Billy Porter

Billy Porter is an American actor, singer, and performer celebrated for breaking barriers in theater, television, and fashion. He won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Lola in Kinky Boots, and won a Grammy for the show's album. He then starred as Pray Tell across all three seasons of the FX series Pose, a drama set in New York ballroom culture during the AIDS crisis. For that role he won the 2019 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, becoming the first openly gay Black man to win in a lead acting category at the Emmys. In 2022 he won a second Tony as a producer of A Strange Loop. His red carpet looks, including a tuxedo gown at the 2019 Oscars, have reshaped mainstream conversations about gender and dress.