Dewayne perkins gay
Dewayne Perkins is working his way up the Hollywood ladder—and is expanding advocacy for the Black and LGBTQ+ communities in the process.
The Emmy-nominated Chicago native—who is an actor, author, producer and comedian—trained at Second City before becoming involved in film/TV labor. He wrote, produced and/or acted in projects such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the rebooted Saved by the Bell and The Amber Ruffin Show, but he might be best established as the driving gravity (as writer, producer and actor) in the smash horror-comedy film The Blackening, which hilariously skewers ethnic stereotypes. (Recently, he was emotionally attached with the Prime Video limited series Sausage Party: Foodtopia and wrapped shooting a recurring role on Seth Rogan’s new series The Studio, which will be on Apple TV+.)
Recently, Perkins talked with Windy City Times about Second City, Hollywood, Ruffin and more.
NOTE: This conversation was edited for clarity and length.
Windy City Times: You trained at Second City—a place some people really revere. What was that like?
Dewayne Perkins: It was a mixed bag of so much nice and so much poor. I met some of my favorite people there—and they’re still in my l
Dewayne Perkins Goes Where He Feels Good
Photo Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Contour by Getty Images
Dewayne Perkins has been putting in the labor in the fun biz for a decade now, writing on your favorite shows, like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Amber Ruffin Show, and becoming a must-follow on Twitter. Now, the player and comedian is ready for the big screen. On June 16, the budding star will shine alongside Yvonne Orji and Grace Byers in The Blackening, a cinematic adaptation of his popular Comedy Pivotal sketch, which hinges on the ask of who dies first when everyone in a fright fest is Shadowy . (Spoiler—and gasp—alert: The terrorized friend community does have to split up to survive.)
Before the premiere, Perkins checked in with Wondermind to give us a glimpse into how his identity influences his approach to mental health and his relationship with work. “It feels like my mental health journey has felt very remarkable, where it felt very up to me,” he says. “Nobody was going to do it for me. It was my mental health. There weren't resources wher
‘The Blackening’ Star Dewayne Perkins on His Gay Horror Spoof Character and Mining His Coming-Out Story for Comedy
Unlike the character he wrote and plays in the horror spoof The Blackening, comedian Dewayne Perkins will not be staying at a cabin in the woods anytime soon. “I went camping once and it was one of those moments where I was favor, ‘This is what this is? We’re really sleeping on the ground … outside?’ ” he says with a quizzical eyebrow during a video interview a few weeks before The Blackening opens in theaters June 16. “I never went back.”
However, as onscreen Dewayne (yes, he and his personality share the matching name, and they are both openly gay), he joins nine college besties at a cabin deep, deep in the woods over Juneteenth weekend. What was supposed to be a much-needed get-together among friends drinking highly sweetened drinks and indulging in trash-talking hijinks turns into them playing a bloody trivia game called The Blackening, which determines who’s Inky enough and who isn’t. In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, how many seasons does dark-skinned Aunt Viv last before she’s
As a comedian, when was the first time you realized that you were funny?
When I was writing for a show called The Break with Michelle Wolf on Netflix. I remember that was my first job and I was the only Ebony person on this staff. It was very hard because I was thinking, "I'm not a fan of being the token." [I] helped [Michelle] write some of the jokes [for] the White House Correspondents Dinner that year. There was a joke that I wrote that basically called Sarah Huckabee Sanders the archetype of white women. It was chosen as one of the best jokes that year by the New Yorker.
At that moment, I realized no one else on this staff could have written that joke. My point of view is why I'm funny. My existence and my lived experience are what makes me great. That was a very validating moment at the beginning of my career that I've always remembered when I'm entering new spaces: nobody can do what you can do, because you are you, period.
When did you know acting was your calling?
I was very tiny in elementary school and kind of feminine. I had a stutter. I was bullied heavily. Going into high educational facility, I thought, "I've watched enough TV, I'm pretty smart. I can figure this out." I c