Simon Amstell (1979 – ), UK comedian, television presenter, screenwriter and actor

b 29 November 1979.

BAFTA nominated,award-winning English comedian, television presenter, screenwriter and actor, best known for his roles as former co-host of Popworld, former host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks and co-writer and star of the sitcom Grandma's House.

Amstell also performs as a stand up comedian. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe every August 2005–2007 and 2009. He has also appeared at the Carling Festivals in the Cabaret and Comedy tent.

He was named at number 26 on the DS list of the "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011

His groundbreaking quirky, funny, original interviewing technique on Channel 4’s Popworld is still the blueprint for T4’s presenting style. And being gay was not something comedian Simon kept quiet about for long once he became famous. In an interview with notoriously homophobic reggae star Beenie Man, Simon explained he’d just broken up with his boyfriend, and then asked him for a hug. And his role in the presenting seat for Never Mind The Buzzcocks brought him to a whole new audience. Simon used to feature a lot of gay jokes in his stand-up routine but later dropped them. “It feels really old,” he says. “No one cares any more. There are so many homos on TV. It’s why Matt Lucas ended up doing the only gay in the village. It was a twisted coming-out story because the old one is so boring.”

Ryan Murphy – Creator of Glee

b. November 9, 1965

American film and television screenwriter, director, and producer. He is best known for creating/co-creating the television series Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story.

Murphy started his career in television in 1999 with the teen comedy series Popular. The show aired on The WB for two seasons. He is the Golden Globe-winning creator of Nip/Tuck, which aired on FX and was both a commercial and critical hit. One of Murphy's current projects is the FOX musical comedy-drama Glee, co-created with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. In 2011, Murphy and Falchuk co-created the FX horror series American Horror Story, in which the Harmon family moves into a haunted mansion, which debuted on October 5, 2011.

Also in October 2011, it was announced that Murphy, along with Glee co-executive producer Ali Adler, would be co-creating a new half-hour comedy pilot that "centers on a gay couple and the surrogate who will carry their child". According to Entertainment Weekly, there was a bidding war between ABC, NBC, and FOX for the project, with the show going to NBC.

Murphy Murphy grew up in a Catholic household and continues to go to church.He serves on the National Advisory Board of the Young Storytellers Foundation. On June 17, 2011, Murphy announced his engagement to a man he had known for 15 years.

He was named at number 13 on the DS list of the "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011

Not afraid to tackle controversial issues as the creator of Nip/Tuck, former journalist Ryan put the singalong back into mainstream American TV by creating Glee. After two seasons, it’s one of the most watched shows across the world and has spawned more than 100 entries into the American singles chart. Ryan created gay character Kurt and quickly forced him to deal with a crush on a straight guy, wrestle with his sexuality, come out to his father and friends, and then kiss his first love. Phew! Who knows how he’ll follow that up in season three, but we’ll be watching.

Andrew Hayden-Smith (1983 - ), UK. Actor/ TV Presenter

b. 5 November 1983

British actor and television presenter best known for his work with CBBC.

He was named at number 25 on the DS list of the "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011

In 2004, ex-Byker Grove actor and CBBC presenter Andrew did the unthinkable for a young man on kids’ TV – he told the world he was gay. At the risk of being outed by a newspaper, he beat the tabloids to the punch and did an interview with Attitude magazine. “Coming out is pretty scary,” admits Andrew. “It’s bad enough when you’re almost certain that the majority of people around you will be totally cool with it. I was 21 and presenting kids TV at the time and was commended for what everyone kept saying was such a brave step.” It did his career no harm, and he’s proved an inspiration – and eye candy – for young gay men across the country. Andrew’s appeared regularly on stage and in Doctor Who. And best of all, he’s a contributor to Different Scene! Read Andrew’s Different Scene Posts Here.

Antony Cotton – Actor, Coronation Street

b. 5 August 1975

English actor and singer best known for his roles in Coronation Street and the original UK version of Queer as Folk. 

