The rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people are under constant attack from bigots who think LGBTQ people are undeserving of rights afforded everyone else. Despite obstacles of racism and homophobia, some Black LGBTQ entertainers continue to break barriers with major accomplishments. But the journey is never easy.
When pansexual entertainer Wayne Brady hosted the 2024 GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Awards on March 14 in Beverly Hills, California, he candidly spoke in his opening monologue about what it’s like to be Black, famous, and a member of the LGBTQ community.
“There are people who love my shows,” said the Emmy-winning host of the CBS game show “Let’s Make a Deal.” Brady added, “They say, ‘Hey, Wayne, we love having you in our homes.’ The thing is, if some of them weren’t watching me on TV, they’d be afraid of me stealing their TV. … On top of that, you have the naked ignorance of homophobia.”
Brady, who went public about his pansexuality in 2023, also said about “coming out” later in life: “It was very scary because I was afraid of judgment. I was afraid of shame. But you know the thing is: Shame kills. Secrets kill when you hold on to these things.”
Brady revealed that he gets strength and inspiration from “my queer family members and my friends, living their lives proudly.” He also acknowledged his privileges, including his fame and having a supportive family who loves him. “I happen to have good will and resources because of my visibility,” Brady said.
At the same GLAAD Media Awards ceremony, Emmy-winning actress Niecy Nash-Betts received the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, a noncompetitive prize given to an openly LGBTQ entertainer who is an activist for the LGTBQ community. During her acceptance speech, Nash-Betts (who has had two divorces from men and is currently married to musician Jessica Betts) said she doesn’t want to put a label on her own sexuality.
Nash-Betts said some loved ones in her life advised her not to go public about her sexuality because they said it would damage her Hollywood career. However, Nash-Betts said she got support from many other people, including three Emmy-winning gay entertainers whom she calls her “fairy godfathers”: TV producer Ryan Murphy (who promised Nash-Betts that he would always give her a job), Colman Domingo (who officiated the 2020 wedding of Nash-Betts and Betts), and RuPaul Charles.
Nash-Betts said of her marriage to Betts: “We have been breaking barriers together ever since. Not only did I refuse to stay in the shadows with my better half, [in 2022] we were the first same-sex couple to grace the cover of Essence.”
LGBTQ people and allies should deal assertively with hateful discrimination that causes harm or takes away the civil rights of LGBTQ people, Brady said.
“It’s our job to change that. … Until the world sees us all in the same light, then we’ll have each other’s backs,” Brady explained.
Here are 20 Black LGBTQ entertainers who, in their own ways, are making a difference in the entertainment industry and beyond by breaking barriers in 2024.
Nicco Annan
The NAACP Image Award-winning, openly gay co-star of Starz’s “P-Valley”—he plays gender-fluid/nonbinary Uncle Clifford on the show—is the star/host of the Starz docuseries “Down in the Valley” (a travel/lifestyle show about the U.S. South), which premieres on July 5. “Down in the Valley” makes Annan the first openly gay person to host and star in a nonfiction Starz original series.
Wayne Brady
He has made TV history as the first pansexual star of a family reality series. “Wayne Brady: The Family Remix,” which will premiere July 24 on Freeform, is about the blended family life of Brady; his ex-wife/business partner Mandie Taketa; their adult daughter Maile Brady; Taketa’s current love partner Jason Fordham; and Taketa and Fordham’s son Sundance-Isamu, who was born in 2021. Wayne Brady has also been busy in 2024 as a cast member of The CW comedy improv series “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and the Broadway revival of “The Wiz,” where he plays the musical’s title character.
Karamo Brown
In 2024, this openly gay TV host won his first Primetime Emmy Award, as one of the producers of Netflix’s makeover show “Queer Eye,” which won the prize for Outstanding Structured Reality Program. Brown is also one of the hosts of “Queer Eye.” As the host of the nationally syndicated “Karamo,” he is currently the only openly gay Black man to host a national daytime talk show in the United States.
Jerrod Carmichael
He’s currently the only openly gay Black male entertainer who is starring in his own unstructured reality show: HBO’s “Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show.”
RuPaul Charles
In 2024, the gay host of MTV’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race” continued his winning streak as the TV host with the most Primetime Emmy Awards and the Black person with the most Primetime Emmy Awards. His fourth book—a memoir titled “The House of Hidden Meanings”—was also published this year.
Colman Domingo
He became the first gay Afro Latino to get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the Netflix biopic “Rustin,” in which he portrayed real-life civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Domingo is also getting major Oscar buzz for “Sing Sing” (a drama about prisoners who form a musical theater group), which will be released by A24 on July 12. Domingo, who has a recurring guest role on the HBO drama series “Euphoria,” is returning to series TV in a co-starring role with Tina Fey and Steve Carell in Netflix’s “The Four Seasons,” a comedy based on the 1981 film of the same name.
Ayo Edibiri
This openly queer actress/screenwriter has been winning almost every major TV award for her breakthrough role as restaurant chef Sydney Adamu in FX on Hulu’s comedy series “The Bear.” Edibiri became the first openly queer Black actress to win a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She has also won a Golden Globe Award, a Critics Choice Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and NAACP Image Award this year for “The Bear.”
Ncuti Gatwa
This openly gay actor became the first Black person cast in the title role of the British sci-fi series “Doctor Who,” which is televised in the United States on Disney+ and in the United Kingdom on BBC One. In the “Doctor Who” series, Gatwa (who is of Rwandan British heritage) has the role of the Fifteenth Doctor, who is queer and had the show’s first same-sex Doctor kiss when he smooched with bounty hunter Rogue, played by Jonathan Groff. Gatwa previously had roles in the Netflix drama series “Sex Education” (which was on the air from 2019 to 2023) and Warner Bros. Pictures’ 2023 blockbuster comedy “Barbie.”
