Janelle Monáe & Billy Porter: Dual Winners, Best TV Musical Performance
For the Opening Number, 92nd Academy Awards ®
JANELLE MONÁE
@janellemonae
A singer, songwriter, producer, and performer from Kansas City, Kansas, Monáe’s innovative style melds a redefined pop sensibility with an extraordinary mash-up of soul, funk, and rock n’ roll. Her debut album The ArchAndroid was released to widespread acclaim, earning her multiple Grammy nominations, and was deemed the top album of 2010 by The Associated Press, The Guardian, The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times. Monáe was also a recipient of the 2011 ASCAP Vanguard Award, and was included in the first-ever “Women Who Rock” exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame earlier that year.
A dynamic performer and artistic entrepreneur, Monáe her own record label, The Wondaland Arts Society, and has performed worldwide with artistic legends such as Stevie Wonder and Prince. In 2013, she launched her second studio album, The Electric Lady. The first official single off the album, Q.U.E.E.N., quickly racked-up 10,000,000 views on YouTube. “Yoga,” the second single from Monae’s Wondaland Records collective EP, The Eephus, accumulated nearly 5,000,000 views on YouTube in its first month. Her third solo album, Dirty Computer, received a 2019 Grammy nomination for Album of the Year.
As an actress, she has costarred in the Oscar ©-winning drama Moonlight, the also-acclaimed period drama Hidden Figures and the second season of the Amazon thriller Homecoming. She can currently be seen on the screen in the horror film Antebellum.
Visit her fan page here.
Source: WME Speakers.
BILLY PORTER
@thebillyporter
Before landing his Dorian Award-winning role on the multi-Dorian Award-winning FX drama Pose, Billy Porter was best known for starring as “Lola” in the smash hit Broadway musical Kinky Boots, for which he won the 2013 Drama Desk and Tony® Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. Other Broadway acting credits include the Tony-nominated Broadway musical Shuffle Along, directed by George C. Wolfe, Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe, Grease (all original cast), Smokey Joe’s Café and Dreamgirls (20th anniversary revival). His one-man show, Ghetto Superstar: The Man That I Am, was nominated for a 2005 GLAAD Media Award.
Porter’s original song “Time” has been featured twice on the television dancing contest So You Think You Can Dance. His concert credits include performing as the opening act for Rosie O’Donnell and Aretha Franklin at Carnegie Hall, singing with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Philly Pops, and as soloist for a political fundraiser for President Bill Clinton.
As a director, Porter has helmed revivals of George C. Wolfe’s plays The Colored Museum and Top Dog/Underdog, as well as a critically acclaimed recreation of The Wiz. He also conceived the musical revue Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Music of Stevie Wonder, which starred Chaka Khan in the spring of 2002. In addition, Porter conceived and directed Being Alive, a musical celebration that aligns the cannons of Stephen Sondheim and William Shakespeare and combines them with the soulful musical styles of the African-American experience. He is also an NAACP Theatre Award winner for Best Direction of a Musical for his production of Once On This Island at Reprise Theatre Company.
And as a recording artist, Porter’s solo albums include his first CD, Untitled, on A&M records and his sophomore album, At the Corner of Broadway + Soul – LIVE. Another album, Billy’s Back on Broadway, was released in 2014. Porter’s most recent album, The Soul of Richard Rodgers, was released on Sony Masterworks. Porter’s voice can also be heard on the albums A Very Rosie Christmas, Jim
Brickman’s Destiny (a top ten AC hit), Grease (revival cast album) and more.
Porter is a graduate of The Professional Program in Screenwriting at UCLA and is an adjunct professor at his alma mater Carnegie Mellon University’s School Of Drama, where he has directed productions of Company and Letters From ‘Nam. He carries an honorary doctorate from Washington & Jefferson College.
Source: FX Networks
• • • •
-
Rafael Casal to Raise a Glass to the Actors at the Dorians!
Rafael Casal to Honor the Actors at the “Dorians TV Toast 2020 on Revry”
Sexy big and small screen actor Rafael Casal will next be seen in the Blumhouse/Showtime limited series “The Good Lord Bird,” opposite Ethan Hawke, premiering in October. He can currently be seen in Cory Finley and HBO’s Emmy Award-nominated film “Bad Education,” opposite Hugh Jackman. Rafael made his feature film debut in “Blindspotting” in which he wrote, produced and starred. It premiered to critical acclaim at the Sundance and SXSW Film Festivals. It was bought by Lionsgate after a major bidding war. He’s adapting the film into a Series for Starz.
He is also currently writing and preparing to direct the feature “First Sight” for Lionsgate and a Pilot for FX.
Rafael is also well-known to audiences for his work on HBO’s Def Poetry. His digital content and music albums have garnered millions of views and listens. His theatre-in-verse works have been presented at venues across the country and his music has been featured on MTV and Showtime series as well as at the SXSW and the Sundance Film Festivals.
Rafael is the Co-Founder and the Artistic Director of the landmark Bars Workshop at the famed New York City’s Public Theater. He served as the Creative Director for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s First Wave Undergraduate Arts Program and as the Curator for the Line Breaks Festival.
-
Best Unsung TV Show: Fangs In for ‘Shadows’ (and Star Harvey Guillén!)
