What Keke Palmer's Boyfriend Darius Jackson Does For A Living
When a popular, well-liked celebrity gets a new boo, fans are of course going to clamor to social media and try to find out anything they can about them, especially if they're not famous. And once Keke Palmer announced that she was pregnant on "Saturday Night Live" during her monologue when she hosted back in December 2022, questions swirled about who she was dating and who was the father of her baby. While he's not in the Hollywood business (yet), their relationship hasn't been hush-hush.
Keke Palmer's boyfriend is Darius Jackson, or sometimes Darius Daulton, and they met through none other than Issa Rae. Jackson has ties to Rae and Palmer appeared on "Insecure" for a cameo. Palmer and Jackson met at Rae's Memorial Day party in 2021. He deleted the Instagram post now, but he posted about how he didn't expect that summer to turn out how it did. "I'm glad we were able to help each other throughout our lowest of times [and] show one another that what we are bringing to the table is everything that we got," Jackson wrote about Palmer.
So what does Jackson do for a living? He had an athletic start to his career, but his and Palmer's career paths might get more similar soon.
Keke Palmer's boyfriend works in fitness
Sometimes actors or celebrities feel like they need to date someone within the industry in order to find a partner who understands their crazy schedules or life in general. However, for Keke Palmer, her boyfriend didn't get a start in acting and wasn't a part of Hollywood at all. His Instagram bio simply states that he's a storyteller. But he was a fitness instructor at Inspire Fitness Studio, too. Jackson's bio on the studio's website said that he grew up athletic, playing several sports. He played football in high school, earning him a football scholarship to Fresno State University. He didn't continue in a league post-college, so he boxed to stay in shape and tried getting into sports media. Doing workouts with his best friend is what got him into being a fitness trainer because he wanted to share his knowledge and help others.
Jackson has hinted online that he's been on set potentially filming something. He also has an IMDb, which is short a few interesting projects. He's also listed as playing Agent Moyo in "Dawn of the Predator," an upcoming sci-fi/action movie with deadly robots and aliens. Aside from Jackson getting into acting himself and dating Palmer, his big brother is in show business too. His older brother, Sarunas Jackson, played Alejandro "Dro" Peña on the HBO series "Insecure," which led to Darius being at the same party Palmer was at in 2021.
Keke Palmer just delivered her and Darius Jackson's son
Despite not hiding that they were in a relationship, Keke Palmer and Darius Jackson have been private about most of the details surrounding their romance. And that's been a stance that Palmer has had since before meeting Jackson. "I don't really do relationship stuff online, mainly because I don't know how I would do it without looking, like, cheesy or something, you know?" she told Harper's Bazaar in 2020. "Yes, I'm a hundred percent authentic, but there is stuff that I do save for family and friends." At the time she had tried Raya, the exclusive dating app that many celebrities are on. But it makes sense that the "Nope" actor ended up with someone outside of show business because that's where she stood in 2020. "Not that I wouldn't give someone a try. But trying to keep my private life outside of my work life, to me, it's easiest when you don't date someone with the same career," she shared about dating outside her industry.
And then, on Feb. 27, Palmer shared on Instagram that she'd delivered her baby, with Jackson right by her side, 48 hours prior. And of course, they're already smitten. They named their son Leodis Andrellton Jackson. Too bad they didn't give their son the name "True" as a middle name at least, so that we could get a real-life True Jackson, aka her character from "True Jackson, VP." But Leodis does sound better.