Billy Porter

Billy Porter (born September 21, 1969 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a Broadway performer, pop singer, film and television actor and vocal coach. He graduated from the Musical Theatre Program at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School's School of Drama and achieved fame performing on Broadway before going off on a solo career as a singer. Porter won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Lola in Kinky Boots at the 67th Tony Awards. For the role, Porter also won Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.


He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts with a B.F.A in Drama as well as a certification from The Professional Program In Screenwriting at UCLA.

He is probably best known for his portrayal of the Teen Angel in the 1994 revival of Grease!. Other plays he has been in include Ghetto Superstar (The Man That I Am) for which Porter was nominated for "Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway & Off Broadway Award" at the 17th GLAAD Media Awards and in Topdog/Underdog at City Theatre, Jesus Christ Superstar and Dreamgirls at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and the song cycles "Myths and Hymns" and "Songs for a New World". In September 2010, Porter appeared as Belize in Signature Theatre Company's 20th Anniversary production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America.

Porter has also appeared in a number of films. He landed a major role as Shiniqua, a drag queen who befriends Angel (David Norona) and Lee (Keivyn McNeill Graves) in Seth Michael Donsky's Twisted, an adaptation of Oliver Twist. He has also appeared on an episode of the The RuPaul Show.

He has had a musical career with two albums released, Billy Porter on A&M Records in 1997 and At the Corner of Broadway + Soul in 2005 on Sh-K-Boom Records. He was also featured in a number of songs in the tribute album It's Only Life: The Songs of John Bucchino in 2006 released on PS Classics and in Adam Guettel's album Myths and Hymns on Nonesuch Records. He also covered "Only One Road" that was included on the Human Rights Campaign compilation album Love Rocks.

Discography: