Who Is Isis Rae Boykin? The Remarkable Life Story of Christopher Boykin’s Daughter

Isis Rae Boykin is best known as the only child of Christopher “Big Black” Boykin, the towering reality television star who won over MTV audiences on Rob & Big and Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. Since her father’s sudden death in 2017, public curiosity about her has never really faded, even though she herself has never sought the spotlight. This article gathers everything that is genuinely known about her background, her parents, her father’s remarkable career, and the quiet life she appears to lead today, while being honest about the parts of her story that remain private.

Isis Rae Boykin: Quick Bio Table

Category	Details
Full Name	Isis Rae Boykin
Known For	Daughter of Christopher “Big Black” Boykin
Father	Christopher Boykin (born 13 January 1972, died 9 May 2017)
Father’s Occupation	Reality television personality, entrepreneur
Father’s Famous Shows	Rob & Big, Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory
Mother	Shannon Turley
Parents’ Marriage	Married 2008, divorced 2009
Approximate Birth Year	2007 to 2008 (based on her reported age of nine in May 2017)
Age When Father Died	Nine years old
Siblings	None publicly reported
Nationality	American
Occupation	Not publicly disclosed
Public Social Media	None verified
Public Profile	Maintains a private life

Early Life and Family Background

Isis Rae Boykin was born in the United States, and public records place her age at nine years old at the time of her father’s death in May 2017. That detail, confirmed by news coverage at the time, means she was born around 2007 or 2008, making her a young adult today.

Her father was Christopher Boykin, widely known by his stage name “Big Black.” Her mother is Shannon Turley, who married Christopher in 2008. The couple divorced the following year, in 2009, but they remained close and were reportedly living together again in the years before his death as his health began to decline.

Isis appears to be Christopher Boykin’s only child. No reliable source has ever reported any siblings, and none of the major outlets that covered her father’s career or his death mentioned another son or daughter.

Because Isis was a young child during her father’s years of fame and was still a minor when he passed away, her mother and family appear to have made a deliberate choice to keep her out of interviews, red carpets, and press coverage. That decision has continued into her adult life, which is one reason so little verified information exists about her beyond her family connection.

Who Was Christopher “Big Black” Boykin?

To understand Isis Rae Boykin’s story, it helps to understand her father first, since almost everything written about her traces back to his fame. Christopher Boykin was born on January 13, 1972, in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Raleigh, Mississippi. He graduated from Stone High School in Wiggins, Mississippi, in 1990 and went on to serve in the United States Navy before finding his way into entertainment.

Standing at six feet six inches tall, Boykin had a physical presence that made him hard to miss, which is partly how he ended up on television in the first place. He was working in a promotional stunt for the shoe brand DC Shoes when professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek hired him as a bodyguard for the segment. That chance meeting turned into a genuine friendship and a decade-long working partnership.

Boykin’s big break came with Rob & Big, an MTV reality series that followed his everyday life and friendship with Dyrdek. The show ran from November 2006 to April 2008 and turned Boykin into a recognisable face well beyond the skateboarding world he had stumbled into. His easy humour and larger-than-life personality made him one of the show’s most memorable stars.

Career Highlights Beyond Rob & Big

Christopher Boykin’s career did not end when Rob & Big wrapped. He returned to television screens in 2011 as a cast member on Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory, a role he kept until 2015. During this period, he also made guest appearances on Ridiculousness, Guy Code, and Snack Off, keeping his presence alive across MTV’s programming.

Boykin also branched out into business. In 2007, he launched his own clothing line called “Big Black,” selling T-shirts and hats printed with his catchphrase, “Let’s Do Work.” The brand let him capitalise on his popularity while giving fans a way to connect with his personality outside the show.

His larger-than-life persona was not limited to television and merchandise. In 2008, Boykin set two separate Guinness World Records during a Rob & Big segment, one for peeling and eating three bananas in a minute, and another for eating five powdered doughnuts in two minutes and forty-five seconds. Both records reflected the playful, competitive spirit that made him a fan favourite.

He also lent his likeness to the world of video games, appearing in Skate in 2007 and its sequel, Skate 2, in 2009, further cementing his place in mid-2000s youth culture alongside Dyrdek.

Becoming a Father

Christopher Boykin married Shannon Turley in 2008, during the height of his fame on Rob & Big. Their daughter, Isis, arrived around the same period, giving Boykin a family life that ran alongside his very public career.

The marriage did not last long, ending in divorce in 2009. Despite the split, Boykin and Turley appear to have maintained a working relationship as parents. Reports from the time of his death noted that the two were living together again in his final years, largely because his declining health meant he needed support at home.

Very little about Boykin’s day-to-day role as a father was ever discussed publicly, since he generally kept his daughter away from his television and business ventures. What is clear is that Isis remained a constant in his life, and he was reportedly close to her right up until his death.

