Today we’d like to introduce you to Khyriel Palmer.
Hi Khyriel , thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My father was a reggae artist and painter who painted murals in Jamaica, and my mother was an aspiring musician too, so I grew up around creativity. As a kid in South Carolina, I was always secretly writing music, poems, and drawing. After high school, I had a full scholarship down south, but my mother decided to move back to New York, and I was adamant about going with her. So in 2009, we came back, and an old friend convinced me to attend City Tech, where I started studying graphic design in 2010.
There, I met Keezee, known then as Superlative Sain, and we formed a rap group called Superlative Reasoning in 2011. Working on our second mixtape, we hit a wall: we couldn’t afford the $500 to $750 people charged to shoot a music video. Around the same time, I’d bought a Canon T3i for a photography class, so my best friend and I figured we’d just shoot it ourselves. We built a whole production around it: a call sheet, a storyboard, a crew, and I edited the video in Premiere in two days. It got 500 views on YouTube in a month, and a friend convinced me to pursue broadcast and design for my bachelor’s degree. That’s what set me on the path to film.
In 2013, my friends and I also formed a collective called Innovative Design Koncept Productions (IDK Pros), our first real attempt at content creation as a company. It only lasted a year, but the experience gave all of us real confidence. When the rap group reformed in 2015 as OGWN, this time with a third member, JYWJLZ, we became our own in-house media team, experimenting with content and filming each other’s performances.
Around the same time, City Tech’s Brooklyn Tech Triangle Internship Program landed me a role at BRIC Arts Media. I started out doing paperwork, but I spoke up about my editing skills, and a mentor of mine, Fred Brown, gave me a shot to prove it. I quit my job at Applebee’s to focus on BRIC full time, working my way up from production assistant to producing my first piece, Visual Consciousness, in 2016, a documentary about a New York City urban explorer that earned me a New York Emmy nomination. Huge for someone who never went to film school. That led to a full-time associate producer role and, eventually, to associate-producing their live music show, B-Side, under my mentor, Charlie Hoxie, which finally merged my two passions, music and film, into one job. Two years later, I was promoted to full producer.
In my last year at BRIC, I helped executive-produce a podcast called Back to Reading Credits, hosted by Wes Jackson, which became my final project there before I was laid off during a company restructuring in November 2023. A couple of months after I left, I found out it had been nominated for, and went on to win, a Signal Podcast Award, a reminder that even though I’d left that chapter, the work still mattered, and it was time to bet on myself.
So I built my own company, Visuals By DK, LLC, from the ground up, DK standing for Diverze Koncept, my old rap name, and a nod to how I try to approach creative work: thinking outside the box, looking at things differently, bringing a diverse angle to whatever I’m building. Freelancing has been an interesting journey ever since. At BRIC, work was handed to me; on my own, I’ve had to find it myself. Right now, I’m balancing a substitute paraprofessional role with freelance work, most recently a seasonal gig with OneBeat’s Breakout dance competition, while I job search and figure out my next real flow.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Surprisingly, it’s been an interesting road, not a struggle as people might expect. I actually call this my ‘side quest’ chapter of life, because I’ve picked up so many different gigs and opportunities that I’ve ended up doing things I never would have imagined for myself.
The real turning point was getting laid off from BRIC Arts Media in November 2023 after a company restructuring. Nine years at one place, and then it’s gone. I used to think of myself as a jack of all trades, master of none, but out on my own, I had to become a master fast: of editing, of troubleshooting in the moment, of just handling whatever came at me with no one else to lean on. What got me through it was realizing how much community I’d actually built along the way. Friends passed me gigs and lent me gear when I needed it; one friend is still sharing his Adobe subscription with me so I can keep editing and taking on work. That support is a big part of why I could go all in on my own business, Visuals By DK, LLC.
From there, it’s been a real mix. I freelanced heavily through 2024, everything from weddings and corporate recaps to live event streams and podcasts, and had to own the producer title I’d earned at BRIC in a whole new way, no one handing me direction anymore. One project I’m especially proud of from that stretch is Moshun Sessions, which JYJWLZ and I built as our attempt to recreate something like B-Side on our own terms; he hosted and co-produced, and I ran camera and produced alongside him.
In January 2025, I picked up a visual arts instructor position through a company called Road to Success at New Bridges Elementary School, a completely different kind of leadership than I was used to, which ran through that June. From there, I went back to freelancing while gathering my paperwork to become a substitute paraprofessional. That came through, and in December 2025, I was hired as a content producer and technician for OneBeat, starting with a four-day training in Atlantic City; that gig ran through this past June. Most recently, I was booked as a camera operator for stage two of the NYC Multicultural Festival in Harlem.
So the road hasn’t been straight. There have been real struggles: the inconsistency of freelance income, having to become my own boss overnight, and learning to trust myself in moments where there was no one else to make the call. But every stop taught me something, and I feel like all of it is getting me exactly where I need to be, just not in a straight line.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I like to call myself a content creator, someone who helps people capture life’s moments, whether that’s personal milestones or business transactions. I specialize in most aspects of film production: producing, editing, and podcast engineering, and outside of work, I’m also an illustrator, something I picked up purely as a hobby.
My main specialty is video editing. It’s the skill that opened up nearly every opportunity I’ve had in this career. I’m known for being fast and effective, and for how I communicate with clients: if there’s ever an issue, I flag it immediately so everyone stays on the same page and deadlines don’t come as a surprise.
What I’m most proud of are my five New York Emmy nominations. Two I’m especially proud of since I produced and edited them entirely on my own: Visual Consciousness, the first piece I ever produced solo, and Flatbush Fists, a docuseries I produced at BRIC. I haven’t won yet, but for someone who never went to film school, just being recognized at that level means a lot. I feel the same way about the Signal Podcast Awards. I hosted and produced BRIC Radio’s Brooklyn USA podcast, and between that and other projects, my teammates and I brought home six of them over the years.
What sets me apart is that I think outside the box. Creatively, there’s rarely a single correct way to achieve the same outcome, so I stay flexible in how I execute. A good example is my time at OneBeat, where I learned to start pre-planning my weekend edits as early as Friday, thinking ahead about what shots I’d need so that by Sunday, I already knew exactly what gaps I had to fill, which made the whole process smoother. Even during training, my trainer noticed how naturally I’d figured out my own system for managing it all. It’s actually where the name of my company comes from too: Visuals By DK, DK standing for Diverze Koncept, my old rap name, and a nod to that same idea: bringing a different, diverse angle to whatever I’m building. That’s the kind of adaptability I bring to every project.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Honestly, I’m still searching for that answer. One of the reasons I’m always so eager to help others bring their creative ideas to life is that, in the process, I hope to figure out what I’m truly meant to do. I’ve always felt like a jack of all trades, master of none, and going out on my own after leaving BRIC really put that to the test. I had to learn how to become a master fast and lean on the community I’d built along the way to get there.
And as of now, I’d have to say it’s been my community. I don’t need to be rich, just comfortable enough to live well and do work that actually fulfills me. And I’ve learned that the more I reach inward to my community, the more I’m able to pull from myself. I have friends around me who believe in my skills and contributions, and whatever that path ends up being, I don’t have to walk it alone. The more active I stay out there, accepting these side quests as they come, the closer I get to the next checkpoint of my career.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.visualsbydk.work
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diverze_koncept/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vxdk
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3lTscLM5boxAqL7ex1m0Zl
- Other: https://www.visualsbydk.mypixieset.com
