Early Life and Career
Hailing from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and at a height of 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m), Jordan has made numerous appearances in both film and television. He is most well known for his television work - including guest appearances on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Star Trek: Voyager, Caroline in the City, Reba, Boston Public, Boston Legal, Nash Bridges and his secondary role on Hearts Afire. He has recently guest-starred on the popular comedy-drama Ugly Betty as celebrity-trasher Quincy Combs. In 2007, Jordan starred as Jesse Joe in the short-lived CW television program, Hidden Palms. He also portrayed the ski patrol director in Ski Patrol.
Jordan is best known for his role of Karen's pretentious, sexually ambiguous rival Beverley Leslie on the hit series Will & Grace. For that role he received an Emmy Award for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series at the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in 2006.
Jordan is an accomplished stage actor and playwright. In one of his best-known performances onstage, he played "Brother Boy" in Sordid Lives, a role he took to the big screen in the popular cult film of the same name. Jordan reprised the role in the Sordid Lives: The Series, a televised spin-off of the movie airing on Logo. He wrote and starred in the autobiographical play Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel, which was also made into a motion picture. He recently toured the country performing his one-man stage comedy, Like a Dog on Linoleum, to very favorable reviews. In this show, he tells stories of the high and low points of his life, from his father's death in a plane crash when he was just 11 years old, to his battles with substance abuse and his weakness for street hustlers.
Jordan, who is openly gay, has recently starred in the pilot episode of Laugh Out, the world's first interactive, gay-themed comedy show.
Jordan distilled his experiences growing up as an effeminate tiny boy in the south and in show business into an autobiographical one man show, My Trip Down the Pink Carpet. After touring the nation for several months with the production, the show opened off-Broadway at the Midtown Theater on April 19, 2010. The show is produced by Jordan's friend Lily Tomlin. Jordan announced on The Paul O'Grady show that he will be bringing his show to London's Apollo Theatre.
Read more about this topic: Leslie Jordan
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