Billy Porter

Billy Porter is an American Broadway theater performer, singer, and actor. He attended the Musical Theater program at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School's School of Drama, graduated from Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, and achieved fame performing on Broadway before starting a solo career as a singer and actor.

Porter won the 2013 Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Lola in "Kinky Boots" at the 67th Tony Awards. He credits the part for "cracking open" his feminine side to confront toxic masculinity. 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.

He currently stars in the television series "Pose" for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, becoming the first openly gay black man to be nominated and win in any lead acting category at the Primetime Emmys.

In 2021, Porter announced that he has been diagnosed as HIV-Positive since 2007. Porter, who also has type 2 diabetes, said that the stigma and shame he felt about his diagnosis, especially as a Black man, kept him from making this detail of his life public sooner. He made this announcement hoping to move on to the next phase of his life and career without the shame that’s trailed him for more than a decade.

Porter is listed as one of TIME 100's Most Influential People of 2020.