Dyllón Burnside (born January 27, 1989) is an American actor and singer. He is known for his role as Ricky Evangelista, a dancer, in the FXtelevision seriesPose.[1][2]
Career
Burnside got his first start at age 12 when he performed as the lead singer of hip-hop/R&Bboy band “3D” with 2 of his cousins and managed by his mother, touring with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Rihanna, with a distribution deal with Atlantic Records and performing in venues including Madison Square Garden and the Nokia Theater.[3][4] After 10 years, he began feeling constricted by fronting a boy band and wanted to explore arts less traditionally masculine: "The things that I was interested in didn’t necessarily align with my family’s or society’s idea of what it meant to be a man. ... I can still be a male and sing Mozart or take a ballet class and that it not have anything to do with anything other than I wanted to take a ballet class."[4] As a result, he enrolled at the CAP21conservatory to take a vocal major, moved to New York City and took acting and dance classes[3][4] including studying for a bachelor's degree in media studies and writing from The New School.[3]
Burnside has also worked as a film producer on the award-winning shortThe Jump and as theatrical producer on Hold Up The Light at the non-profit Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.[3] He has also taught performing arts workshops and has spoken at schools about how studying performing arts can be empowering and help young people find their means of self-expression.[3]
In July 2021, in the same period the final episode of Pose was aired, it was released the musical single Heaven featuring the British singer Daley, written in February 2021 as a celebration of LGBTQ love.[11] In the same month Burnside was featured in the fourth episode of the anthology TV series American Horror Stories by Murphy&Falchuk.[11] In Fall 2021 he came back on Broadway stage as one of the seven Afroamerican leads of the show Thoughts of a Colored Man.[11][5]
Personal life
Burnside grew up on a ranch in Pensacola, Florida.[3] His family raised farm animals including: chickens, cows, horses and pigs.
Burnside has spoken about toxic masculinity: "All of the work that I seek to do and the work I want to do is about pushing the boundaries or blurring the lines of what it means to be a man. I think manhood as a construct is very dangerous and has caused a lot of pain and destruction in our world"[4] and recognises the importance of Pose for representing LGBTQ people of color.[6][12] For National Coming Out Day 2019, he wrote about the importance of acceptance and representation, "which is why I stand so firmly in my truth and speak openly about my experience".[13] He has described influences including bell hooks, James Baldwin, Eckhart Tolle and Marianne Williamson,[4] as well as gospel music being a part of going to church that spoke to him.[4]
In an interview for Men's Health magazine in September 2020, Burnside described his identity as "queer, not gay", describing that he has had "relationships — romantic and sexual — with women as well as men", adding that "for me, queerness is about understanding that I exist outside of the sexual binary of just gay or straight".[14][15]
^Roschke, Ryan (July 21, 2018). "Pose Is Actually Changing People's Lives, and Dyllón Burnside Has Proof". PopSugar. Retrieved August 26, 2018. We've seen the painful kind of love. We've seen the closet cases and the DL brothers. And we've seen interracial couples. But we haven't seen two black queer boys trying to figure out what it means to be attracted to each other and to have intimate feelings for each other, and to kind of figure out what to do with those things.
^Burnside, Dyllón (October 11, 2019). "I encourage every one of you to live your most full, authentic and fulfilling life. ..." Archived from the original on December 26, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2019 – via Instagram. I encourage every one of you to live your most full, authentic and fulfilling life. I believe coming out is a truly personal and individual journey. I look forward to the day when no child or adult feels the pressure of having to explain their identity and existence for the comfort of the masses. That being said, I also recognize the need for visibility and representation, which is why I stand so firmly in my truth and speak openly about my experience. Grateful for this day and what it represents but will be even more grateful when it's no longer necessary.
^"Queer Black and Brilliant: Dyllón Burnside and the art of Self". Men's Health Friday Sessions. September 11, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020 – via Instagram. I just want to assert that I identify as queer, not gay. Some might think it's semantics but for me it's important. ... My experience of my sexuality has been one that is a bit more fluid and a bit more complex than just identifying as gay. I've dated women and have had many relationships — romantic and sexual — with women as well as men. But I don't identify as bisexual. And I think that, the more that we understand sexuality as something that exists on a spectrum and is not so black-and-white, the more we can better understand humanity as a whole. And so, for me, the term queer just opens up space. It opens up space in our language and language is a technology, a technology by which we come to understand the world. And so I think, for me, queerness is about understanding that I exist outside of the sexual binary of just gay or straight.
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