Star actress Amiyah Scott to receive Rising Star Award from Pose actress Angelica Ross at GLAAD Atlanta Gala

Actress and Recording Artist Kat Graham to host annual event celebrating LGBTQ Southerners on November 9

November 08, 2018 – GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, today announced that Amiyah Scott, transgender advocate and actress on FOX’s Star will be honored at the 2018 GLAAD Atlanta Gala event on Friday, November 9 at The Estate (3109 Piedmont St.). GLAAD Atlanta is a celebration of national and local leaders accelerating LGBTQ acceptance and will be hosted by actress and recording artist Kat Graham.

The GLAAD Atlanta Gala will also include appearances by Walking Dead actor Daniel Newman, TV news host Thomas Roberts, author Michelle LeClair, singer Tena Clarke, reality star and singer Jermaine Sellers, and a performance from the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus.

The GLAAD Atlanta Gala is supported by presenting partners Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Ketel One Family-Made Vodka and Turner, community partners Active Production & Design, Atlantic American/Gray Television, Georgia Power, Mercedes-Benz USA, and Wells Fargo.

For more information: /events/2018/atlanta

Amiyah Scott plays Cotton on Lee Daniel’s FOX series Star and will receive GLAAD’s Rising Star Award, which is given to young artists who are use their platforms to accelerate LGBTQ acceptance. The inaugural award was presented to actor Tommy Dorfman last year at the event.

Angelica Ross, who stars on FX’s Pose, will present the award to her friend Amiyah Scott.

Scott is the first transgender women of color to play a regular character in a scripted drama series on broadcast television.  Originally from New Orleans, she first made her mark as a teenager, blazing a trail through the city’s underground ballroom scene. Having overcome bullying and intimidation to emerge as a proud advocate for the LGBTQ community, she continues to focus her efforts on providing transgender females a voice.  Most recently she joined Laverne Cox, Janet Mock and other transgender leaders to speak out against the Trump Administration’s reported anti-transgender proposal.

“Amiyah Scott is a talented actress and brilliant advocate who uses her voice to uplift transgender women of color and educate fans everywhere about transgender people and issues,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “At a time when LGBTQ visibility in the South is critical to moving our community forward, we are proud to stand with women like Amiyah to promote messages of love and acceptance.”

Angelica Ross stars as Candy on Pose and is a part of television history as the show features the largest transgender cast ever for a scripted series.  Ross is also the President of Miss Ross, Inc. and founder of TransTech Social Enterprises, an organization that helps people lift themselves out of poverty through technical training and digital work creating a social impact and bringing economic empowerment to marginalized trans and LGBTQ communities.

Host of the GLAAD Atlanta Gala Kat Graham said:
“I have been supporting and working with GLAAD for a decade. The work that this incredible organization has done has helped so many lives. GLAAD does everything from fighting for equal rights for the LGBTQ community, to ensuring that film and television are more inclusive by shaping the media narratives.  Their focus on representation of the community to push the agenda of accelerating acceptance, is one of the many reasons GLAAD is so powerful. I have been on the GLAAD Georgia committee since 2012. It is an honor to host this year’s gala in my home state, and work with our community directly to better protect the lives and rights of the LGBTQ community locally and globally. Now is the time more than ever to support GLAAD and their initiatives.”

Graham is an actress, singer, dancer and producer. Working across a variety of genres in film, television and music, she is one of most accomplished and versatile young talents working today.  Most recently, she starred in Netflix’s Holiday Calendar and she also starred in Netflix’s mystery thriller “How It Ends” as Samantha. Graham starred as Jada Pinkett in the Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me and starred for several years on the CW’s hit drama The Vampire Diaries. In 2017, Graham released her second album, “Love Music, Funk Magic.”

For more information, visit glaad.org/atlanta.