Today's Out Spotlight is an American actor who has earned him 3 nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He is also a voice from Hollywood supporting the LGBT community. Today's Out Spotlight is Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson was born October 22, 1975 in Missoula, Montana, and then moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was raised. At the age of eight he decided to become an actor, and joined the Albuquerque Children's Theater, where he was a member for six years. In high school Ferguson played Albert Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie, and General Bullmoose in Li'l Abner. He also joined his high school speech and debate team, and worked as a dancer/singer at Cliff's Amusement Park.
Ferguson graduated from St. Pius X high school in 1994 and attended The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York City. His professional career began in New York where he worked mainly in off-Broadway and Broadway shows, including the Tony Award-winning, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, where he originated the role of Leaf Coneybear.
He received a 2005 Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Performance in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
Ferguson's experience with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
has been fulfilling, as he says of Leaf, “He is very close to who I am
because I helped to create him...I was, as a child a very shy, awkward
kid. I was artistic and creative but I didn't have very good social
skills. I sometimes think that I still don't!....so all that is
definitely part of who Leaf is." However, “I am a horrible speller and
am in constant fear that I am going to spell one of the memorized words
wrong in the show. I actually spelled ‘vulpine’ wrong one night. It
came a part in the show when we are rapidly moving through spelling
words...we just pretended that it didn't happen, and hopefully no one
noticed.”
He has appeared in the films Untraceable and Ordinary Sinner, on the TV shows The Class, Ugly Betty, Sally Hemings: An American Scandal, Mercury In Retrograve and the Rosie O’Donnell show.
He has also performed in the musicals Cinderella, Peter Pan, The King and I, Annie Get Your Gun, Hello Dolly!, The Boys from Syracuse, Rhythm Club, Summer of '42, On the Town, Newyorkers, Little Fish, twice in Hair, and Embarassments.
Ferguson has also appeared in the plays Corpus Christi, Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Kean, The SantaLand Diaries, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Where Do We Live? and Comedy of Errors.
In the summer of 2007, Ferguson starred in the Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. He was honored with a 2008 Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Performance for his performance.
Most know Ferguson from his most current role, where he plays the role of Mitchell Pritchett, the openly gay lawyer on the acclaimed ABC sitcom Modern Family. For his performance, he has received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (2010, 2011 and 2012).
He has been a involved member of the LGBT community and voice from the Hollywood community for LGBT rights. In March 2012, he was featured in a performance of Dustin Lance Black's play, 8 – a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage – as Dr. Ilan Meyer. The production was held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, a non-profit organization funding the plaintiffs' legal team and sponsoring the play.
Ferguson was on the March 6, 2012 episode of Piers Morgan Tonight commenting on Kirk Cameron's remarks
in which Cameron called homosexuality unnatural and "detrimental to
society", Ferguson said "The only unnatural thing about me being gay is
that I had a crush on Kirk Cameron until about 24 hours ago."
This past week, he announced his engagement to lawyer Justin Mikita, his boyfriend of nearly two years. He made the
announcement in a video that also marked the launch of a new foundation
called TieTheKnot.org, which advocates for bow ties and marriage equality.
10 comments:
Love, love, love Modern Family. That show has me laughing out loud more times than not. So happy to hear that he and his boyfriend are getting married. I've followed Jesse on twitter for a long time.
Fantastic article, one of my favorite actors forever. Jake is my #1...loving his new movie!
It is looking more likely that EoW will be tied for #1 for the weekend. At 13 million it isn't a giant box office, but it has already covered it's production budget and by next weekend will probably cover both production and their promotion budget of $20 million.
"Jake Gyllenhaal's Hair: Blessing or Curse?"
BoxOffice.com
Deadline Hollywood is saying EoW is #1 at the box office this weekend.
SUNDAY PM UPDATE: That’s the pecking order before Monday actuals, according to my sources.
This was one of those weekends which can only be described as box office hell for me. Because the three top pics were neck-and-neck for #1 this weekend. Final flick order came down to Sunday late shows on the West Coast with Open Road’s End Of Watch easily placing #1 with $13+M.
There’s still a battle for 2nd place after Relativity’s The House At The End of The Street came in way under their estimate, while Warner Bros’ Trouble With The Curve came in a little below their estimate as well.....
Still fledgling Open Road’s handheld-camera End Of Watch (2,730 theaters) started #3 , then went to #2, and then bumped up to #1 by weekend’s end.
The small distributor was even getting congratulatory calls from competitors. The pic’s top position is a surprise considering it’s R-rated which limits its grosses, it’s playing in less theaters than rivals, and it’s starring Jake Gyllenhaal who’s been box office poison for major studio flick openings
Deadline
Great to see Jake's movie do well, although it was also a very bad weekend overall at the box office. Hopefully the film will have legs and make some decent money.
I love Modern Family and JTF. He and his boyfriend make a nice couple, and they're cute in their bow ties. It was nice the way the interviewers covering the Emmy's kept congratulating him on his engagement.
If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet is a not nearly enthralling enough head scratcher by acclaimed British playwright Nick Payne, but it has some intriguing relationships, all stammering at cross purposes.
Brian F. O'Byrne is an academic who concerns himself with global warming, but not with the apparent melting down of his own family.
In comes his returning younger brother Terry, played by Jake Gyllenhaal in a T-shirt, chain necklace, jeans, sweater-around the-waist, facial hair, and quite good British accent.
This is Jake's American stage debut, and he's very effective, using lots of physicality for the stoner character, plumbing the guy's awkward well-meaning quality and potentially darker instincts as he reconnects with his bullied niece (Annie Funke).
If he were some unknown, Jake's definitely the kind of actor about whom you'd say, "Wow, he should be a movie star."
And he's competing with all the elements here.
Throughout the play, the cast throws pieces of furniture into a canal in front of the stage, and by the end--as you may have heard--the water seeps onto the stage as O'Byrne wonders, "Are we worth saving if we're not prepared to change?"
Yes--if Jake Gylenhaal is part of the human race.
He--and the rest of the cast--take their curtain call ankle deep in water.
That's dedication.
AUSTIN NICHOLS @AUS10NICHOLS
I know this slammin hot babe, @SophiaBush. Her new show is on tonight on CBS. Watch it or I will hunt you down.
1:01 PM - 24 Sep 12 · Details
brittany beasley @beazkneez27
No big deal...@AUS10NICHOLS thinks I'm cute @katiebott4 @jamiecrawf @Lanirae8 http://pic.twitter.com/4VaMRyLA
5:35 PM - 24 Sep 12 ·
@Aus10Nichols
Wow. You are real cute. Let the hunting begin.
DirectMessage
Funny that Austin calls his "ex" slammin hot, the same one who broke up with him by telling the media he wasn't "the one" and she was moving on. There's something wrong with this picture. If only all ex's could get along so well.
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