Brye Cooper – 5^th Degree Black Belt

American Kenpo

With 30 years of Martial Arts training behind him Brye Cooper is a Native Englishman born in the North of England, now residing in the United States.

Brye started his Martial Arts training on Merseyside in 1982 training in Shotokan Karate.   In 1984 he left the mainland for the Jersey Channel Islands where he was introduced to American Kenpo and under the Instruction of Mr Roy McDonald reached the rank of Green Belt.

He 1988 Brye arrived in the USA, staying at SGM Ed Parker’s West LA Studio where he trained and received his 3^rd degree brown belt from SGM Parker the same year.  He then decided to travel and left LA for several months.    On his return he picked up his Kenpo training in Pasadena under Master Larry Tatum with whom he reached the rank of 3rd Degree Black Belt.

In 1997, whilst in the UK, Brye was awarded his 4^th Degree Black Belt from Bob Rose, the former head of the BKKU.    Upon returning to the USA, Brye continued to teach and train in Los Angeles and in 2007, he was awarded his 5^th degree Black Belt by Frank Trejo and Mohamed Taba Tabi.

Brye continues to teach and train in American Kenpo in Los Angeles California as well as over the last 12 months starting a new Martial Arts journey studying Gracie Jiu Jitsu at the Gracie Academy in Torrance CA, where he was recently awarded his Blue Belt.

Brye also teaches Street Kombative Systems at the KO gym in El Segundo CA, a system of self defense he has crafted to effectively suit the needs of those who do not wish to take the journey of white through Black belt, but instead wish to have a rapidly developed self defense capability in a shorter unit of time.

It was through the martial arts artistic genre that Brye entered into the realm of films appearing on stage at numerous LA venues in roles ranging from Cassius in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, to Sgt. Trotter in the Agatha Christie classic, “The Mousetrap”.     Brye started his film career alongside Djimon Hounson (Amistad, Gladiator/The Island/Constantine), as a British Navy Seaman in the period film “Ill Gotten Gains”.  Among Brye’s many film credit’s is his role as “Mallot” in the Disney/Bruckhiemer’s production “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

A few words from Brye:-

“Always a pleasure to teach and train with fellow “Kenpoists” and Martial Artists I am honored to be joining the other marvelous instructors who will be teaching at the 2012 BKKU International Summer Camp.”