*(New York, NY) – As 2025 comes to a close, Native Son – the leading organization championing Black queer men – proudly unveils its much-anticipated annual year-end Native Son 101 List Class of 2025, celebrating a powerful collective of creatives, media executives, designers, stylists, actors, authors, creators, founders, thinkers, and artists who transformed culture.
Now in its sixth year, the Native Son 101 List honors the leaders, innovators, and mavericks who have achieved landmark firsts, expanded representation, and broke barriers across politics, media, fashion, literature, film, television, business, public health, and the arts over the last year.
2025 Honorees Include
Colman Domingo, Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, Kaytranada,
Anthony M. Hemingway, Chi Ossé, Jason Bolden, Scott Evans,
Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Derrick Adams, Karamo Brown, Khalid,
Tramell Tillman, Malcolm Kenyatta, Joao Lucas Reis da Silva,
and more…
This year’s list recognizes groundbreaking activists, artists, entrepreneurs, designers,
politicians, storytellers, musicians, scholars, and culture-shifters who made extraordinary global
impact in 2025
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Conceived and curated by Native Son founder Emil Wilbekin, this year’s list holds particular significance at a time in the United States where Black, queer people face heightened scrutiny and systemic obstruction amid the dismantling of LGBTQ+ protections and attacks on racial equity and education. The 2025 class stands as a bold protest, doubling down to advance visibility, protect community, shape culture, and push the nation forward even as progress came under legislative attack. This year’s class features visionary social justice advocates, award-winning performers and creatives, global tastemakers, cultural producers, and community builders.
The 2025 list includes: two-time Academy Award nominee Colman Domingo; globally influential DJ and producer Kaytranada; Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning director Anthony M. Hemingway; author and scholar Ahmad Greene-Hayes; R&B star Khalid; celebrated visual artist Derrick Adams; 2025 Pulitzer & Tony Award-winning playwright (Purpose) Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; journalist, anchor and host of The Don Lemon Show, Don Lemon; Oscar and Tony Award-winning costume designer Paul Tazewell; GRAMMY-nominated R&B breakout sensation Destin Conrad; Emmy Award-winning actor (Severance, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning) Tramell Tillman; and Brazilian tennis star Joao Lucas Reis da Silva, the first active men’s professional tennis player to publicly come out as gay.
Other honorees include political leaders like Chi Ossé, architect of the landmark FARE Act; Preston Mitchum, one of the nation’s most influential LGBTQ+ policy voices; directors and cultural storytellers such as Justin Simien, Dewayne Perkins, and Deondray & Quincy Gossfield; and creatives like Sean Bankhead, Justin French, Jarvis Boyland, Jason Bolden, and Antoine Gregory, whose artistic contributions shaped the year’s cultural landscape.
“2025 has been a year where our community has been tested in unprecedented ways,” said Wilbekin. “We witnessed aggressive roll backs of DEI programs, erasing LGBTQ+ protections and policies – legislating against the very existence of queer and trans people. And yet – in the face of all of this – this community continued to rise. They created art. They led movements. They built-up institutions. They fully stepped into power. They used their voices and platforms to protect our stories, our culture, our humanity, and our history. The leaders on this year’s 101 List did not shrink. They pushed harder. They refused to be erased. They demonstrated that our brilliance is not conditional, our resilience is not optional, and our joy is an act of political resistance. This year’s list is a testament to our courage, creativity, and collective legacy.”
Created in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 global health crisis and racial justice uprising, the Native Son 101 List originated as a cultural archive celebrating Black queer men across generations whose professional and creative contributions shaped the world. The list, published on nativeson.us, includes 101 Black queer men across a range of fields and remains a cornerstone of Native Son’s mission of amplifying the communities’ voice and visibility.
The 2025 Native Son 101 List is illustrated by Adrian Armstrong.
Please see below for the complete categories and honoree names for the 2025 Native Son 101 List. The full list and gallery can be found HERE.