Cotton played Alexander in the original UK version of Queer as Folk. He has also appeared in episodes of Absolutely Fabulous as the character Damon. Cotton currently plays barman and factory worker Sean Tully in Coronation Street. Cotton asked for a part on the show, and created the character with some of the show's writers. 

Antony is a passionate supporter of the Terrence Higgins Trust. He is a patron of the LGF charity in Manchester, The Albert Kennedy Trust and also the Queer Up North festival. On 13 January 2007, Cotton won the second series of ITV's Soapstar Superstar. He donated his winning money, £200,000, to the Elton John Aids Foundation.

He was named at number 33 on the DS list of the "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011:

From Queer as Folk to the Corrie cobbles, soap fans fell in love with Antony’s character Sean Tully when he joined the soap in 2003. The public voted him as the winner of the second series of Soapstar Superstar and he donated his £200,00 prize to the Elton John Aids Foundation.  “When I auditioned for Coronation Street, I thought I couldn’t do what I’d been doing before, which was going into auditions and pretending to be straight,” Antony recalls. “Alexander in Queer As Folk was the first gay part I ever played. If I was going be in Coronation Street, it had to be as a gay character.”

Chris Colfer – Actor, Glee

b. May 27, 1990

American actor and singer known for his portrayal of Kurt Hummel on the television series Glee, for which he won a 2011 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and was also nominated twice for an Emmy.
Colfer was named in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2011

Very few actors, especially ones just out of their teens and in popular shows, are willing to come out so early into their careers. But Glee star Chris would have been forced to act both on and off-camera if he’d wanted to remain in the closet. Instead, the 21-year-old has embraced his sexuality and had us in tears of laugher and sadness playing gay Kurt in the musical comedy drama. He’s fought homophobia, bullying, unrequited love and coming out – and all in just two series. His portrayal won him the 2011 Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor.
“I think it’s extremely important for gay youth out there to see that it’s actually OK and that they are being represented in these shows,” he says.


He was named at number 3 on the DS "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011:

Evan Davis – Broadcaster

b. 8 April 1962

British economist, journalist and presenter for the BBC. In October 2001, Davis took over from Peter Jay as the BBC's economics editor. He left this post in April 2008 to become a presenter on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Evan Davis is also the presenter for the BBC venture-capitalist programme Dragons' Den, as well as The Bottom Line, a business conversation show, also on BBC Radio 4.

He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St John's College, Oxford from 1981 to 1984, before obtaining an MPA at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. After working for a time as an economist, he joined the BBC in 1993, as an economics correspondent. He worked as economics editor on BBC Two's Newsnight programme from 1997 to 2001. In the mid-1990s he was a member of the Social Market Foundation's Advisory Council;he is a member of the British-American Project for a Successor Generation.

Davis is a keen motorcyclist, and was seen riding a Yamaha R6 motorcycle in BBC2's The City Uncovered with Evan Davis. He lives with his partner Guillaume Baltz, a French landscape architect.

He was listed at number 4 on the IOS Pink List for 2010, and at number 38 on the DS list of "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011:

The gently spoken – but highly influential presenter – joined the BBC in 1993 as an economics correspondent and went on to present the Today Programme. But most TV fans know him as the presenter (and only kindly face) in the Dragon’s Den. Away from work, Evan is a keen biker and has been nicknamed Tinsel Tits because of his apparent love of body piercings. 

“Working (in a traditionally macho news environment) has never been a problem for me,” says Evan. “And it would be really good for young gay people to hear that, apart from the depressions and obstacles that are put in their way, there’s actually large swathes of life where you can go and it isn’t an issue.”

Graham Norton – Presenter/ Comedian

b. 4 April 1963

Graham William Walker is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist, known by his stage name Graham Norton. He is the host of the comedy chat show The Graham Norton Show and the BBC commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest.

