Billy Eichner Doesn’t Accept That He Should Be “Grateful For a Crumb Of Success” Just Because He’s Openly Gay

Image by Getty Images

By Jenny Singer September 15, 2017

While you were deciphering Taylor Swift music videos and drafting your fantasy football teams, Billy Eichner was quietly taking over pop culture.

Eichner’s big start was his self-produced Youtube series, “Billy On The Street,” which is now on a network. He currently stars in that show, Hulu’s “Difficult People,” “Friends From College,” and “American Horror Story: Cult.” He will provide his voice for the hugely hyped live action “The Lion King” in 2019.

Billy Eichner is a comic genius. Billy Eichner is a huge success. And Billy Eichner does not accept the idea that he is “an outsider.”

In a recent interview, Ana Marie Cox for the New York Times Magazine asked Eichner: “Amy Poehler has said that she thinks that your being an outsider is really important to your comedy. How do you maintain that as you get more successful?”

Eichner responded:

Image by Screengrab/New York Times Magazine

Billy Eichner is an icon.

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

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