What is Billy Porter’s net worth? Meet the host of Black & Iconic: Style Gods 

Billy Porter
Emmy winner, Billy Porter is set to host Black + Iconic: Style Gods is set to premiere on Saturday, February 18, 2023, at 9 pm ET/PT only on BET network (Image via Instagram/@theebillyporter)

Grammy, Emmy, and Tony award winner and Golden Globe-nominated actor Billy Porter will be hosting BET network's upcoming documentary series, Black & Iconic: Style Gods, set to premiere on February 18, 2023, at 9 pm ET/PT. As per Celebrity Net Worth, Porter has a net worth of $4 million.

Produced by Emmy award-winning producer Stanley Nelson and Firelight Films, the four-part, eight-hour original BET documentary series will highlight the influence of black cultural innovators and the historic achievements of black people in a variety of sectors.

Executive producers Connie Orlando and Jason Samuels created Black & Iconic: Style Gods for BET, with senior supervising producer Steven Ramey.


Host Billy Porter is a two-time Tony award-winner and a queer icon

Emmy award winner Billy Porter, 53, has already established himself as a highly recognizable progressive figure in the entertainment sector with his powerful performances in shows like Pose and his bold design choices that challenge gender stereotypes.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Billy Porter was raised by his mother, Cloerinda Ford. He attended Taylor Allderdice High School and the Pittsburgh School for the Creative and Performing Arts, where he studied acting, music, and dance. Later, he studied at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University School of Theatre, where he received his degree in 1991.

Porter was hired to be a member of Miss Saigon's ensemble in 1991. The production went on to win three Tony Awards and became one of the longest-running Broadway productions ever.

Billy Porter proceeded to make appearances in several Broadway musicals throughout the 1990s, including Smokey Joe's Café, Five Men Named Moe, and the 1994 revival of Grease, in which he played Teen Angel.

He also stood first in the 1992 Star Search talent competition, and even put out a self-titled R&B album with A&M Records in 1997.

Beginning in 2000, Porter took a break from performing on Broadway to direct plays like Once on This Island in Los Angeles, the revival of George C. Wolfe's play The Colored Museum, and the musical revue Being Alive at the Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Billy Porter created the solo performance piece Ghetto Superstar, which he presented for the first time in 2005 at the Public Theater in New York City. Porter later made appearances in the Pittsburgh premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog and the 2010 Signature Theater off-Broadway revival of Angels in America, where he portrayed Belize.

Porter made his comeback to Broadway in 2013 with the musical Kinky Boots, where he essayed the role of Lola. For his performance, he was honored with the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater CD, the Outstanding Actor in a Musical Drama Desk Award, and the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Billy Porter went on to write the semi-autobiographical play While I Yet Live, which had its world premiere at Primary Stages in New York City in 2014. He also performed in the 2016 Broadway production of Shuffle Along, and the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, in which he played Aubrey Lyles.

2018 saw Porter make a series of regular appearances on Pose, which followed LGBTQ ball culture of the '80s and early '90s, and explored how the HIV/AIDS crisis impacted the marginalized community. He got a Golden Globe nomination for the role and won the award for outstanding lead actor in a drama series at the 71st Emmy Awards.

In May 2021, in an interview given to the Hollywood Reporter, Billy Porter opened up about his 14-year-long battle with HIV and made some revelations:

"I was the generation that was supposed to know better, and it happened anyway. It was 2007, the worst year of my life. I was on the precipice of obscurity for about a decade or so, but 2007 was the worst of it. By February, I had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. By March, I signed bankruptcy papers. And by June, I was diagnosed HIV-positive."

Porter further added:

"The shame of that time compounded with the shame that had already [accumulated] in my life silenced me, and I have lived with that shame in silence for 14 years. HIV-positive, where I come from, growing up in the Pentecostal church with a very religious family, is God’s punishment."

Producing A Strange Loop earned Billy his second Tony Award in 2022 for Best Musical.

Porter has also featured in American Horror Story: Apocalypse, Amazon's Cinderella remake, the second season of The Twilight Zone on CBS All Access, and Equal on HBO Max.

Billy Porter's upcoming projects include starring with Luke Evans in Our Son, directing To Be Real - a lesbian adolescent comedy from Gabrielle Union's I'll Have Another Productions - and appearing in 80 For Brady alongside Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Lily Tomlin, and Sally Field. Recently, he also served as the episode director for Fox's upcoming anthology series, Accused.

Unprotected, Porter's debut book, appeared in October 2021 and was published by Abrams Press. Porter's most recent song, Stranger Things, was made available through his record deals with Island Records (UK) and Republic Records (US). The queer icon was also featured in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2020 list.

Billy Porter will be narrating, executively producing, and hosting BET network's fresh original documentary series, Black & Iconic: Style Gods, which will honor Black cultural leaders, activists, and legends, as well as their contributions to fashion, music, film, and dance.


Black & Iconic: Style Gods will debut this Saturday, February 18, 2023, at 9 pm ET/PT only on BET, BET Her, BET+, AND VH1.

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Edited by Upasya Bhowal
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