Billy Porter Biography
William Ellis Porter II is an American actor, singer, writer, and director who was born on September 21, 1969. After earning his degree in drama from Carnegie Mellon University, he rose to renown on Broadway before launching a solo acting and singing career.
Porter’s performance as Lola in Kinky Boots earned him the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. In order to face toxic masculinity, he attributes the role with “cracking open” his feminine side. Porter also received the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for the performance. The Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album went to Porter in 2014 for Kinky Boots.
Porter played the title character in the television series Pose for all three of its seasons. For his work on the show, Porter received three Golden Globe nominations and the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, making him the first gay black man to do so.[6] In 2020, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential persons in the world by Time magazine. As a producer for the musical A Strange Loop, he earned another Tony Award for Best Musical in 2022. In 2022, he made his feature film directing debut with the romance comedy Anything’s Possible.
| Nickname | Billy |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 53 years old (in 2023) |
| Date of Birth | September 21, 1969 |
| Full Name | Billy Porter |
| Profession | Singer, Actor |
| Nationality | American |
| Birthplace | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Zodiac Sign | Virgo |
Billy Porter Early life
William Ellis Porter and Cloerinda Jean Johnson Porter Ford were Porter’s parents when he was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mary Martha E. Ford is he sister. He was up in a Pentecostal family that was “very religious” and has stated that between the ages of 7 and 12, his stepfather sexually molested him.
Prior to earning his diploma in 1987 from Allderdice High School and Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, he attended Reizenstein Middle School. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts and a certificate from UCLA’s Professional Program in Screenwriting, which is a graduate program.
Porter performed everyday at Kennywood, an amusement park in the Pittsburgh region, as a member of the entertainment groups “Spirit” and “Flash” from the summers of 1985 through 1987.
Billy Porter Career
In 1992, Porter competed on American Talent Show Star Search and took home the $100,000 prize. He shared a stage with several aspiring celebrities, including a young Britney Spears.
In the Grease Broadway production from 1994, Porter portrayed Teen Angel. He has also appeared in other productions such as Topdog/Underdog at City Theatre (2004), Jesus Christ Superstar and Dreamgirls at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (2004), Myths and Hymns and Songs for a New World (Off-Broadway, 1995), and others.
In February and March 2005, Porter presented Ghetto Superstar (The Man That I Am), a one-man autobiographical show, at Joe’s Pub in New York City. The 17th GLAAD Media Awards’ “Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway & Off Broadway Award” was one of his nominations.
The 20th Anniversary production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America at Signature Theatre Company featured Porter as Belize in September 2010.
Porter created the part of “Lola” in the 2013 Broadway production of Kinky Boots, which featured music by Cyndi Lauper, a script by Harvey Fierstein, and choreography by Jerry Mitchell. Because of his performance in this role, Porter received the 2013 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Porter has also made numerous cinematic appearances. In Seth Michael Donsky’s Twisted (1997), an adaption of Oliver Twist, he had a significant part as Shiniqua, a drag queen who befriends Angel (David Norona) and Lee (Keivyn McNeill Graves). In addition, he has been on The RuPaul Show.
Billy Porter, published in 1997 on DV8/A&M Records, At the Corner of Broadway + Soul, released in 2005 on Sh-K-Boom Records, and Billy’s Back on Broadway, released in 2014 by Concord Music Group, are his three solo albums. He was a featured performer on several tracks from the 2006 PS Classics tribute CD It’s Only Life: The tracks of John Bucchino. He contributes vocals to Adam Guettel’s studio cast album Myths and Hymns from 1999 on Nonesuch Records. Additionally, he covered the song “Only One Road,” which appeared on the Love Rocks compilation album by the Human Rights Campaign.
While I Yet Live, written by Porter, made its Off-Broadway debut at Primary Stages in September 2014 and received its official opening on October 12. Lillias White and S. Epatha Merkerson were also in the cast.
Porter got out In April 2017, Billy Porter will present the Soul of Richard Rodgers. Along with Porter himself, the following musicians also contribute solos and duets to the album, which showcases fresh, soulful interpretations of well-known Richard Rodgers songs: Tony and Grammy Award winners Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton), Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton), Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), Brandon Victor Dixon (Shuffle Along), Joshua Henry (Violet), Christopher Jackson (Hamilton), Patina Miller (Pippin), Pentatonix, India Arie, and Ledisi, as well as YouTube and Kinky Boots star Todrick Hall, and multiple Grammy Award nominee Deborah Cox.
