executive producer & senior director TIM SNOW @snowmgz
creative director RAINE BASCOS
photographer COYOTE PARK coyotepark.format.com @coyotepark
1st assistant MASON ROSE masonrose.photography @masonrose__
light tech EVADNE GONZALEZ @evadnegonzalez
digitech MERLIN VIETHEN
video AUSTIN NUNES austinunes.com @austinunes
producer STEVIE WILLIAMS x2production.com @beingstevie of X2 Production
set designer ORRIN WHALEN orrinwhalen.com @orrinwhalen
art assistant BRANDON LOYD @ohmylord
stylist EDWIN ORTEGA edwinortega.com @edwin.j.ortega
styling assistant BROOKE MUNFORD @brookesquad
hair/groomer ABRAHAM ESPARZA abrahamjesparza.com @thisisbabe
manicurist RILEY MIRANDA @rileymiranda.nails
When Jerrod Carmichael arrived at the Emmys this year, he sported an absurdly large, open-chested fur coat. Historically at events, the comedian has worn variations on a black suit to be “a little less conspicuous.” But on this recent red carpet, dressed in a splashy showpiece that highlighted a golden necklace and shimmering chest…we all saw him.
And when the 35-year-old arrives on set for his Out100 cover shoot — in shorts and a wrestling championship belt in hand — I see him too. Carmichael isn’t an aloof Hollywood player. Rather, he’s terrified at times — and willing to admit it — including at the responsibility of being the cover star of a queer magazine.
“I feel very new,” he admits. Ask him about the obstacles he’s overcome this year, and he stammers. Even the question is a bit much. “My legs started shaking with fear,” he says. “I want to coil up and take a nap.”
For the actor, producer, and comedian, 2022 was a pivotal year. With the release of his Emmy-winning Netflix stand-up comedy special Rothaniel, Carmichael accomplished something he’d been afraid to do for years. He came out to his audience — and the world. He knew, in that moment, it was time.
“Sometimes you find a moment where you can face it,” he says. “That’s the hard thing, just consistently facing things. You just kind of leap. It’s kind of like a roller coaster or skydiving, where it’s going to be scary and big but you’re accepting it’s not going to kill you. It’s how I kind of learned how to swim, knowing the water is not trying to kill me.”
Carmichael makes clear he’s a work in progress — just like his coming out. This journey began in 2019 when he admitted in his Home Videos documentary that he’d hooked up with men before, though he stopped short of labels. But fans have been seeing him since NBC’s The Carmichael Show, which from 2015 to 2017 was the smartest and most politically charged sitcom on network TV.
“I always think about that as just a fun experiment,” Carmichael recalls. In classic sitcom style, the characters (loosely fictionalized versions of Carmichael’s family) represented different archetypes of Black thought. They tackled tough topics like Black Lives Matter protests and LGBTQ+ rights with humor. Still, the show was snuffed out after three seasons.
“I really don’t know where else it could have gone,” admits Carmichael, the co-creator and lead actor. “I think I maxed out on where I was in life, the conversations I could have, and those battles I was having with my family. Sitcoms, for me, they’re really exciting when they’re about something real — and then it can get diluted.” Of the 32 episodes that aired, the star liked 23 of them. “That was good. Only me and the creator of [The Honeymooners] can just feel so satisfied on so few episodes.”
And while Carmichael surprised scores of viewers at home and in the studio audience with stories of authenticity and grounded relationships, he really had an audience of one in mind.
“I was always trying to get my mom to stop washing the dishes,” he says. “…And if something on TV caught her attention, she would peek her head in the room. And I was always writing to that, trying to…be something that could cut through and be real enough to get her to peek her head in and hear me.”
“Comedians, no matter what the age, always make and create with the idea of the approval of someone in mind,” he says. “And usually, it’s our parents.”
“I’m thankful that my eternal quest has been to try and change my parents’ mind,” he adds. “And in some way, while I’m in desperate need of that approval, I feel free from it. I’m free — and I’m desperately trying to get it back always so it just makes for some weird, wild stuff.”
For most, coming out is an individual accomplishment. But from to the Emmys, Carmichael is negotiating his
