Royal the Renaissance Kid: Artist, Actor, Chess King and More

If chess is the Game of Kings, then Royal is heir to a throne of his own. Not only is he well on his way to elite mastery–continuing to hone his skills through Atlanta Habitat’s chess club, the Atlanta Habitat Knights–the 11-year-old is an up and coming actor, artist and designer as well.

“Royal has been drawing, I mean seriously, since we gave him his first box of crayons,” Royal’s mom Malikah said. “He’s always creating something, and he has always loved creating logos.” Logos for companies, YouTube shows, music labels, you name it, Royal can design a logo for it. It was only natural that his design for the Atlanta Habitat Young Knights, a clever riff on the Habitat logo created in collaboration with input from the rest of the chess team, would end up on the chess club’s official T-shirt.

“Chess is a way to meet people, have fun and challenge your mind,” Royal says of the game. “It’s like life. You have to be patient and think ahead to your next move.”  Yikes! It took some of us well into adulthood to learn that lesson. Royal is a fan of the less-is more school of design. He used Wix for the initial design of the chess club logo and tuned it up in Paint Pretty. He hopes to leverage his skills to earn money. Atlanta Habitat awarded Royal a $50 gift card for his winning logo design.

A young man of many talents, Royal loves acting as well. He’s a veteran of workshops in improv and stand-up comedy at Dad’s Garage and classes in more serious stagecraft at the Alliance Theater. He acted in a popular YouTube web series, manages his own YouTube channel and even wrote and performed a rap about investing in the stock market! Royal, clearly an emerging Renaissance man, is humble about his creative gifts. As he and his mom search for an arts-focused school to help further develop his talents, he takes it all in stride with an appealing preteen swagger. “There are a lot of artists in my family,” he says. “But everybody has talents.”