Porter performed a 15-week run of Kinky Boots on Broadway in September 2017, reprising the role of Lola.
Porter played the part of Pray Tell in the FX series Pose in 2018. After broadcasting just one episode from the second season, Pose was given a third season renewal in 2019. Porter announced in August 2018 that he would be a part of American Horror Story’s eighth season, dubbed Apocalypse, on Instagram. On July 23, 2018, Porter sang a duet with his Pose co-star Dyllón Burnside and songs from his album at a benefit concert that Burnside emceed to commemorate the season 1 finale and raise money for GLSEN.
Queerty named him one of the Pride50 “trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance, and dignity for all queer people” in June 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which served as the impetus for the current LGBTQ rights movement. He also gave the Excellence in Theatre Education Award at the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in June 2019. He received media attention, nevertheless, for his uterine-shaped haute couture red and pink dress made from stage curtains from Kinky Boots and his spontaneous rendition of “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from Gypsy for host James Corden’s “Broadway karaoke” segment.
He became the first out homosexual black male to be nominated and win in any lead acting category at the Primetime Emmys in September 2019 when he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Pose.
Porter also made a cameo appearance in the “You Need to Calm Down” music video, which included twenty LGBTQ icons, in 2019.
With Stephen Stills, Porter sang “For What It’s Worth” during the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
In 2021, his autobiography Unprotected was published. Eric M. Glover, a theatre researcher, wrote a chapter about Porter for the book 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, published in 2022.
He was scheduled to play James Baldwin in a forthcoming biopic in April 2023.
Billy Porter Fashion
Porter recalls his upbringing in the black church as “a fashion show” and credits his early love of dress to this. Over the years, his fashion sense has gone through several stages, including vintage, Abercrombie and Fitch, and geek chic. He has said that he set out to be a “walking piece of political art” and that he intended to use fashion in a political sense. Sam Ratelle, Porter’s stylist, claimed that they had collaborated on 150 red carpet looks as of January 2020, many of which were created by Porter himself. Porter’s stylist as of 2021 is Ty Hunter, who formerly worked with Beyoncé.
His GUCCI attire for the Met Gala
Porter attracted notice at the 2019 Golden Globes for donning a pink cape and embroidered suit by Randi Rahm. He claimed that he had always wanted to wear a ball gown and that the fact that people were astonished to see him wearing a cloak motivated him to ask Christian Siriano to make one for him. It looked to him like a method to question society’s notions of masculinity. When he attended the 91st Academy Awards wearing a fitted tuxedo jacket, a velvet gown, and 6-inch Rick Owens boots, he made further fashion waves that year.
Porter participated in New York Fashion Week: Mens in February 2019 as an Official Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Ambassador.[56] Porter wore a “Sun God” suit to the 2019 Met Gala and embraced the subject of Camp: Notes on Fashion by being carried on a litter by six shirtless men. Porter’s dress was created by The Blonds and featured a jeweled catsuit with 10 ft (3.0 m) wings, a 24-karat gold helmet, unique gold-leaf Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, and exquisite gems by Andreoli, John Hardy, and Oscar Heyman.
Porter attended the AFI Awards and the Golden Globes in an all-white attire that included a tuxedo jacket with a feathered train. In 2020, he donned a floor-length pink poncho-style gown with a wide-brimmed black hat, which he described as having “Handmaid’s Tale realness.” He attended the Grammys in a shimmering turquoise bodysuit, bolero, and motorized hat.
Billy Porter Concerts
Porter has played at a number of locations in New York City, including Joe’s Pub and Lincoln Center, which was featured on PBS in 2015. At London Pride in 2019, Porter was the main act.
Porter and Stephen Stills played “For What It’s Worth” during the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Billy Porter Personal life
Porter, who came out as homosexual “in the middle of the AIDS crisis” at the age of 16, is gay. He first met Adam Smith in 2009, and they were wed on January 14, 2017.The couple became engaged on December 29, 2016, and were married two weeks later because he was eager to wed “while Obama was still president and before January 20th, 2017”. Porter and Smith’s separation was revealed in July 2023.