Christopher Boykin’s Death and Its Impact

Christopher Boykin had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator fitted to help manage a heart condition, a detail that hinted at underlying health problems long before his death became public. In early May 2017, he was hospitalised in Plano, Texas, and placed on a heart monitor.

On May 9, 2017, his heart stopped despite the medical support around him. Hospital staff worked to revive him for around thirty minutes before he was pronounced dead at 4:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time. He was forty-five years old. The official cause of death was heart failure brought on by a heart attack.

News of his passing spread quickly across entertainment media, with tributes coming from Rob Dyrdek and former Ridiculousness co-host Chanel West Coast, among others who had worked with him over the years. For Isis Rae Boykin, then just nine years old, the loss meant growing up without the father who had built much of his public identity around being larger than life.

Isis Rae Boykin’s Life Today

There is no verified, publicly confirmed information about what Isis Rae Boykin does for a living, where she studies or has studied, or whether she is in a relationship. She does not appear to run any known public social media account under her own name, and she has not given interviews or made television appearances of her own.

This lack of information is not unusual for the children of reality television personalities, particularly those who lost a parent while still young. Many families in this position choose privacy over public attention, and everything available about Christopher Boykin’s family suggests that Shannon Turley made the same choice for her daughter.

Readers searching for detailed personal facts about Isis, such as her career, her exact birth date, or her current city, should treat any such claims found elsewhere with caution. No mainstream outlet, biography database, or verified public record currently confirms these details, and this article does not repeat unverified claims simply to fill space.

What can be said with confidence is that she carries her father’s memory forward as his only child, and that his fans continue to think of her whenever his name comes up in conversation about Rob & Big and its era of MTV reality television.

Christopher Boykin’s Lasting Legacy

More than a decade after Rob & Big first aired, Christopher Boykin remains a recognisable figure in reality television history. His friendship with Rob Dyrdek helped define a particular style of unscripted MTV programming built on genuine chemistry rather than manufactured drama.

His Guinness World Records, his clothing line, and his catchphrase “Let’s Do Work” continue to circulate among fans who grew up watching him, showing that his cultural footprint outlasted the original run of his shows. Clips from Rob & Big and Fantasy Factory still circulate online, introducing his personality to viewers who were not even born when the shows first aired.

For Isis Rae Boykin, that legacy is both a public inheritance and a private one. Publicly, she is remembered as the daughter of a beloved television personality. Privately, whatever memories she holds of her father belong to her alone, and nothing in the public record suggests she has ever wanted that to change.

Conclusion

Isis Rae Boykin’s story is really two stories woven together: the well-documented, colourful career of her father, Christopher “Big Black” Boykin, and her own quiet, private life that has stayed almost entirely out of public view. While fans may want more details about her today, the honest answer is that she has chosen, like many children of reality television stars, to keep her life to herself. What remains public is her father’s legacy, and the fact that he was, by all accounts, a devoted parent to her until the very end.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is Isis Rae Boykin?
Isis Rae Boykin is the daughter of Christopher “Big Black” Boykin, the MTV reality star from Rob & Big and Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory. She has stayed out of the public eye herself.

2. Who was Isis Rae Boykin’s father?
Her father was Christopher Boykin, known as “Big Black,” a reality television personality who co-starred with Rob Dyrdek and later launched his own clothing brand.

3. Who is Isis Rae Boykin’s mother?
Her mother is Shannon Turley, who married Christopher Boykin in 2008 and divorced him in 2009, though the two remained connected as her father’s health declined.

4. How old was Isis Rae Boykin when her father died?
She was nine years old when Christopher Boykin died on 9 May 2017, which places her birth year around 2007 or 2008.

5. How did Christopher Boykin die?
He died of heart failure caused by a heart attack, after being hospitalised in Plano, Texas, in early May 2017. He had previously had a defibrillator implanted for a heart condition.

6. Did Christopher Boykin have any other children?
No other children have been publicly reported. Isis appears to be his only child.

7. What was Christopher Boykin famous for?
He was best known for MTV’s Rob & Big, his friendship with Rob Dyrdek, his Guinness World Records for speed eating, and his clothing brand built around the catchphrase “Let’s Do Work.”

8. Is Isis Rae Boykin on social media?
There is no verified public social media account confirmed to belong to her, which is consistent with the private life her family appears to have chosen.

9. What does Isis Rae Boykin do now?
Her current occupation, education, and personal life have not been publicly disclosed, and no reliable source confirms these details.

10. Why is there so little public information about Isis Rae Boykin?
Her family appears to have deliberately kept her away from media attention, both before and after her father’s death, which is a common choice among relatives of reality television stars who value their privacy.