AWARDS shows including the Oscars and Emmys are being called out by media outlets to finally do what the Grammys, Brits, and MTV Movie Awards have already done: drop their gendered categories. With the new crop of LGBTQ+, nonbinary, and gender-fluid actors appearing on movie and television screens, that request is more germane than ever. Many out performers — like the ones profiled here — refuse to consign themselves to one gender or hide any aspect of who they love or the causes they champion. It is now the age when queer actors like Kristen Stewart and Ariana DeBose are smashing down doors by merely being nominated in their categories at the Oscars in 2022, and when Billy Eichner can assemble an entirely LGBTQ+ cast for a major Hollywood comedy. Those who are proudly out are working to dissolve the celluloid closet so that upstart queer actors may blossom, personally and professionally, in a way never previously witnessed.
Jeff Hiller
Actor and comedian Jeff Hiller can finally quit his myriad day jobs, now that HBO’s offbeat hit Somebody Somewhere is being renewed for a second season.
“Oprah convinced me — not personally, of course — to move to New York over 20 years ago to pursue my dream of becoming an actor,” Hiller recalls with his bubbly sense of humor. “And since I’ve arrived, I’ve toiled in numerous odd jobs to pay the bills.”
Hiller says he could write an entire essay about all the jobs he’s worked to get where he is today. “I worked for the college boards and was a costumed character for a while at the famous Manhattan Jekyll & Hyde club. I also did tons of clerical jobs, worked at…famous chains like Barnes & Noble and the Olive Garden as a waiter. I taught CPR, was a waiter again, and taught improv classes to students,