In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2020, Porter discussed racism in the US and stated that “whiteness is the only reason our country is in the mess it’s in right now.” supremacy of whites. White people are choking, retaining control, and suffocating mankind.
Porter revealed to The Hollywood Reporter in May 2021 that he had an HIV diagnosis in June 2007; in addition, he received a type-2 diabetes diagnosis in February 2007 and filed for bankruptcy in March 2007. He acknowledged renting a home on Long Island during the COVID-19 epidemic because of a pre-existing medical condition and having intermittently gone to psychotherapy since the age of 25 in the same interview.
Billy Porter Trivia
graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Fine Arts in 1991.
won the 1983 Star Search award for Best Male Vocalist.
graduated in 1987 from the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School and attended Taylor Allderdice High School.
On December 1, 2022, he received a Star for Live Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. His Walk of Fame star is close to Eastown and the Pantages Theater.
He had heard rumors that when his grandfather was a child, he had been shot in the back. He learned the truth through the Who Do You Think You Are? (2010) documentary series. He conducted some research and came across some contradictory tales of his great-grandfather’s passing in 1923. It was reported in a white publication that the police officer who killed him feared his great-grandfather would also shoot him. They accurately said in black media that Billy’s great-grandfather did not possess a firearm and that the policeman had shot and killed other African Americans. Unsurprisingly, the policeman was exonerated of all murder charges when Billy demanded to know what had transpired.
He received the Best Leading Actor in a Musical Tony Award in 2013 for “Kinky Boots” and the Best Musical Tony Award in 2022 for “A Strange Loop” as a producer.
associates of Rosie O’Donnell.
received his graduate certificate from the University of California, Los Angeles’ (UCLA) Professional Program in Screenwriting.
What Billy Porter is doing right now?
At the moment, Billy Porter is employed by Cinderella.
What does Billy Porter’s husband do for a living?
The California Institute of the Arts awarded Porter-Smith a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2003. According to his LinkedIn profile, he then worked in sales for several businesses, including Chanel and Jil Sander Eyewear, before co-founding the eyewear brand Native Ken from 2016 to 2018.
What is Billy Porter most famous for?
Billy Porter is a famous red-carper actor, author, and writer. He has been in American Horror Story and Law & Order, but most recently, he is most recognized for his Emmy-winning role as Pray Tell on FX’s Pose.
What is Billy Porter’s gender?
Billy Porter gained notoriety as Lola in “Kinky Boots” before going on to become the first openly homosexual Black male to win an Emmy as the lead actor in “Pose,” as well as a significant player in the drive to de-gender fashion.
Where is Billy Porter born?
Billy Porter, an actor, was raised by his mother Clorinda Ford after being born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 21, 1969. Porter studied acting, music, and dance at the Pittsburgh School for the Creative and Performing Arts as well as Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh.
Who is Billy Porter’s lover?
Although Billy Porter and Adam Smith have been married for five years, they have a far longer relationship than that. They actually first connected at a dinner party for mutual friends in February 2009.
Who is Billy Porter net worth?
The well-known American actor “Billy Porter” is worth $5 million.
Who is Billy Porter?
Billy Porter, whose true name is William Ellis Porter II, was born on September 21, 1969, to Cloerinda Jean Johnson Porter Ford and William Ellis Porter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Mary is his sister’s name. Billy was raised in a Pentecostal family and described his family as being “very religious.” Billy attended Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, Allderdice High School, and Reizenstein Middle School before graduating from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama. Porter later attended in UCLA’s Professional Program in Screenwriting, which he successfully finished. Billy spent his summers at the Kennywood amusement park playing with the performance groups Flash and Spirit from 1985 to 1987.
How many houses and cars does Billy Porter have?
Billy Porter’s possessions, such as his homes and vehicles, are not publicly known.
How much does Billy Porter make per year?
Porter’s net worth is thought to be $4 million. His yearly compensation is unknown.
How many Endorsement deals does Billy Porter have?
Billy’s endorsement arrangements bring in additional revenue. On it, however, there is no information.
How many Philanthropy works has Billy Porter supported?
Billy Porter has lent his support to a number of organizations, including the Sierra Club, GLAAD, GLSEN, NAACP, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and many others.
How many businesses does Billy Porter own?
Billy has had successful careers as an actor, singer, writer, and director, among other things. It is unknown if he owns any other businesses aside from that.
