Alec Mapa

Alec Mapa, born Alejandro Mapa on July 10, 1965, in San Francisco, California, is an American actor, comedian, and writer whose career has spanned Broadway, television, film, and stand-up comedy. He attended George Washington High School in San Francisco, where he performed in productions including Bye Bye Birdie, in which he played Randolph McAfee, and took lead roles in senior-year productions of Cabaret and Harvey. He also competed as a champion orator in the Humorous and Dramatic Interpretation categories of Speech during his high school years.

Mapa's professional career began when he was cast to understudy B. D. Wong in the Broadway production of M. Butterfly, eventually replacing Wong in the role of Song Liling. He subsequently performed the role on the national tour. His Broadway work continued in 1992 with A Little Hotel on the Side, an adaptation of the Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallières play L'Hôtel du libre échange, and the following year he appeared in a Stratford Festival-inspired production of Timon of Athens. His Broadway career spanned from 1988 to 1993. Off-Broadway, Mapa appeared in every play of Chay Yew's Whitelands trilogy — Porcelain (1992), A Language of Their Own (1995), and Wonderland (1999) — a series of plays centered on gay Asian men. His performance in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters earned him a nomination at the 2001 Lucille Lortel Awards. He also wrote and performed a one-man play, I Remember Mapa, drawn from his experiences growing up gay in San Francisco.

On television, Mapa built a substantial body of work across multiple decades. He appeared in guest roles on programs including Roseanne, Seinfeld, Friends, NYPD Blue, The Jamie Foxx Show, Murder One, and Dharma & Greg, and had a supporting role in the 2001 comedy Some of My Best Friends. He played Adam Benet on the UPN comedy Half & Half and recurred as Suzuki St. Pierre, the flamboyant host of a fictional gossip program later revealed to be a straight married journalist named Byron Wu, on Ugly Betty from 2006 to 2010. That same year he appeared as Vern, Gabrielle's personal shopper, on Desperate Housewives. Mapa also recurred as Renzo on Switched at Birth and provided the voice of Bakla, Rick's flamboyantly gay uncle, on the animated series Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World from 2007 to 2009. In 2008, he co-hosted Transamerican Love Story on the Logo network alongside Calpernia Addams, a reality dating program in which Addams selected from among eight potential suitors, and also hosted Dancing With Dogs on Animal Planet. In 2010, Mapa became a co-host of Logo's daily celebrity gossip series The Gossip Queens, and was a featured performer on Logo's stand-up comedy series Wisecrack. He appeared on Candidly Nicole with Nicole Richie in 2015.

Mapa has made multiple appearances across the RuPaul's Drag Race franchise. He first appeared as a guest judge in 2010 on the second season's inaugural Snatch Game challenge, and returned as a guest judge on the second season of RuPaul's Drag U in 2011. In 2013 he performed in drag as a warm-up act for the live finale of the show's fifth season. He appeared as a special guest for the Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent Monologues challenge on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars in 2021, and served as a guest judge for the 60s Girl Groups episode on the fourteenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race in 2022. That same year he began co-hosting the official RuPaul's Drag Race podcast, Squirrel Friends, alongside comedian Loni Love, in collaboration with iHeartRadio. His most recent appearance in the franchise was in 2023 as a special guest for the Carson Kressley, This is Your Gay Life challenge on the eighth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.

Mapa's film credits include Bright Lights, Big City, Playing by Heart, Connie and Carla, Marley & Me, Super Sweet 16: The Movie, Tru Loved, and You Don't Mess with the Zohan. In 2023, he appeared in the Lifetime original film Ladies of the '80s: A Divas Christmas, alongside Loni Anderson, Morgan Fairchild, Linda Gray, Donna Mills, and Nicollette Sheridan.

In 2013, Mapa debuted a one-man show titled Alec Mapa: Baby Daddy, which was later adapted into a concert film and premiered on Showtime in 2015. He also served as a writer on Half & Half, receiving a credit for the 2006 episode The Big Nervous Breakup Episode.

In his personal life, Mapa married Jamison Hebert in 2008, having dated since 2002. The couple adopted a five-year-old boy in 2010.