Ice Spice
Since 2023, this openly bisexual Afro-Latina entertainer has had a meteoric rise, as she became the female artist with the most Top 10 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart that year without releasing a full-length album. Ice Spice’s hits included “Boy’s a Liar Pt. 2” (with PinkPantheress) and two collaborations with Nicki Minaj: “Princess Diana” and a cover version of Aqua’s “Barbie World.” At the 2024 Grammy Awards, Ice Spice (whose real name is Isis Naija Gaston) had four Grammy nominations (including Best New Artist) and landed her first movie role in Spike Lee’s remake of the crime thriller “High and Low,” starring Denzel Washington. And she accomplished all of this before the release of her first album, “Y2K!,” which is due out July 26 on Capitol Records.
Megan Thee Stallion
This Grammy-winning entertainer, who identifies as bisexual, is headlining her first tour in 2024, making her one of the few female rappers to headline an arena tour as a solo artist. On June 28, Megan Thee Stallion (whose real name is Megan Pete) is also due to release her third studio album, “Megan,” which will be her first under her new Hot Girl Productions. The album is distributed by Warner Bros. Records.
Janelle Monáe
The multihyphenate entertainer (who identifies as nonbinary and pansexual) is the first nonbinary artist to receive the most (three so far) Grammy nominations for Album of the Year. At the 2024 Grammy Awards ceremony, Monáe (who uses the pronouns they/them and she/her) was nominated for her album “The Age of Pleasure.” In 2019, she was nominated for her “Dirty Computer” album. And in 2013, Monáe was nominated as a featured artist on the “Some Nights” album from rock band Fun.
Victoria Monét
This openly bisexual singer won three Grammy Awards (including Best New Artist) this year, tying her with SZA (who also won three Grammys this year) as the Black woman to win the most Grammys at the 2024 ceremony. Monét’s other accolades for her 2023 debut album, “Jaguar II,” include Outstanding Album and Outstanding New Artist at the 2024 NAACP Image Awards, as well as Best New R&B Artist at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards.
Niecy Nash-Betts
She became the first openly queer Black actress to win a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, for her role in Netflix’s “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” Nash-Betts is set to work again with “Dahmer” showrunner Ryan Murphy on his new FX show “Grotesquerie,” which is a horror drama series. “Grotesquerie” is set to premiere this fall, and details have not yet been announced about the series’ storylines and characters.
Celeste O’Connor
This nonbinary entertainer (who uses the pronouns they/them) achieved a milestone that is rare for Black nonbinary entertainers: O’Connor had prominent roles in two major studio films this year, both for Columbia Pictures: “Madame Web” and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.”
Keke Palmer
As the host of NBC’s “Password,” Palmer (who is openly queer) became the first Black woman to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host. The TV host/actress/singer also recently signed a deal with Virgin Music Group’s SRG-ILS Group for her Big Bosses Entertainment imprint. Palmer’s first release under this new deal is due out this summer, on a date to be announced.
Billy Porter
He’s the first openly gay Black person to receive the Tony Awards’ Isabelle Stevenson Award, a noncompetitive prize created in 2009 and given to a member of the theater community who has made considerable contributions to humanitarian, social, and charitable causes. Porter has won two Tony Awards in competitive categories: In 2023, he won Best Actor in a Musical as drag queen Lola in “Kinky Boots.” In 2022, Porter was one of the people who won Best Musical as a producer of “A Strange Loop,” which became the first Black-oriented musical to win this Tony Award. On June 12, Porter hosted Procter & Gamble and iHeartMedia’s fifth annual Can’t Cancel Pride music event, available for streaming on Hulu. Next up for Porter is the London-set movie “Christmas Karma,” a contemporary Bollywood musical starring Kunal Nayyar and inspired by Charles Dickens’ classic novel “A Christmas Carol.”
Amandla Stenberg
This entertainer—who identifies as gender-fluid/nonbinary and a lesbian with “they/them” and “she/her” pronouns—is the first gender-fluid/nonbinary person to star in a “Star Wars” series. Stenberg has the title role in “Star Wars: The Acolyte,” which Disney+ debuted on June 4.
Aisha Tyler
As the host of The CW’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?,” this Emmy-winning, openly queer entertainer is the longest-running female host of a nationally televised improv comedy series. She has been hosting “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” since 2013, which matches the 11-year stint that Clive Anderson had when he hosted the original British version of the show from 1988 to 1999.
Zaya Wade
This 17-year-old transgender Internet personality has teamed up with her father, retired basketball superstar Dwayne Wade, to launch Translatable, an online community for transgender youth and their supporters. Translatable, which debuted in May, is one of several transgender activism initiatives from Zaya, who has been a fashion model for Puma and Miu Miu.
George C. Wolfe
He’s the first openly gay Black person to receive the Tony Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award since the award was created in 1977. As an individual, Wolfe has won two Tony Awards in competitive categories: Best Direction of a Play (for “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches”) in 1993, and Best Direction of a Musical (for “Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk”) in 1996. In 2024, Wolfe is set to direct a Broadway musical revival of “Gypsy” (starring Tony-winning actress Audra MacDonald), which has previews beginning November 21 and an opening date of December 19. He is also a noted film director, including helming historical dramas for Netflix: 2020’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and 2024’s “Rustin.”
