Dyllón Burnside

Dyllón Burnside, born January 27, 1989, in Miami, Florida, is an American actor, singer, and producer whose career spans Broadway, television, and film. He is widely recognized for portraying Ricky Evangelista in the FX series Pose.

Burnside's performing career began at age 12, when he became the lead singer of a hip-hop and R&B boy band called 3D, formed with two of his cousins and managed by his mother. The group secured a distribution deal with Atlantic Records and toured alongside artists including Stevie Wonder and Rihanna, performing at venues such as Madison Square Garden and the Nokia Theater. After a decade with the group, Burnside sought to pursue artistic interests outside the constraints of the boy band format, enrolling at the CAP21 conservatory as a vocal major. He relocated to New York City, where he studied acting and dance while also earning a bachelor's degree in media studies and writing from The New School.

During his time at CAP21, Burnside made his Broadway debut in 2014 in Holler If Ya Hear Me, a Tupac-inspired musical in which he played the role of Anthony. Alongside his stage work, he appeared in NBC's Peter Pan Live!, HBO's High Maintenance, and performed in BeBe Winans's musical Born For This in both Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He returned to Broadway in fall 2021 as one of seven leads in Thoughts of a Colored Man.

Beyond performing, Burnside has worked as a film producer on the short film The Jump and as a theatrical producer on Hold Up The Light at Arena Stage, a nonprofit theater in Washington, D.C. He has also taught performing arts workshops and spoken at schools about the role of the arts in self-expression and empowerment for young people.

On July 23, 2018, Burnside emceed a benefit concert celebrating the Pose season one finale, duetting with co-stars Billy Porter and Ryan Jamaal Swain. The event raised money for GLSEN, and Burnside used the occasion to share his coming out story and discuss the importance of safe spaces for LGBTQ people, speaking with former Vibe editor-in-chief Emil Wilbekin. In July 2021, coinciding with the airing of Pose's final episode, Burnside released the musical single Heaven, featuring British singer Daley. The song was written in February 2021 as a celebration of LGBTQ love. That same month, he appeared in the fourth episode of the anthology television series American Horror Stories.

Burnside grew up on a ranch in Pensacola, Florida, where his family raised chickens, cows, horses, and pigs. He has spoken publicly about toxic masculinity and the dangers of rigid constructs of manhood, and has cited bell hooks, James Baldwin, Eckhart Tolle, and Marianne Williamson as influences, along with gospel music. For National Coming Out Day 2019, he wrote publicly about the significance of acceptance and representation. In a September 2020 interview with Men's Health, Burnside described his identity as queer rather than gay, explaining that he has had romantic and sexual relationships with both women and men, and that his understanding of queerness places him outside a strictly binary conception of sexuality.