Billy Porter Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Billy Porter
Acting
Biography
William Ellis Porter II (born September 21, 1969) is an American actor and singer. Porter gained notice performing on Broadway before starting a solo career as a singer and actor. For his role as Lola in Kinky Boots, Porter won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. He credits the part for "cracking open" his feminine side to confront toxic masculinity. Porter also won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for the musical's accompanying album. 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. In 2020, he was included on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. 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. Porter received the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 77th Tony Awards for his humanitarian work with the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and Entertainment Community Fund. Description above from the Wikipedia article Billy Porter, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography Movies
Acting
80 for Brady
Four lifelong friends set out on an unforgettable journey to see their hero Tom Brady play in Super Bowl LI and witness one of the greatest comebacks in sports history, discovering that it's never too late to live life to the fullest. Inspired by a true story.
The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy
A close-knit group of gay friends share the emotional roller coster of life, relationships, the death of friends, new beginnings, jealousy, fatherhood and professional success. At various stages of life's disarray, these young men share humorous and tragic relationships and always have each other to rely on.
Camp
Sixteen-year-old Randy Kapplehoff loves spending the summer at Camp Outland, a camp for queer teens. It’s where he met his best friends. It’s where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And it’s where he fell for Hudson Aaronson-Lim – who’s only into straight-acting guys and barely knows not-at-all-straight-acting Randy even exists. Randy reinvents himself over the summer as ‘Del, a buff, masculine, and on the market camper. Even if it means giving up show tunes, nail polish, and his unicorn bedsheets, he’s determined to get Hudson to fall for him. But as he and Hudson grow closer, Randy has to ask himself how much he is willing to change for love. And is it really love anyway, if Hudson doesn’t know who he truly is?
Little Richard: I Am Everything
The story of the black, gay origins of rock n' roll. It explodes the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard's complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon's life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions.
Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love
Paying tribute to a beloved national icon for her birthday, NBC celebrates Carol Burnett’s illustrious career with a star-studded event featuring an A-list lineup of musical performances and special guests who come together to share their love for one of the most cherished comediennes in television history.
Twisted
This retelling of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist may be populated by drug pushers, pimps and prostitutes, but the book's classic themes remain the same. Caught under the thumb of a lecherous brothel owner, 10-year-old Lee befriends an aspiring musician named Angel who helps him escape his servitude and sends a maternal drag queen to vanquish the boy's enemies.
Truth Be Told
While an important cultural epicenter with a rich political history of antiracist organizing, the Black church has historically fallen short when it comes to supporting the LGBTQ+ community and its queer members. Equal parts healing journey and incisive examination, this essential, extremely necessary portrait critiques the Black community lovingly, balancing the beauty of fellowship within the church against the damaging legacy it must work to undo.
The Shoe
The directorial debut of French cultural provocateur André Saraiva is a collaboration with luxury footwear brand J.M. Weston, featuring his actress girlfriend Annabelle Dexter-Jones, Leo Fitzpatrick and model Poppy Delevingne.
Queen of New York
Welcome to a different kind of drag race! As NYC emerges from the chaos of 2020, Marti Cummings (they/them), an audacious and big-hearted drag queen, goes all out in a historic bid to become a City Councilperson. It’s one of the most hotly contested Council races in years, and Marti’s strongest competitor is Shaun Abreu, a tenants’ lawyer with deep roots in the district’s Latinx community. As these first-timers race to do the most good for their Upper Manhattan neighbors, they offer very different visions for Democratic politics – one in a suit and tie, the other in combat boots and floral print. As this immersive documentary reveals, Marti’s passion inspires queer activists and allies to change the political system. Their campaign becomes a community of its own, especially for Marti’s non-binary peers who have never before seen themselves represented.
Our Son
When his husband Gabriel files for divorce, Nicky fights for custody of their 8-year-old son Owen, as he struggles to come to terms with what it means to love someone and what it means to be a father.
Production
Sanctuary
What is God? God is love! Plain and simple. SANCTUARY, with book by Billy Porter and music and lyrics by Kurt Carr, invites audiences to fellowship and to learn how to spread the love, through the power of gospel music. Love is God.
To Be Real
An edgy, laugh out loud comedy about three queer high school seniors who go on the ultimate quest to attend their first New York Pride parade.
To Be Real
An edgy, laugh out loud comedy about three queer high school seniors who go on the ultimate quest to attend their first New York Pride parade.
Camp
Sixteen-year-old Randy Kapplehoff loves spending the summer at Camp Outland, a camp for queer teens. It’s where he met his best friends. It’s where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And it’s where he fell for Hudson Aaronson-Lim – who’s only into straight-acting guys and barely knows not-at-all-straight-acting Randy even exists. Randy reinvents himself over the summer as ‘Del, a buff, masculine, and on the market camper. Even if it means giving up show tunes, nail polish, and his unicorn bedsheets, he’s determined to get Hudson to fall for him. But as he and Hudson grow closer, Randy has to ask himself how much he is willing to change for love. And is it really love anyway, if Hudson doesn’t know who he truly is?
A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting
On October 27th, 2018, a gunman opened fire inside a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing eleven people as they prayed, in what would become the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history. This documentary is a deeply personal portrait of the survivors, victims and family members, who share their harrowing first-hand accounts of the impact of the shooting on the community.
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
A chronological look at films by, for, or about gays and lesbians in the United States, from 1947 to 2005, Kenneth Anger's "Fireworks" to "Brokeback Mountain". Talking heads, anchored by critic and scholar B. Ruby Rich, are interspersed with an advancing timeline and with clips from two dozen films. The narrative groups the pictures around various firsts, movements, and triumphs: experimental films, indie films, sex on screen, outlaw culture and bad guys, lesbian lovers, films about AIDS and dying, emergence of romantic comedy, transgender films, films about diversity and various cultures, documentaries and then mainstream Hollywood drama. What might come next?
Anything's Possible
Anything’s Possible is a delightfully modern Gen Z coming-of-age story that follows Kelsa, a confident high school girl who is trans, as she navigates through senior year. When her classmate Khal gets a crush on her, he musters up the courage to ask her out, despite the drama he knows it could cause. What transpires is a romance that showcases the joy, tenderness, and pain of young love.
(pride/prom)
For ten years, the Andy Warhol Museum has hosted an LGBTQ+ Prom for students who aren’t comfortable – or perhaps aren’t welcome – attending their own school’s prom as their true, authentic selves. Courageous young people journey from every corner of the nation, converging on Pittsburgh to experience the freedom and joy that comes with unmasking in a truly safe space.
I Was Born This Way
Surviving childhood abuse during his upbringing in Baltimore, Archbishop Carl Bean forged a path to New York and Hollywood to do the one thing he knew he was put on earth to do: sing. Making his mark first as a gospel singer, Bean got the break of his life when Motown tapped him in 1977 to record the disco song “I Was Born This Way,” which quickly became the first gay anthem at a time when it was uncommon to be out and proud. When the AIDS crisis hit, however, Bean soon found himself drawn to a different calling: compassionate activism. Instead of pursuing the momentum of his promising music career, he founded the Minority AIDS Project and the Unity Fellowship Church — the first LGBTQ+ church for people of color.
Freeman Vines
Freeman Vines built his first guitar when he was a teenager. Now 82-years-old and battling multiple myeloma, he's desperately trying to make a guitar that can reproduce an elusive sound the instrument made decades ago.
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