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THE 2025 NATIVE SON 101 LIST
FASHION & FASHION MEDIA
- Akeem Rasool – Director, Supreme New York
- Andre Walker – Fashion designer; 2025 CFDA Isabel Toledo Directors Tribute Honoree
- Antoine Gregory – Fashion Consultant & Archivist; Creative Director & Founder, Black Fashion Fair; Host, Black Fashion Forward; Co-Author, Artistic Advisor & Archivist, André Leon Talley: Style Is Forever exhibition and book
- Billie Gene – Celebrity Makeup Artist (Kerry Washington, Tamron Hall, Halle Bailey, Colman Domingo, Anika Noni Rose, Brandee Evans, Yvonne Orji); Founder, Billie Gene Body
- Brandon Blackwood – Founder, Creative Director and CEO, Brandon Blackwood (now celebrating its 10th Anniversary);
- Campbell Addy – Fashion Photographer (Vogue, British Vogue, Vogue China, Dazed); SCAD exhibition; Photographer, Colman Domingo’s TIME cover
- Carlos Nazario – Fashion Editor/Stylist (T Magazine, M Magazine, Michael Kors, Willy Chavarria); Style Director at Large at Harper’s Bazaar; Styling, Super Fine: Tailoring Black Style book
- Charles Harbison – Fashion Designer and Creative Director; Creator, Harbison Studio; (Jennifer Hudson, Nicole Ari Parker, Kelly Rowland, Mindy Kaling, Jonathan Van Ness)
- Edward Buchanan – Fashion Designer; Former First-Ever Design Director, Bottega Veneta; Artistic Director, Sansovino6
- Eric J. McNeal – Stylist (Vogue and WSJ covers; Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal, Spike Lee)
- Jameel Mohammed – Jewelry Designer and Multimedia artist; Founder/Creative Director at KHIRY; Design Fellow, Tiffany and Co.; CFDA 2025 Jewelry Design Award winner;
- Jason Bolden – Creative Director, Interior Designer and Celebrity Stylist (Cynthia Erivo, Nicole Kidman, Michael B. Jordan, Yara Shahidi); Co-owner of LA bar “Damn I Miss Paris”
- Joseph McRae – Creative Director/Fashion Designer; Cast Member, Project Runway
- Keith Parris – New York City Beauty Influencer known as the “Icy Amputee Warrior”
- Kellon Deryck – Celebrity Hairstylist/ Beauty Ambassador (Megan Thee Stallion)
- Law Roach – Iconic Stylist and Image Architect; Author of How To Build A Fashion Icon: Notes on Confidence from the World’s Only Image Architect
- Olivier Rousteing – Global Fashion Designer
- Wayman Bannerman & Micah McDonald – Celebrity Stylists (Colman Domingo, Teyana Taylor, Taraji P. Henson, Queen Latifah)
- Yashua Simmons – Stylist (Usher, Giveon, Cynthia Erivo, Tina Knowles)
MEDIA & JOURNALISM
- Asad Syrkett – Head of Editorial Content, Architectural Digest Italy
- Charles Blow – TV Political Commentator (CNN, MSNBC); Inaugural; Inaugural Langston Hughes Fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University, Creator, Blow the Stack on Substack; “Late To The Party: Coming Out Later in Life” (Hulu)
- Connor Garel – Writer/editor (AnOther Magazine, Dazed, Justsmile Magazine)
- Craig Stewart – Co-host/Co-Creator, Phag Talk; Author; Creator, Telling Our Stories
- Damon Arnold – National Edward R. Murrow Recipient and Emmy Award-Winning Journalist and Reporter, KMOV-TV News 4
- Dominic Gaye & K. Keith – Co-Founders, Gaye Magazine
- Don Lemon – Journalist, Anchor and Author; Host, The Don Lemon Show
- Dr. Darien Sutton – ABC News Medical Correspondent
- Edward Enninful – Founder and CEO, EE72
- Jonathan Capehart & Eugene Daniels – Co-hosts, MSNBC’s The Weekend
- Kevin Ortega-Rojas – Creator, Here’s Why with Kevin, Ortega-Rojas
- Scott Evans – Host, Access Hollywood; Creator, House Guests
- Tyreak Told You – Comic Commentator; IG and TikTok Influencer
FILM & TELEVISION
- Anthony M. Hemingway – Golden Globe, Emmy, and NAACP Award-winning Producer/Director; Executive Producer and Director – Hulu’s All’s Fair; CBS’ Boston Blue; and Netflix’s Forever
- Brian Badie – Emmy Award-winning hairstylist (The Penguin; Him, Law & Order: SVU)
- Carlos King – Founder & CEO, Kingdom Reign Entertainment; Creator, Love & Marriage, Belle Collective; Host, Reality with the King Podcast
- Colman Domingo – Two-time Oscar-nominated actor (Wicked: For Good, Four Seasons); 2025 Native Son Award Honoree; Co-Chair of the Met Gala Super Fine: Tailoring Black Style
- Daniel Kyri – Music Artist (EP, Childish Games); Actor (NBC’s Chicago Fire, Hamlet – audio)
- Deondray Gossfield & Quincy LeNear Gossfield – Directors and Co-Eps, The Chi; Creators (Amazon Prime’s Emmy-nominated series, The Chadwick Journals, The DL Chronicles)
- Dewayne Perkins – Emmy-nominated Writer, Producer, Actor, and Comedian ( Apple TV+’s The Studio, One of Them Days, Peacock’s The Blackening)
