Attitude Culture Award: Tituss Burgess
'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' star Tituss Burgess is having a 'Lemonade' moment all of his own.
By Steve Brown
Tituss Burgess has been awarded the Culture Award supported by Virgin Holidays at the Virgin Holidays Attitude Awards 2018, powered by Jaguar.
The irrepresible star of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmid made his first TV appearance in Tina Fey’s 40 Rock and the two became close friends, which is how he landed the role of Titus Andromedon in the hit Netflix series.
It’s a pairing that’s paid off : Tituss has been nominated for an Emmy for the best supporting actor in a comedy series for the past four years, with 18 nominations for the show in total, a 97 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and one critic calling it “the first great sitcom of the streaming era.”
Tituss is part of a generation of actor’s finally being celebrated for their individuality – but the 39-year-old had to fight tooth and nail against industry oppression to get there.
“All I wanted was to be a Broadway star. But I began to feel stagnant,” he explains in Attitude’s November Awards issue.
“Despite the prowess of my voice, and how high it is, I was being cast as more of a sidekick than a leading man.”
He goes on: “I wasn’t white, I wasn’t a size 32 and I wasn’t tall. There were only a couple of things people were willing to let me do, so I thought, ‘No, no, no; you will not box me in’.
“I needed to figure out another medium, so I meditated on it until I found something worth chasing, which turned out to be TV.”
Read more about the winners from the Virgin Holidays Attitude Awards 2018, powered by Jaguar in the November Awards issue of Attitude, out now.
Buy now and take advantage of our best-ever subscription offers: 3 issues for £3 in print, 13 issues for £19.99 to download to any device.
