Tyler James Williams spoke about his experience as a child prodigy as he recalled his work on the award-winning sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, which was inspired by Chris Rock’s teenage years.

Speaking to GQ magazine, he said a producer on the sitcom – which ran from 2005 to 2009 – once told him: “I’ll never see you as anything else and you’ll probably never work again.”

He also said that he realized “very quickly” that those who become child celebrities can get trapped and constantly offered teenage roles, this realization allowed Williams to change the course of his career after the end of “Everybody Hates Chris”.

“I realized at 17 that I didn’t like the path I was on,” he explained. “So I decided to stop and change direction. I met a really good acting teacher and turned down everything they offered me.”

His career break ended when he landed a lead role in 2014’s “Dear White People,” as well as series like “The Walking Dead” and “Criminal Minds.” He won a Golden Globe in 2023 for his role as Gregory Eddy in ‘Abbott Elementary’.

Williams said his time on “Everybody Hates Chris” taught him an important lesson: “I learned how to make a series in two or three months. It is the most useful lesson I have ever received in my life”