- Jeremy Pope – Actor and Singer (FX’s The Beauty; GOD IS GOOD film); Vogue World: Hollywood
- Jussie Smollett – Actor, Writer, Director (The Lost Holliday) Recording Artist (BREAK OUT album)
- Justice Smith – Actor (Now You See Me; Now You Don’t; The American Society of Magical Negroes, I Saw the TV Glow)
- Justin Simien – Independent Spirit Award-Winning Filmmaker and Actor; Director and Creator, Hollywood Black; Founder, Culture Machine
- Karamo Brown – Emmy-winning Actor, Author, Television Personality, Culture Expert, and Host (Queer Eye, Karamo Show)
- Layton Williams – 2025 Laurence Olivier Award-winning Actor (Titanique)
- Obio Jones & Jermelle Simmons – Influencer Obio Jones and Actor Jermelle Simmons; Featured in People, Essence; Appeared on The Upshaws
- Paul Tazewell – Oscar & Tony Award-winning Costume Designer (Wicked, Death Becomes Her)
- Steven G. Norfleet – Actor (Tyler Perry’s Beauty In Black)
- Tramell Tillman – Emmy Award-winning Actor (Severance, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning)
- Wynn Thomas – First Black Production Designer in Hollywood; Academy Honorary Award Recipient
- Tiyale Hayes – Senior VP for Brand Strategy and Marketing, BET Networks
THEATER & DANCE
- Branden Jacobs-Jenkins – 2025 Pulitzer & Tony Award-winning playwright, Purpose
- Denzel Chisolm – Dancer and choreographer (Janet Jackson, Tate McRae, Doja Cat, Lolita)
- Jordan E. Cooper – Playwright, Oh Happy Day! at The Public Theater; Cast Member, Freakier Friday; Showrunner/Creator, Ms. Pat Show)
- Juel D. Lane – Dancer, Choreographer, and filmmaker; Director of UNCSA Choreographic Institute; Guest choreographer, Bennington College
- Robert Vail – Actor, Dancer, and Choreographer (SNL 50, World Choreography Award winner; Nike Ad Campaign Choreography)
- Sean Bankhead – Award-winning choreographer (Megan Thee Stallion, Lisa Coachella, Cardi B); 2025 Native Son Honoree
- Tarell Alvin McCraney – Artistic Director, Geffen Playhouse; Playwright (The Brother Size, We Are Gathered)
MUSIC
- Corey Stokes – Artistic Director, Parkwood Entertainment; Soundsystem (Collaboration with Justen Leroy)
- Davóne Tines – Opera Singer (Performances – The Run Amoc Festival at Lincoln Center; Little Island, Vail Dance Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. MOCA Geffen, Hudson Opera House, The Frick Collection, Detroit Opera)
- Destin Conrad – Grammy-nominated R&B singer-songwriter
- Durand Bernarr – Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter
- Iman Jordan – Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter (Harry Belafonte Social Change Award); Founder, The ArtWell Coalition; Art Director, Winston Studios
- Justen Ross – MC, Poet, Actor, Playwright, Ballroom Artist
- Justen Leroy – Multidisciplinary Performance and Sound Artist and Curator, Soundsystem (Collaboration with Corey Stokes)
- Kaytranada – Grammy Award-Winning DJ and Producer(Ain’t No Damn Way album); Kaytranada and Justice Tour
- Khalid – R&B Singer-Songwriter (After the Sun Goes Down album); Billboard Disruptor Award Recipient; Gay Times cover
POLITICS, ACTIVISM & SOCIAL JUSTICE
- Carl Baloney Jr. – President & CEO, AIDS United
- Chi Ossé – Member, New York City Council, District 36; Architect of the 2025 FARE Act; Political Candidate for Congress
- Darwin Thompson – Corporate Social Responsibility Director, Gilead Sciences
- DaShawn Usher – VP, Community & Media, GLAAD; Founder and Executive Director, MOBI
- Dewayne R. Queen – Director of the City of Atlanta’s Division of LGBTQ Affairs in the Mayor’s Office of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; Chairman, The Translife Awards
- Dr. Travis Gayles – CEO, Howard Brown Health
- Malcolm Kenyatta & Dr. Matt Kenyatta – Malcolm Kenyatta: Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC); Dr. Matt Kenyatta: Director and Curator of Temple Contemporary (Pyramid Club 1937–2035)
- Preston Mitchum – Award-winning Attorney, Advocate, and named the Washington Blade’s “Most Committed Activist”; Senior Fellow, rePROs; Wedding Featured in People
- Venton Jones & Gregory Scott Jr. – Texas Representative Venton Jones and partner Gregory Scott Jr.; Couple Engaged on Texas Capitol Floor
LITERATURE & BOOKS
- Alejandro Heredia – Author, LOCA
- Corey Damien Jenkins – Interior designer; Author, Design Reimagined; FGI Career Achievement in Design Award
- Darnell Lamont Walker – Death Doula; Author, Never Can Say Goodbye: The Life of a Death Doula and the Art of a Peaceful End; Playwright (Bumpy Johnson: A Short Play About the Legendary Crime Boss); Emmy nominated Screenwriter (HBO Max’s The Pitt).
