Each time I turn on my own television screen and see reflections of myself in other courageous young LGBTQ-identifying actors and artists, I know that the dream is expanding. That would not be possible without LGBTQ Pride. Celebrate yourself, and the world will catch up.
— Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman
Coming of age as a young queer man of color, it was a rarity to see any reflections of myself portrayed in mainstream media. Turning on the television or going to the movies was an escape into the imagination, yet it did not allow me a place of true connection to what I was viewing on the screen in front of me.
I'm grateful to the creative allies behind 'UnReal' who are willing to stand behind disenfranchised communities of people worldwide and help to tell their stories.
I am an 'other.' As a queer, biracial man who occupies and embodies many different intersections of 'otherness,' I've spent my entire life seeking reflections of myself in the world around me to connect and relate to.
It's so important to recognize that there have been fabulous queer artists all throughout our history.
At 16 years old, I was signed to my very first modeling agency. That was my first real introduction to the entertainment industry. It really opened my eyes to a world that was available to me.
I love my blackness... I love my queerness.
I just never wanted to be in a position where I wouldn't be able to walk down the street holding my partner's hand.
You can put an extra coat of paint on a jalopy, but it's still a jalopy.
I am a flea market junkie! Every city I go to, I'll be sure to look up when and where the biggest and best markets are nearby.
The history of slavery in this country has affected not only how black people see themselves, but how white people see black people as well, and the roles they're meant to play... I'm aware of it, as a person of color.
'UnREAL' has always been provocative and bitingly honest, which makes the show what it is.
I feel like, for so many years in the industry, LGBT-identifying actors were told to play small or water themselves down or 'butch it up,' whether you're a male and you're only going out for straight characters because gay characters aren't being written, or you're a woman and you're told to 'femme it up' to play the leading lady role.
Every fan interaction I have when someone tells me they can look to their television screens and see themselves reflected in me is a dream come true.
I watched some shows like 'The Simple Life' and 'The Anna Nicole Smith Show,' but I hadn't really watched 'The Bachelor' until I was cast on 'UnReal.'
The entertainment industry is a microcosm of the real world. To be 'othered' within the industry is a reflection of where we have been cast in the outside world, existing in the margins of society for decades witnessing cisgendered, heterosexual whiteness as the clearly defined default to which we must cater.
I think that Linda Perry is such a beautiful example of strong female representation in the industry.
A couple of my favorite podcasts are 'Still Processing' from 'The New York Times,' Oprah's 'Super Soul Conversations,' RuPaul's 'What's the Tee?'
I never really felt like I quite fit in. Other boys were playing sports and into hunting and stereotypically masculine activities. I was always more attracted to the arts. I loved to dance, I loved to sing, and I always knew I would be an actor. I don't really know why.
As an actor, it was important to me to play gay characters because, growing up, it was something I never really saw done on television and in film, and I was questioning why there weren't more people like me.
You know, in this industry, being an openly queer actor or entertainer, you can play the game your way, or you can play it the industry's way. And I decided to play it my way. I played it the industry's way far too long.
From the most remote of villages to the largest metropolitan cities, we, as a species, have the same internal need to be seen, heard, and validated. It is the most human of traits that I have witnessed and experienced the world over.
I'm the type of person who far prefers a vacation filled with trips to museums and art galleries, shopping and exploring vintage flea markets, people-watching at cafes, and discovering delicious restaurants as opposed to lounging on a beach for days on end.
People are scared of the unknown.
Sometimes in order for change to be made in a positive fashion, we must force ourselves to look unblinkingly at painful realities and reevaluate.
The more queer characters I play over my years of working as an actor, and the more I see other young artists stepping up with the same intention I have, to make space for the voices of a generation of people who may not fit the status-quo, the more it inspires me to keep going.
When you're surrounded by a world of constant lies, manipulation, and deceit, that dark energy is bound to seep into you eventually.
People often ask me why I choose to primarily play queer characters, and my answer is that as a queer man, I choose to align myself with projects in which I can be of service for a purpose greater than myself: to be for an audience of queer people of color, something I didn't have the privilege of seeing as a young man.
It's important to be able to have representation for black queer women, because I feel like there's not much representation for them in the mainstream.
At 21 years old, I found myself in Vancouver, and that's where I got the part for my first movie. I was sitting in a restaurant, and the director came up to me and asked me to read for his film. I really took it with a grain of salt. It was the creepiest casting situation, probably. It turned out that it wasn't.
My father is from Jamaica, my mother is from the U.K., but I was adopted as an infant by a really wonderful family in Alberta, Canada. What we refer to as 'Texas of the North.'
I had examples from a very young age of gay actors or personalities coming out in late '90s and early 2000s who faced a lot of backlash and didn't have a lot of support and risked ruining their careers.
I knew that I wanted to primarily play queer characters.
So many of my friends and family will go to Palm Springs as their weekend getaway destination, but when I need a break from Los Angeles, I'll head to Joshua Tree instead. There's something so magical about the energy of the Mojave Desert.
It really is systematic oppression that is so deeply ingrained into the very fabric of American society... Shedding a light on it, in whatever way possible, is the only way to create change.
I feel like people are so eager and willing to accept the concept of females being bisexual and having it be a very natural thing, but as soon as a male proclaims himself as bisexual, we automatically dismiss it and say, 'No, he's just gay.'
The very nature of 'UnREAL' is that we are provocative, uncensored, and brutally tactless.
