Age: 56
male
William Ellis Porter II (born September 21, 1969) is an American actor and singer. Porter gained notice performing on Broadway before starting a solo career as a singer and actor. For his role as Lola in Kinky Boots, Porter won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. He credits the part for "cracking open" his feminine side to confront toxic masculinity. Porter also won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for the musical's accompanying album. Porter starred in all three seasons of the television series Pose, for which he was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and won the 2019 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, becoming the first gay black man to be nominated and win in any lead acting category at the Primetime Emmys. In 2020, he was included on Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2022, he won another Tony Award for Best Musical as a producer for the musical A Strange Loop. He made his directorial debut in 2022 with the romantic comedy film Anything's Possible. Porter received the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 77th Tony Awards for his humanitarian work with the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and Entertainment Community Fund. Description above from the Wikipedia article Billy Porter, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
The film begins on a foggy morning out on the open sea. A ship then comes from the fog, filled with sailors singing stories of the legendary merfolk. ("Fathoms Below") Aboard that ship is a young princess, named Erica, her dog Max, and her advisor Grimsba, who denounces the merfolk as, "nautical nonsense," but one sailor insists them to be real. While distracted by Grimsba, a fish the sailor was holding slips from her and falls into the ocean. The fish breathes a sigh of relief before swimming away from the ship. The opening credits play as the fish crosses the deep ocean until at last, we see merfolk. They then make their way through the ocean towards a shining underwater castle. The castle is the domain of Queen Mermaid and is where she was holding a concert in her name, performed by her seven sons and the crab court composer, Sylvia. ("Sons of Mermaid") The concert goes as planned until it is discovered that Mermaid's youngest son, Artie, is not there, much to her chagrin. In truth, Artie was out excavating a ship graveyard with his best friend, Flounder the Fish. Inside one wreck, he finds a pipe and a fork, which fascinates his curiosity, all the while unaware of a shark watching him and Flounder from outside.
