New ‘Real World’ Resident an Omaha Native

By Dane Stickney, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Nov. 21–He has been Tyrie Ballard, the Omaha Northwest student, wrestler and football player.

He has been Tyrie Brown, the Cornhusker Boys State participant and humanitarian award winner.

He has been Brother Smooth, the member of Tommy Lee’s fictitious fraternity.

He has been Darc Kent, a savvy ladies’ man.

He has been Leroy Jankins, a crazy dude who likes to start fights.

Now, TV viewers will simply know the 23-year-old Omaha native as Tyrie, one of seven young strangers picked to live in a house and have their lives shown on MTV’s “The Real World.”

No matter what he’s called, Tyrie — who has used two given names and developed a handful of alter egos — will break onto the national scene Wednesday night on TV.

He wouldn’t confirm what name he prefers, and “The Real World” never reveals the last names of its cast members.

Nebraska driving and college records and the credits from his brief stint on “Tommy Lee Goes to College” refer to him as Tyrie Brown. Omaha Northwest staff members remember him as Tyrie Ballard.

Around friends, he routinely goes by his alter ego nicknames Darc Kent (when he’s in a suave, strong, superhero kind of mood) and Leroy Jankins (when he plays an uninhibited, troublesome trickster or displays his mean streak).

“I answer to all of them,” he said. “People can expect to see all of those different sides to me on the show.”

Tyrie is the latest Nebraskan to make an appearance on a reality TV show, and the first to be on “The Real World.” He’s hopeful the show helps him find his true identity — something he’s sought for years.

His father came from a military background and raised his son strictly. That created a gap between the two.

While looking for someplace to fit in, Tyrie got involved in a gang.

“I’ve had some negative influences in my life,” he said. “I’ve done some things I’m not proud of, but I’ve tried to turn that around.”

He credits his mother and grandmother for being role models.

“I’m pretty strong-headed, and that can get me in trouble,” he said. “My mom is one of the few people who can say a couple words and completely calm me down.”

At Northwest, he played football, wrestled and attended Cornhusker Boys State in 2000. He graduated from Northwest in 2001, winning the school’s humanitarian award.

Northwest staff still remember his outgoing personality, said Assistant Principal Steve Eubanks.

“Tyrie was that kid in high school that everybody knew,” Eubanks said. “He had a very jovial, real kind spirit about him. He was a good student who was overly involved.”

Tyrie studied political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln but is taking time off before finishing his degree. In the fall of 2004, producers from “Tommy Lee Goes to College,” a reality show that aired briefly in 2005 on NBC, recruited Tyrie to appear on the show. He made the cut in a few scenes and liked the experience.

That taste of show business sparked Tyrie’s desire to be seen.

“Need to be in the public eye,” he said. “The more I am, the more I think it will help me leave lasting impact on the world before I go.”

“The Real World” is the perfect venue.

The show’s producers held a casting call at a Lincoln bar in September 2005. Tyrie auditioned on a whim, going to the tryouts right after lifting weights at the gym, wearing sweatpants, a tank top and a sweaty do-rag.

The producers didn’t seem to mind. They kept calling Tyrie back for auditions. He made the cut every time. It took eight or nine months before he knew he’d made the show.

He and his TV roommates were taped this summer while they lived in a huge house in lower downtown Denver. They got along for the most part, but there were fireworks, he said.

He describes the Denver season as a mix of many past seasons of “The Real World.”

“It was pretty crazy,” he said. “Take some of the sexual tension of the Las Vegas season, add in drama and the political and racial aspects of Austin and Chicago, add in some of the togetherness of San Diego and that’s when you start to define what we went through.”

The buzz is that Tyrie is right in the middle of all of it.

MTV preview clips show him basking in a hot tub with two sultry women on the show. Chatter from fans and others who have seen unreleased footage allude to conflicts between Tyrie and Davis, a gay cast member, and Colie, an outspoken young woman.

Race and sexual orientation have sparked tension in past seasons of “The Real World.” Most seasons feature one black participant, but the Denver house had two: Tyrie and another young man, Stephen.

“I’ve heard a lot about the show having a token black guy, but that ain’t me,” he said. “Try to find another one of me — a person brought up in a rough north Omaha neighborhood, who knows martial arts, has a good heart, has made mistakes and grown from them — and then tell me if I’m a token.”

It all worked out in the end.

“Right now, I’m cool with everything,” he said. “I call all of my roommates my family members.”

Even outside the house, the cast members found themselves in the middle of drama. The local media hounded them. Denver residents heckled them in bars. Some even tried to start fights.

For the most part, Tyrie said, Denver was nice. But he’d rather be in Omaha.

“I’m a Husker,” he said. “I can’t do with all of that Buffalo mess.”

He’ll head back to Colorado on Wednesday to watch the premiere with his former roommates at a Denver bar.

Tyrie already has been involved in other ventures, including recently filming episodes of another MTV show, “The Inferno 3 Challenge,” in South Africa. He still doesn’t know how that experience and the national exposure will shape him and his identity.

But he hopes it helps launch a career in politics. One simple goal drives him: To make neighborhoods like the one where he lived in north Omaha better places to raise young black men and women.

“I’m trying to get to a place where I can influence change,” he said. “I see all of these shootings in north Omaha and all of this talk about school segregation. We’ve got problems, so what are we going to do about it?

“I want to be the guy who does something about it.”

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Copyright (c) 2006, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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