Billy Porter

Singer, songwriter, composer, actor, playwright, director and vocal coach Billy Porter is a throwback to the old school entertainers who worked, literally, across a widestage platform, from theatre and film to television and musical revivals, and his Broadway-inspired mainstream and very theatrical approach has made him popular and much-awarded, but ironically, it has also made him anything but mainstream throughout his career. Born September 21, 1969 in Pittsburg, PA, Porter laid the groundwork for his career with thoughtfulness and care, graduating from the musical theater program at the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, then earning a B.F.A. in drama from the Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts, and finally tacking on certification from the screenwriting program at UCLA. He came to public attention in musicals on Broadway, first in 1994’s revival of Grease!, then followed it with impressive turns in Songs for a New World (1995), Radiant Baby (1998), Angels in America (2010) and other stage productions, leading up to his role as Lola in Kinky Boots, which earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical at the 67th Tony Awards in 2013. Porter also appeared in several films, including Twisted (1996), The Intern (2000), The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000) and Noel (2004), among others, played Little Richard in the TV movie Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story, and was featured in episodes of Another World, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and other television shows. As a recording artist, he has released three albums, including the self-titled Billy Porter, which appeared in 1997, 2005’s live At the Corner of Broadway + Soul from Sh-K-Boom Records, and Billy’s Back on Broadway, which arrived in the spring of 2014 from Concord Records.