In 1992 his stand-up comedy drag act in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a tea-towel clad Mother Teresa of Calcutta made the press when Scottish Television's religious affairs department mistakenly thought he represented the real Mother Teresa.

His rise to fame began as one of the early successes of Channel 5, when he won an award for his performance as the stand-in host of a late-night TV talk show usually presented by Jack Docherty. This was followed by a comic quiz show on Channel 5 called Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment. In 1996, Norton co-hosted the late-night quiz show Carnal Knowledge on ITV with Maria McErlane. Norton also played the part of Father Noel Furlong in 3 episodes of the popular Channel 4 series Father Ted in 1996; where he was often seen taking charge of a small youth folk-group.

After this early success, Norton moved to Channel 4 to host his own chat shows including So Graham Norton and V Graham Norton. As a performer who is naturally camp and flamboyant, it was here that Norton's act was fully honed as a cheeky, innuendo-laden joker.

He was named at number 34 on the DS list of the "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011:

It was TV shows like So Graham Norton and V Graham Norton that made the irreverent Irishman a household name. Following in the footsteps of near-to-the-knuckle comedian Julian Clary, Graham was part of a new breed of comics who were openly gay and fused their sexuality with both innuendo and blatantly funny filth to get a laugh. But Graham’s never been one to remain pigeonholed and appeals to a wide demographic. Family audiences accept him in Strictly Dance Fever and Eurovision. And he slipped comfortably into Jonathan Ross’s adult shoes for his Friday night chat show. Fifteen years into his career, and he’s top of his game.

Matt Lucas, Comedian

b.  5 March 1974

An English comedian, screenwriter and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton, and the thief Thénardier in the musical Les Misérables.

On Christmas day 2010 the BBC began showing Matt Lucas and David Walliams' new series, Come Fly with Me. The show followed the familiar style of Walliams and Lucas each playing multiple characters, but unlike Little Britain, it focussed entirely on the working environment of the airline industry.

In December 2006, Lucas entered into a civil partnership with Kevin McGee,[15] in a lavish ceremony in Central London. In attendance were various celebrities, including Barbara Windsor, Neil Tennant, Elton John and Courtney Love.[16] After six years together, the couple divorced through the High Court in 2008, becoming the first high-profile same-sex couple divorce in Britain. On 5 October 2009, Kevin McGee committed suicide, 10 months after the divorce

In May 2007, he was placed eighth in the list of the UK's 100 most influential gays and lesbians, in fields as diverse as entertainment, business, politics, and science, by British newspapers The Independent and The Daily Mail.

In 2011, he was placed at 29 on the DS list of the "50 Most Influential Gays":

For such a funny man, Matt’s life has been marred by sadness. He was completely bald by the age of six, his father died when he was a teenager and his ex-husband Kevin McGee committed suicide two years ago. Yet both Matt and his comedy creations have proved an inspiration for young gay outsiders worldwide. Shooting Stars, Little Britain, Alice in Wonderland and Come Fly With Me have all kept us laughing for more than a decade. He’s an equal opportunities comedian – he’s mocked gays, straights, transvestites and the disabled – and all without causing offence. Matt’s also a huge philanthropist, supporting charities including those involved with leukemia, cystic fibrosis, AIDS and the homelessness.

Ellen DeGeneres

b. January 26, 1958

Popular comedian Ellen DeGeneres was the first openly gay actor to portray a gay character on a leading primetime television program.

"For me, it's that I contributed . . . that I'm on this planet doing some good and making people happy. That's to me the most important thing, that my hour of television is positive and upbeat and an antidote for all the negative stuff going on in life."

In April 1997, Ellen DeGeneres, the star of her own popular sitcom, "Ellen," took a step that was a turning point in her personal life and her career: she outed herself and her character on primetime television. Her coming out led to a storm of media attention, including her photo on the cover of Time Magazine with the tag, "Yep, I'm gay." There was also criticism that the show was now "too gay." For a time after her public declaration, her career suffered from backlash.

