The One Tragedy That Changed Karan Brar Forever

Actor Karan Brar started working with Disney during the early days of his career, and he developed relationships that he maintained long past his first show on the network wrapped. In fact, one of those friendships was especially important to him and a heartbreaking tragedy involving that friend left Brar forever changed.

As Brar's IMDb page details, he had roles in some "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" projects as he started out in the business, but it was Disney that made him a true star. He played Ravi Ross on "Jessie," telling Daily Campus about the experience, "My favorite part about being on 'Jessie,' or working in sitcom in general, is just the ability to make people laugh." He added, "I think there's something really magical about it, and I know that sounds super cheesy, but I grew up watching sitcoms."

The sitcom, which debuted in 2011, brought together a handful of both experienced and relatively new actors to play the four Ross kids and their nanny. Debby Ryan had already worked quite a bit with Disney, portraying Bailey Pickett in a handful of projects (per IMDb). Ryan played the nanny for the Ross family, which included Brar, Cameron Boyce, Peyton List, and Skai Jackson as the family's adopted and biological children. List had acted in quite a few projects prior to "Jessie," but Boyce and Jackson were relatively inexperienced, much like Brar.

The bond the "Jessie" stars developed led to both fabulous moments as well as some deeply heartbreaking ones.

"Jessie" ran from 2011 to 2015, noted IMDb, and Kavan Brar joined the spinoff Disney show "Bunk'd" that premiered in 2015. Skai Jackson and Peyton List also joined the "Bunk'd" cast, but Debby Ryan moved on to other projects. Cameron Boyce was quite busy with Disney's "Descendants" movies and other projects at the time, but he did pop up a couple of times on "Bunk'd" as well, his IMDb noted. Boyce remained good friends with Brar, Jackson, List, and all of his "Descendants" co-stars, and his sudden death in 2019 left all of them stunned.

Boyce's death at the age of 20 was caused by an epileptic seizure in July 2019, detailed Insider. The actor's death came at a time where he seemed to be extremely happy and living his best life. He was sharing a place with Brar and his fellow "Gamer's Guide to Pretty Much Everything" co-star Sophie Reynolds, and as Metro noted, the three had moved in together just a couple of months before Boyce's death. The trio posted fun updates about the life they were building together, and then it all changed in an instant. "I think losing Cameron shifted everything in my life on its axis, and that was incredibly destabilizing," Brar told Jennette McCurdy in an episode of her "Empty Inside" podcast. 

To remember his friend, Brar got a tattoo of a photo featuring him and Boyce "the day before his 19th birthday." The tattoo also includes a "part of a letter" Boyce wrote to him on his 15th trip around the sun.

As Karan Brar navigated his world without Cameron Boyce in it, he acknowledged there were some positives he was able to grasp (per the "Empty Inside" podcast). Brar noted that in some areas of his life, "things were shifted into a better situation or into a situation where I could see it a bit more clearly and I could make better eye contact with it."

The former "Jessie" star found some situations became "more uncomfortable and more painful," but he also experienced significant personal growth. Brar explained he wasn't always good at taking care of himself, and Boyce often tried to take care of him. "I think that's one thing I'm trying to take away from losing Cameron, is to take care of myself the way that he would want me to take care of myself," the actor explained.

In an Instagram tribute to Boyce after his death, Brar called his friend "the greatest thing to have ever happened to me." Since then, Brar continued to honor his friend in Instagram posts and became involved in The Cameron Boyce Foundation. In fact, Brar and several other "Jessie" and "Descendants" co-stars joined the foundation's advisory board. Brar has continued acting, continuing with "Bunk'd" and doing a short series titled "Youth & Consequences" (per IMDb). The actor's life was clearly forever changed by Boyce's death, but it appears he's grown from that key friendship and cherishes the memories he has of Boyce.