Sean Hetherington is a comedic essayist, reality TV producer, pundit, interviewer and a former stand-up comic who gained fame after his appearance as a contestant in the second season of NBC's American Gladiators on their Weight Loss Survivors episode.
In 2003, at 24 years old, Hetherington shed 100 pounds. He has written and performed about the before-and-after experience of weight loss both online (FreshYarn.com, LiveJournal, AfterElton) and live at the San Jose, Hollywood Improvs, Idaho Comedy Festival, Michigan Comedy Festival, and Punchline Comedy Clubs.
In 2008, he was cast on the Extreme Weight-Loss edition of NBC's American Gladiators. After his inspired appearance, he gained national media attention for his personal training in the pages of US WEEKLY, AfterElton, Sirius Satellite Radio, MTV and E!
After the passage of California's Proposition 8 in 2008, Hetherington and his then boyfriend, Aaron Hartzler, founded the international volunteer movement Day Without A Gay, where LGBT people were asked to call in "gay for the day" and spend the day volunteering as a form of peaceful protest. Day Without A Gay was covered in the New York Times, CNN, and Wall Street Journal. It was lampooned on Saturday Night Live and The O'Reilly Factor.
In 2009, Hetherington and Hartzler planned the first known "Same Sex Kiss Day". As a follow up to Day Without a Gay, its goal was to encourage businesses to support and be more inclusive of out and proud LGBT Americans.
Hetherington is an alumnus of Belmont University.
Famous quotes containing the word sean:
“James Bond in his Sean Connery days ... was the first well-known bachelor on the American scene who was not a drifter or a degenerate and did not eat out of cans.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)