Billy Porter
William Ellis Porter II (born September 21, 1969) is an American actor, singer, writer, and director.[2][3] He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, and he achieved fame performing on Broadway before starting a solo career as a singer and actor.
Porter won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Lola in Kinky Boots. He credits the part for "cracking open" his feminine side to confront toxic masculinity.[5] For the role, Porter also won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. In 2014 Porter won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Kinky Boots. Porter starred in all three seasons of the television series Pose, for which he was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and won the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, becoming the first gay black man to be nominated and win in any lead acting category at the Primetime Emmys.[6] In 2020, he was included on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world.[7] In 2022, he won another Tony Award, for Best Musical as a producer for the musical A Strange Loop. He made his directorial debut in 2022 with the romantic comedy film Anything's Possible.
Early life
Porter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to William Ellis Porter and Cloerinda Jean Johnson Porter Ford.[1][8][9] His sister is Mary Martha E. Ford.[10][11][12] He grew up in a "very religious" Pentecostal family[13] and has described being sexually abused by his stepfather between the ages of 7 and 12.
He attended Reizenstein Middle School, before graduating from Allderdice High School and Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School in 1987.[14] He graduated from the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama and earned a certification from the graduate-level Professional Program in Screenwriting.
Porter appeared on American Talent Show Star Search in 1992 and won $100,000. He appeared on the same show as other future stars, such as a young Britney Spears. Porter played Teen Angel in the 1994 Broadway revival of Grease. Other shows he has been in include Topdog/Underdog at City Theatre (2004),[18] Jesus Christ Superstar and Dreamgirls at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (2004),[19] and the song cycles Myths and Hymns and Songs for a New World (Off-Broadway, 1995). Porter wrote and performed in his one-person autobiographical show, Ghetto Superstar (The Man That I Am) at Joe's Pub in New York City in February and March 2005.[20][21][22] He was nominated for "Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway & Off Broadway Award" at the 17th GLAAD Media Awards.
No comments:
Post a Comment