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
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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 -
Shangela’s Here! DragRace Superstar Raises a Glass to Best TV Movie / Limited Series
Shangela’s Here! DragRace Superstar Raises a Glass to TV Movie / Limited Series at the Dorians TV Toast 2020 on Revry
“We’re Here” on Netflix is breaking down barriers but that’s nothing for D.J. Pierce, aka Shangela. Shangela rose to fame as the only contestant to compete on three separate seasons of the Emmy-award winning reality series Rupaul’s Drag Race (seasons 2, 3 and All Stars 3) and has gone on to feature films, tv series and more.
As an actor, Shangela (aka D.J. Pierce) has guest starred on network television shows like “2 Broke Girls,” “Glee,” “Bones,” “The Mentalist,” “X-Files,” and more. She has appeared in films including “Hurricane Bianca” (2016), ”Kiss Me, Kill Me” (2015), “Hurricane Bianca 2” and “A Star Is Born” with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. In 2012, she co-starred with Jenifer Lewis in a four-part scripted YouTube series called “Jenifer Lewis and Shangela.”
Pierce continues to climb in notoriety. He has been named one of OUT Magazine’s “100 Most Compelling People” and in 2015 was featured on Forbes.com for his drag management company Say What Entertainment. In 2018, Shangela was honored with the Rising Star Award by the LGBT Music Festival for his global contributions in performance and music.
He has written and released music (including the smash hit “Werqin Girl”), performed alongside Miley Cyrus on the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, co-produced the successful Werq The World tour as creative director and will tour his newest self-written stand up comedy show “Shook” in 2018. As Shangela, he has performed on six of the seven continents, and has sights set on Antarctica next!
A native of Paris, Texas, Pierce graduated with honors from Southern Methodist University and currently resides in Los Angeles. He is involved in various charity work and remains a member of the SAG-Aftra Union.
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Hugh Jackman—’Bad’ Star, Winning Actor
Hugh Jackman: Best TV Performance—ActorFor the HBO TV movie Bad Education, in which he played Frank Tassone, a true-life school superintendent who wound up imprisoned for embezzling millions of dollars from his district in 2004.Jackman is an Academy Award® nominated, Golden Globe and Tony Award winning actor. From his turn on Broadway as the 1970’s singer/songwriter Peter Allen, to his metal claw-wielding Wolverine in the X-MEN franchise, Jackman has proven to be one of the most versatile actors of our time. In addition to his acting work, Hugh serves as an ambassador for World Vision Australia.
In 2009, he traveled to Ethiopia to visit a community development project and met a young coffee farmer named Dukale, working to lift his family out of poverty. Inspired by Dukale’s story, Jackman launched Laughing Man Coffee in 2011 to provide a marketplace for farmers in developing countries to sell their goods to consumers in the U.S. As part of his ongoing commitment, Hugh contributes 100% of his profits to the Laughing Man Foundation, which he created to support educational programs, community development and social entrepreneurs around the world
Hugh Jackman has made an impression on audiences of all ages with his multi-hyphenate career persona, as successful on stage in front of live crowds as he is on film. From his award-winning turn on Broadway as the 1970s singer/songwriter Peter Allen, to his metal claw-wielding Wolverine in the blockbuster X-Men franchise, Jackman has proven to be one of the most versatile actors of our time.
Jackman garnered his first Academy Award® nomination, for Best Actor, for his performance in Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, based on the popular stage show created from Victor Hugo’s famous novel of the same name (essaying Jean Valjean in the musical drama also landed him a Dorian nomination in 2010). Jackman’s standout performance as protagonist Jean Valjean also earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical, as well as Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award® nominations, for both Best Ensemble and Best Male Actor in a Leading Role, and a BAFTA Award nomination.
Most recently, he was nominated for his role as P.T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman. Sales for the soundtrack to the film have broken records the world over and reached multi-platinum status in many countries including the UK and America.
Other eye-filling movie credits: Director Baz Lurhmann’s rip-roaring WWII-era adventure Australia with Nicole Kidman and 2017’s award-winning period blockbuster The Greatest Showman (in which he sold it as P.T. Barnum).
A former high school rugby and swim team star, Jackman today lets off his steam playing the piano and practicing yoga and Transcendental Mediation. He’s also an advisor to the Global Poverty Project, a huge supporter of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and helps the environment with proceeds from his Laughing Man coffee brand.Next up: A Broadway revival of The Music Man (if all goes as planned) and the futuristic sci-fi tale Reminiscence with Thandie Newton and rising star Rebecca Ferguson (The Girl on the Train).Twitter: @RealHughJackmanInstagram: @thehughjackmanSources: AEG publicity, Laughing Man coffee publicity, GALECA.org.
