Stro

Early life

Brian Vaughn Bradley Jr., known as Stro, was born on September 27, 1996, in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up with his Jamaican mother and younger sister in a single-parent home.

At age ten, his mother offered him studio time if he improved his grades, prompting him to start rapping professionally. His debut single was "Stop Looking at My Mom," followed by his first mixtape, B.O.A. (Birth of Astro). He later began creating his own hip hop instrumentals.

Music career

At 14, Bradley auditioned for The X Factor with "Stop Looking at My Mom," receiving four yeses and advancing to the live shows. In week four, he survived a sing-off against Stacey Francis when Reid, Abdul, and Cowell kept him. He reached the top seven before elimination. After the show, he released the mixtape Loser, based on his X Factor experiences, and two beat tapes, "Masterminds" and "New World Art," under the alias Basquiat, with productions by himself and friend Laron.

He was nominated for a BET Award in the Young Stars category and presented an award at the 43rd Annual NAACP Image Award Show with Keke Palmer. He released singles including "Stop Looking at My Mom" under the name The Astronomical Kid. In 2012, he took a hiatus to find himself musically, then returned with songs "Deadbeat" and "Methods," a visual for "He Fell Off," and the mixtape Deadbeats & Lazy Lyrics, which he described as having a gritty Brooklyn hip-hop sound.

Acting career

Bradley made his acting debut as Darren McGrady in Person of Interest. He played Tucker "Tuck" Simms in the sci-fi film Earth to Echo (released July 2, 2014), TJ in A Walk Among the Tombstones (released September 19, 2014), and Dash Hosney in the Fox series Red Band Society (premiered September 17, 2014). He later played Calvin Walker in See You Yesterday, an afrofuturist time-travel film about police brutality, produced by Spike Lee and directed by Stefon Bristol, which debuted on Netflix on May 17, 2019. In June 2019, The Hollywood Reporter stated he was originally set to play Christopher McKay in HBO's Euphoria but left during filming due to explicit content and was replaced by Earth to Echo co-star Algee Smith.