Neal McKnight, who currently co-stars with his wife Miriam in the Lifetime reality series "Kosher Soul."

McKnight moved from his home in South Carolina to New York City in 1996, hoping to make it big in the music industry. He's related to then-Motown Music head Andre Harrell, which helped him get in the door.

"Ideally I wanted to move there to become a dancer and I did for a little while," he explains. "I danced for Lil Kim and did a bunch of music videos and stuff like that. But, being in New York City and being in such a melting pot of culture and just lifestyle, I early on shifted gears and became a celebrity wardrobe stylist." McKnight worked with a long list of stars, ranging from P. Diddy and Russell Simmons to Usher, Robin Thicke and Penelope Cruz. He says that experience really helped to define him as an entertainer.

But that time also led him to the biggest change in his life, because it was also when he met the woman he would later marry. At the time, He was Puffy's personal wardrobe stylist and the singer had just launched a female line called SEAN by Sean Combs with Penelope Cruz as the person that represented the line. "I ran back to his house to go get his to white poodles and the only thing I can remember is coming back and getting on the elevator and seeing this beautiful girl that had a little pixie haircut, She looked like a little Tinkerbell and it was just something about her, her face, her swag, her style." McDonald eventually convinced her to come work for him as his assistant and that led to he and Miriam getting married several years later.

McKnight eventually decided he wanted to pursue a career as a stand-up comedian. He went on the road to tour and Miriam eventually moved to Los Angeles to continue her career as a celebrity stylist. But eventually McKnight realized that he wasn't ever going to happy without Miriam, so he decided to move to Los Angeles and marry her. That also involved his promise to convert to Judaism and those decisions are the starting off point for "Kosher Soul."

McKnight says that when he came up with the idea, he wanted to show how an interracial interfaith couple can co-exist under one roof. The first season of the series showed the couple's proposal, wedding ceremony and their life together. It was all a big change for the previously confirmed bachelor McKnight, who says the transition to married life has been easy for him. "I look at my life now and think about where I was 3, 4, 5, 6 years ago and was like what was I doing I should have married her a long time ago. We would already have like 10 babies by now."

But for all those changes, the biggest came after the couple had a child just a year after the marriage. Los Angeles might seem like a tough place to raise a child, especially for parents who are in the entertainment business. But McKnight says that even back in his home in rural South Carolina, some kids still lost their way. "I was fortunate enough to have my mother, my father raised me with morals and values and those are the same kind of morals and values I want to implement in my house with my child." He goes on to say that guidelines are important for a child and that's not always something that celebrity children have to deal with. "When I was growing up, we had rules. We had regulations in my house and at the time some of those rules and regulations I didn’t understand and I may not have agreed with. But they helped mold me to be the person I am today because there’s a lot of people that didn't have that guidance who fell along the wayside. "

One of the biggest challenges for the couple with "Kosher Soul" is the fact that they work together on the production of the series. For many couple's, that constant closeness would be too much of a good thing. But McKnight says that one of the best aspects of the experience has been having the change to see wife Miriam shine in the spotlight. "You learn to compromise and to listen to each other. You learn that sometimes you have to put aside your ego. That you're not always going to be the boss." McKnight says that is a lesson he first learned back when he was a celebrity stylist. "You learn that no matter how popular you are, there is always another stylist who's just a little better or a little more connected. You learn to be humble and that's a hard lesson to accept when you're younger."

McKnight says that working on "Kosher Soul" has actually made their relationship better, because he has finally gotten the opportunity to really know Miriam as a creative person. "When you marry people, you marry them because you fall in love with them and we never get a chance to really explore the creativity," he explained. "You might be exposed to their tastes and what they like but you don’t get the chance to explore their creativity in the way that we’ve had. I think she got a chance to see how my brain works, how my brain ticks and I got a chance to see the same thing with her and listen to her suggestions, ideas, concepts and her allowing me to see around the cube, so to speak."

The couple are already working on a follow-up series to "Kosher Soul" and he promises that it will be an even better experience the next time. "We’re working on an amazing new project which is basically a spin-off of 'Kosher Soul' and this is going to be the next chapter. We have something lined up and story is extremely amazing and yet entertaining for all the 'Kosher Soul' fans"