- Doug Jones – Author, The Fantasy of Future Things
- Dr. Leo Moore – Author, The Men’s Preventive Health Guide: What To Check, When To Check It, And Why It Matters
- George M. Johnson – Activist; Co-Author, There’s Always Next Year
- Rob Franklin – Author, Great Black Hope
VISUAL ARTS & PHOTOGRAPHY
- Derrick Adams – Visual artist; Exhibitions at Gagosian, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery; Movado and Marc Jacobs collaborations; Derrick Adams book (Phaidon)
- Eric N. Mack – Visual artist working; Exhibitions at Wexner Center for the Arts n American Academy of Arts & Letters
- George McCalman – Artist, Designer, Creative Director; Founder, McCalman.Co Studio
- Jarvis Boyland – British visual artist
- Jonathan Carver Moore – Art Curator and Gallery Owner, Jonathan Carver Moore Gallery
- Joshua Obawole Allen – Award-winning Multidisciplinary Artist; Cover of Dazed Spring 2025; Residency programs in Brooklyn & Toronto
- Justin French – Photographer and Director (Covers for The Cut, Elle, Cultured; A$AP Rocky, Venus Williams, Keke Palmer)
- Nick Cave – Sculptor, Painter, Dancer, Performance Artist, and Professor
- Thaddeus Coates – Model, Illustrator, and Toy Designer (Toys: TOASTY, Plush Toys for Cava)
BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
- Chris Glass – Global Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Soho House
- Darrell Spencer – Founder and CEO, Crowned Skin
- Gregory Gourdet – James Beard Award-Winning Chef; Restaurateur, Maison Passerelle in Printemps NYC
- Tiyale Hayes – SVP for Brand Strategy & Marketing, BET
ACADEMICS & EDUCATION
- Ahmad Greene-Hayes – Associate Professor of African American Religious Studies, Harvard Divinity School; Author, Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion-Making in Jim Crow New Orleans
- Kahlil Greene – The “Gen Z Historian”; 2x Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning Edu-tainer; Time100 Creators; Forbes 30 Under 30
SPORTS
- Joao Lucas Reis da Silva – Brazilian pro men’s tennis player
- James LeGette – Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleader
- Laron “Laronbest” Gigger – Pro Skater; Dancer, Choreographer, Model, and Roller Skate Performer and Influencer
- Kyle Smith – Fashion Editor, NFL
ABOUT NATIVE SON
Native Son is a movement that exemplifies the duality of being Black and gay in a society that often shuns and belittles their unique experiences. This movement aims to create a safe space where the Black gay male community can fellowship, celebrate, and empower each other, and—most importantly—see themselves. From the world-renowned to the up-and-coming, Native Son aims to connect and celebrate the members of this influential, yet long-ignored community in the realms of arts, business, media, fashion, politics, and healthcare.
ABOUT EMIL WILBEKIN
Emil Wilbekin is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He is a multimedia maverick who contributes to The New York Times T Magazine, Vogue, The Cut, Architectural Digest, Time, Essence, Ebony, and Town & Country. He is the Co-Producer and Co-Writer on the documentary The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion (Netflix). He is also the Founder of Native Son, a platform created to inspire and empower Black gay and queer men. Wilbekin has served as Chief Content Officer at Afropunk, Editor-at-Large at Essence, Managing Editor of Essence.com, Editor-in-Chief of Giant and Giantmag.com, Style Guru at Complex Media, VP of Brand Development at Marc Eckō Enterprises, Editorial Director/Vice President of Vibe Ventures, and Editor-in-Chief of Vibe Magazine. Under Wilbekin’s leadership, Vibe won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002. He holds a B.S. in Mass Media Arts from Hampton University and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University.
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