Dyllón Burnside

Burnside got his first start at age 12 when he performed as the lead singer of hip-hop/R&B boy band “3D” with 2 of his cousins and managed by his mother, touring with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Rihanna, with a distribution deal with Atlantic Records and performing in venues including Madison Square Garden and the Nokia Theater.^[3][4] After 10 years, he began feeling constricted by fronting a boy band and wanted to explore arts less traditionally masculine: "The things that I was interested in didn’t necessarily align with my family’s or society’s idea of what it meant to be a man. ... I can still be a male and sing Mozart or take a ballet class and that it not have anything to do with anything other than I wanted to take a ballet class."^[4] As a result, he enrolled at the CAP21 conservatory to take a vocal major, moved to New York City and took acting and dance classes^[3][4] including studying for a bachelor's degree in media studies and writing from The New School.^[3]

While at CAP21, Burnside starred in the Tupac-inspired musical Holler if Ya Hear Me on Broadway in 2014, where he played Anthony.^{[5][3][6][7][8]} While studying, Burnside was also a part of NBC's Peter Pan Live!,^[3][9] HBO's High Maintenance^[3] and performed in BeBe Winans's musical Born For This in both Atlanta and Washington, D.C.^[4]

Burnside has also worked as a film producer on the award-winning short The Jump and as theatrical producer on Hold Up The Light at the non-profit Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.^[3] He has also taught performing arts workshops and has spoken at schools about how studying performing arts can be empowering and help young people find their means of self-expression.^[3]

Burnside emceed a benefit concert, duetting with Pose co-stars Billy Porter and Ryan Jamaal Swain to celebrate the Pose season 1 finale on July 23, 2018, raising money for GLSEN,^{[7][9][4][10]} and talking about his coming out story and speaking with former Vibe editor-in-chief Emil Wilbekin about the importance of safe spaces for LGBTQ people.^[10]

In July 2021, in the same period the final episode of Pose was aired, it was released the musical single Heaven featuring the British singer Daley, written in February 2021 as a celebration of LGBTQ love.^[11] In the same month Burnside was featured in the fourth episode of the anthology TV series American Horror Stories by Murphy&Falchuk.^[11] In Fall 2021 he came back on Broadway stage as one of the seven Afroamerican leads of the show Thoughts of a Colored Man.^[11][5]

In 2025, Burnside portrayed celebrity stylist Dwen Curry in the BET+ Original Film "Fighting to Be Me: The Dwen Curry Story.^[12]

Burnside grew up on a ranch in Pensacola, Florida.^[3] His family raised farm animals including: chickens, cows, horses and pigs.

Burnside has spoken about toxic masculinity: "All of the work that I seek to do and the work I want to do is about pushing the boundaries or blurring the lines of what it means to be a man. I think manhood as a construct is very dangerous and has caused a lot of pain and destruction in our world"^[4] and recognises the importance of Pose for representing LGBTQ people of color.^[6][13] For National Coming Out Day 2019, he wrote about the importance of acceptance and representation, "which is why I stand so firmly in my truth and speak openly about my experience".^[14] He has described influences including bell hooks, James Baldwin, Eckhart Tolle and Marianne Williamson,^[4] as well as gospel music being a part of going to church that spoke to him.^[4]

In an interview for Men's Health magazine in September 2020, Burnside described his identity as "queer, not gay", describing that he has had "relationships — romantic and sexual — with women as well as men", adding that "for me, queerness is about understanding that I exist outside of the sexual binary of just gay or straight".^[15][16]