Emmy®, Tony®, and Grammy Award-winner, Billy Porter has signed on to direct an episode of FOX’s anthology drama ACCUSED. The episode focuses on a fierce drag queen and a whirlwind affair that leads to devastating consequences.
ACCUSED is an anthology series, featuring a different cast each episode.
ACCUSED is developed by Howard Gordon (“24,” “Homeland“) and executive-produced by Gordon, Alex Gansa (“24,” “Homeland“), and David Shore (“The Good Doctor,” “House“).
FOX and Sony Pictures Television, previously announced that Michael Chiklis and Whitney Cummings will each star in episodes and Oscar winner Marlee Matlin (“CODA“) will make her directorial debut.
Based on the BBC’s BAFTA-winning crime anthology, ACCUSED opens in a courtroom on the accused, with viewers knowing nothing about their crime or how they ended up on trial. Told from the defendant’s point of view through flashbacks, ACCUSED holds a mirror up to the current times with evocative and emotional stories. In ACCUSED, viewers discover how an ordinary person gets caught up in an extraordinary situation, ultimately revealing how one wrong turn leads to another, until it’s too late to turn back.
ACCUSED is co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and FOX Entertainment, executive-produced and developed by Howard Gordon, and executive produced by Alex Gansa, David Shore, Glenn Geller, Erin Gunn, All3Media America’s Jacob Cohen-Holmes, and Jimmy McGovern, Sita Williams, Roxy Spencer and Louise Pedersen for All3Media International. Frank Siracusa and John Weber also serve as executive producers. Created by Jimmy McGovern, the original series debuted in 2010 on BBC One.
Billy Porter’s Biography
Billy Porter is an award-winning actor, singer, director, composer, and playwright. He won the Emmy Award for Lead Actor for his appearance in FX’s Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated drama “Pose”, and most recently received his third Emmy nomination for this role. A Hollywood Walk of Fame inductee, Porter has numerous theatre credits, including the role of Lola in the Broadway musical “Kinky Boots,” which he originated in 2013 and for which he won the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards, as well as the Grammy for best musical-theatre album. Recently, Porter appeared in the third season of FX’s “Pose”, Amazon’s “Cinderella” re-make, the second season of CBS All Access’ “The Twilight Zone”, “American Horror Story: Apocalypse”, and narrated HBO Max’s “Equal”. He is set to make his directorial debut with the high school coming-of-age film “Anything’s Possible” written by Alvaro García Lecuona. He is also set to direct a queer teen comedy from Gabrielle Union’s I’ll Have Another Productions, titled “To Be Real,” as well as direct the feature adaptation of “Camp” for HBO Max and Warner Bros. Porter released his first literary project, “Unprotected,” in October 2021, which was published by Abrams Press. As a recording artist, Porter most recently released his single Children under his new record deal with Island Records (UK) and Republic Records (US).