DeGeneres returned to the national spotlight when she was chosen to host the Emmy Awards only a few weeks after the September 11 attacks in 2001. At the ceremony she quipped, "We're told to go on living our lives as usual, because to do otherwise is to let the terrorists win, and really, what would upset the Taliban more than a gay woman wearing a suit in front of a room full of Jews?" She was praised for her poise and decorum in emceeing the awards show.

Ellen DeGeneres attended the University of New Orleans and worked at a variety of jobs before she entered stand-up comedy. Her selection by cable channel Showtime as The Funniest Person in America led to opportunities to appear on television. During her first appearance on The Tonight Show, DeGeneres was the first female commedian ever invited to sit on the sofa and visit with Johnny Carson. She has been labeled a "female Seinfeld" for her quirky observational humor.

In 2003 she launched her daytime television talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. It won 15 Emmy Awards and is the first talk show to win the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show for its first three seasons.

In 2005 DeGeneres was again selected to host the Emmy Awards, this time just three weeks after Hurricane Katrina. She joked, "You know me, any excuse to put on a dress."

Bibliography:

• Tracy, Kathleen. Ellen: The Real Story of Ellen DeGeneres, Pinnacle Paperbacks, 2005.
  
• Yahoo! Movies

Selected works by Ellen DeGeneres:

• Here and Now, 2003. (DVD)
  
• My Point... And I Do Have One. Bantam, 1995.
  
• The Funny Thing Is . . . Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Kieron Richardson – Actor, Hollyoaks

born 12 January 1986

English actor best known for playing the role of Ste Hay in Hollyoaks.

He was listed at number 37 on the DS list of "50 Most Influential Gays", 2011:

It was pretty obvious to most of us that behind young Kieron’s toothy grin and chiseled cheekbones was a man who liked the company of other men. When he came out on This Morning in September 2010, he admitted he’d been inspired to by X Factor’s Joe McElderry and by the next day; he’d received 17,000 emails of support. “I’d never seen anyone my age say it before and then when Joe McElderry (number 41 on our list) came out and said it I thought, ‘Maybe I can be young and come out and say I’m gay and it’s not going to affect my career,’” he recalls. “I’d say he helped me in the fact that he was a similar age to me. Seeing him do it really inspired me.” Kieron’s Hollyoaks character Ste has also since come out and a confident, shirtless Kieron recently graced the cover of Gay Times.

Sex-change op in new (UK) TV documentary

(UK) Viewers will see "graphic" footage of sex-change surgery in a new documentary series about the lives of transgender people.Channel 4 show Girls Will Be Boys And Boys Will Be Girls will follow seven people in their everyday lives and also as they gather at a rural retreat to talk through the problems they face. Among the stars of the four-part series are a 52-year-old former police officer called Karen who is about to undergo surgery and Max, from north London, who wants to become the first transgender rabbi.

They are followed by the cameras as they meet other people who have had surgery and go out together to pubs and shops and deal with people's reactions.

-more at  Belfast Telegraph

'Husbands': Gay Marriage Gets the 'Mad About You' Treatment - Alyssa Rosenberg - Entertainment - The Atlantic

Over the last decade, the conversation about equal marriage rights for gay couples has largely centered around responsibility. The push for marriage is about proving that gay people are as—or sometimes even more—capable of monogamy as their heterosexual countrparts. But though setting yourself up as a model minority may be an important way to argue for legal rights, real equality means the right to make mistakes and bad decisions—and to work your way out of them.

That assumption is the basis for Husbands, a new web television series that premieres tomorrow. The show follows the adventure of two out gay men—Cheeks, an actor, and Brady, a professional baseball player—who after dating for six weeks, get drunkenly hitched in Vegas. They decide to stay together, for the cause of marriage equality, and for each other."

Read more at  The Atlantic