GLAAD today announced that Ben Platt, Tony Award-winning star of Netflix’s The Politician, will perform at the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York. GLAAD also announced that special guests comedian and correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Jaboukie Young-White, the cast of Pose, and Schitt’s Creek star Emily Hampshire will attend the New York ceremony at the Hilton Midtown on Thursday, March 19.
GLAAD previously announced that award-winning actress, producer, and activist Judith Light will be honored with the Excellence in Media Award and award-winning screenwriter, producer, and director Ryan Murphy will be honored with the Vito Russo Award at the New York ceremony. Lilly Singh, openly bisexual executive producer and host of NBC’s A Little Late with Lilly Singh, will serve as host of the Awards.
Award-winning actor, singer, and songwriter Ben Platt is an Atlantic Records recording artist and dropped his critically acclaimed debut album Sing To Me Instead in March 2019. Platt recently performed the album and other songs to a sold out crowd at Radio City Musical Hall, which was filmed for a Netflix special being released this spring.
Platt is currently filming season two of the highly popular Netflix series by Ryan Murphy, The Politician, in which he stars and serves as Executive Producer. Platt’s performance in season one earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and the show received a nomination for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. The Politician is also nominated for a GLAAD Media Award this year. In an interview with Pink News in September 2019, Platt commented on the forward-thinking approach to LGBTQ representation in The Politician: “I think it’s really important that Ryan [Murphy] has portrayed this Utopian society that hopefully we’re headed towards, where everybody falls somewhere along the spectrum of sexuality, everyone’s a little bit queer, and no one feels the need to discuss it or label it.”
From December 2016 to November 2017, Platt starred as the title role in Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. Platt won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his performance as Evan Hansen, as well as the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance, making him the youngest actor to win the coveted award. Additionally, Dear Evan Hansen won the Tony award for Best Musical and the cast recording took home the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album.
The 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards honor media for fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of LGBTQ people and issues. The 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards are presented by Delta, Gilead, Hyundai, and Ketel One Family-Made Vodka. Taylor Swift will receive the Vanguard Award and Janet Mock will receive the Stephen F. Kolzak Award at the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 16.
GLAAD recently announced over 175 nominees in 30 categories for the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards, including the returning category for Outstanding Broadway Production. The Outstanding Kids & Family Programming category expanded to ten nominees as a result of an increase in LGBTQ images across the kids and family television programming and an increase in GLAAD’s work to advocate for inclusion in this genre. GLAAD also announced Special Recognition honors for Netflix’s Special and for pioneering LGBTQ journalists Karen Ocamb and Mark Segal. For a full list of nominees for the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards, click here.
To purchase tickets for the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards, please visit /mediaawards/31/tickets.