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS: BEST UNSUNG TV SHOW (FX)THE SHOW@theshadowsfxWhat We Do in the Shadows, based on the feature film by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, documents the nightly exploits of vampire roommates Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), Laszlo (Matt Berry) and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) as they navigate the modern world of Staten Island with the help of their human familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén).Over the course of season two, the vampires try to find their way in a world of human Super Bowl parties, internet trolls, an energy vampire who gets a promotion and becomes drunk on power and of course, all the ghosts, witches, necromancers, zombies and shadowy cloaked assassins who roam freely in the Tri-State area. Is Guillermo destined to be a vampire or a vampire hunter? Or maybe just a familiar for the rest of his life?Clement created the series. Clement, Waititi and Paul Simms are Executive Producers with Scott Rudin, Garrett Basch, Eli Bush and Stefani Robinson. What We Do in the Shadows is produced by FX Productions.ACCEPTING THE DORIAN:HARVEY GUILLÉN, COSTARAs “Guillermo De La Cruz”Twitter: @harveyguillenInstagram: @harveyguillenHarvey Guillén’s acting journey began as a six-year-old watching Annie on TV. He ran over to his mother and said, “I want to be that! I want to be an orphan!” Confused, his mother then explained that those kids were just actors. Guillén’s mother told him in order to be an actor, it would take a lot of money for training—money the financially struggling family did not have. Soon after, Guillén became inspired by a man collecting recyclables out of trash cans to sell to the local recycling center and would go on to do the exact same in order to save for his first acting classes.Guillén has been a series regular on MTV’s Eye Candy and ABC Family’s Huge. He guest starred in the Apple series Little America, HBO’s Room 104 and Don’t Look Too Deep directed by Catherine Hardwick. He also served as a recurring guest star on season three of NBC’s The Good Place and Nickelodeon’s The Thundermans. As for his film credits, he is best known for his supporting role alongside Vince Vaughn, Rose Byrne and Owen Wilson in The Internship in addition to Netflix’s horror film Truth or Dare. Guillén is the recipient of a GLAAD Award for his work on Raising Hope and produced the award- winning LGBTQ+ web series The Filth.
Source: FX -
Funnyface Catherine O’Hara—Our Best TV Actress Pick
CATHERINE O’HARA: Best TV Performance—Actress“Moira Rose” on Schitt’s CreekCanadian acting legend O’Hara, also a recipient of GALECA’s Timeless Star career-achievement honor, started her comedy career in 1974 as a cast member of the famed comedy troupe The Second City in her native Toronto. She was an understudy for Gilda Radner until Radner left for Saturday Night Live. Two years later, the Second City group created the sketch comedy show SCTV, for which O’Hara—along with her future Creek onscreen husband, Eugene Levy—became a regular performer. Her memorable characterizations on the show included Las Vegas scorcher Lola Heatherton, buzzer-happy game show contestant Margaret Meehan, raunchy nightclub comedian Dusty Towne, soap opera seductress Sue Ellen and stage actress Sue Bopper Simpson.In the late 1970s, she provided voice-overs for a number of cartoons, work which would continue throughout her career. During a short time in the early 1980s when SCTV was in between network deals, she was hired to replace Ann Risley when Saturday Night Live was being retooled in 1981. However, she quit the show without ever appearing on air, choosing to go back to SCTV when the show signed on with NBC. Her SNL position was then given to fellow Canadian Robin Duke, who had also replaced O’Hara for a season on SCTV.
O’Hara began her career on television, apart from SCTV, in the mid-1970s. She appeared in the 1976 television film The Rimshots, the children’s television series Coming Up Rosie for a year, and television specials, such as Witch’s Night Out and Intergalactic Thanksgiving. But it was her performances on SCTV that earned her fame in Canada, which is why she returned to the show, not only as an actress but as a writer for both SCTVand SCTV Network 90, which earned her an Emmy Award for outstanding writing and two Emmy Award nominations. She also has written for SCTV Channel.
O’Hara has appeared in a number of television series and television films and continues to work in television. During the ’90s, she made guest appearances on Tales from the Crypt, Oh Baby, Morton & Hayes and The Larry Sanders Show. She served as actress and director on Dream On and The Outer Limits, the revival of the ’60s series of the same name. In the past decade, O’Hara has guest-starred on top-rated television series including Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm. In May 2008, it was announced that she had signed on to star in the upcoming ABC dramedy Good Behavior. Her role in the 2010 television film Temple Grandin earned her three award nominations: a Primetime Emmy Award, a Satellite Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
O’Hara has also had a successful career in film. She made her feature debut in the 1980 film Double Negative, which also starred her SCTV co-stars John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Joe Flaherty. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, O’Hara appeared in many supporting roles, including Martin Scorsese’s After Hours and Heartburn, with Meryl Streep. She had more notable roles in Beetlejuice, the blockbuster hit Home Alone and its sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. In 1992, O’Hara worked alongside Jeff Daniels in the comedy There Goes the Neighborhood. O’Hara continued to appear in many films during the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century. She received roles in four of Christopher Guest’s mockumentary films, three of which earned her awards and nominations: Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration. Her role in 1999’s The Life Before This won her a Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. She also appeared in episodes 6, 10 and 11 on the tenth and final series of the UK Whose Line Is It Anyway? In 2006, she starred with Christina Ricci in the fantasy feature Penelope. O’Hara has served as a voice artist in a number of animated movies, including The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chicken Little, Over the Hedge, Monster House, Brother Bear 2 and Frankenweenie.
On June 9, 2007, O’Hara was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, she spoke at the Closing Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2015 Canada Post placed her image on a postage stamp.
For her funny-faced and funny-voiced turn on Schitt’s Creek—as former soap opera actress Moira Rose Her role has earned her two Canadian Screen Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016 and the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017.
Source: ©2020 AAE Speakers Bureau. All rights reserved.
