Michael Kearns
| Michael Kearns | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
January 1, 1950 St. Louis, Missouri |
| Occupation | Actor, writer, director, teacher, producer |
| Years active | Early 1970s-present |
| Website | http://michaelkearns.net/ www.MichaelKearns.net |
Michael Kearns (born January 8, 1950) is an American actor, writer, director, teacher, producer, and activist. He is noted for being the first openly gay actor, and after an announcement on Entertainment Tonight in 1991, the first openly HIV positive actor in Hollywood.
Kearns was born in St. Louis, Missouri. As a young man he attended the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, Illinois, and graduated in 1972 and moved to Los Angeles. For more than 25 years he has been active in the Los Angeles art and politics communities, maintaining a mainstream film and television career with a prolific career in the theatre. His activism is deeply integrated into his theatre works, and he has received grants from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the Brody Foundation, and PEN Center USA West. In 1984, along with playwright James Carroll Pickett, he co-founded Artists Confronting Aids (ACA), and is a current commissioner of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).
Kearns is a regular contributor to a number of magazines and newspapers, including the Frontiers, Los Angeles Times, L.A. Parent, IN Magazine, and L.A. Weekly.
He is also author of five theatre books: T-Cells & Sympathy,Acting = Life,The Solo Performer's Journey,Getting Your Solo Act Together, and Life Expectancies. Both T-Cells & Sympathy and Acting = Life were nominated for Lambda Literary Awards.
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