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It’s no coincidence that Tituss Burgess shares the same first name ( albeit with a double “s”) with the character he’s best known for. He’s spent four seasons chewing up every bit of scenery in sight as the fabulously self- centred and gay Titus Andromedon in Netfl ix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a role written by comedy legend Tina Fey with the 39- year- old New Yorker firmly in mind.
The pair had previously worked together on Fey’s sitcom 30 Rock, when Tituss spun an initial one- line part into a four- episode role. But despite the similarities between the off - screen actor’s past and on- screen character’s present ( basement apartments in Harlem, aspirations for Broadway stardom, “you know, talented but maybe a little delusional”), Tituss assures us he’s not much like Titus.
“It takes a lot of energy to play him,” he says. “He’s pretty selfish and doesn’t consider other people’s feelings. Other than our love of musical theatre and sharp wit, there’s very little in common. One of the things that helped me play him was the writing. I couldn’t just decide to play such an animated, wild, off - the- cuff , flamboyant character without writing that grounded him and gave him some real stakes.”
It’s a pairing that’s paid off : Tituss has been nominated for an Emmy for the best supporting actor in a comedy series for the past four years, with 18 nominations for the show in total, a 97 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and one critic calling it “the fi rst great sitcom of the streaming era.”
Scenes in which he parodies Beyoncé’s Lemonade and sings Peeno Noir: An Ode to Black Penis have transcended the show’s audience into wider culture, and the latter has even led to the creation of a wine of the same name.
Of course, co- creator Fey, who stars as Kimmy’s alcoholic psychiatrist, Andrea, in two of the show’s seasons, is no stranger to giving birth to pop culture moments. From Mean Girls to her Sarah Palin Saturday Night Live skit, she’s a dab hand at it, and Tituss is clearly a fan. “Tina is wonderful and doesn’t operate out of ego,” he says. “She lets you do your thing, and if there ever needs to be a slight adjustment, then she comes in. But she doesn’t hover, she lets you fl y.”
His success in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is as much of a surprise to Tituss as anyone else. His ambition never truly lay in television, and prior to the show, he was known for his decade treading the boards in some of Broadway’s top musicals: Good Vibrations, Jersey Boys, The Little Mermaid ( originating the role of Sebastian, the crab) and Guys & Dolls, as well as regional productions of The Wiz, Jesus Christ Superstar and Into The Woods.
Moving to TV was more out of necessity than desire, he explains. “All I wanted was to be a Broadway star. But I began to feel stagnant. Despite the prowess of my voice, and how high it is, I was being cast as more of a sidekick than a leading man.”
So why wasn’t he being off ered a wider range of roles? “I wasn’t white, I wasn’t a size 32 and I wasn’t tall. There were only a couple of things people were willing to let me do, so I thought, ‘ No, no, no; you will not box me in’.
“I needed to figure out another medium, so I meditated on it until I found something worth chasing, which turned out to be TV.”
The conversation around diversity in the entertainment industry has come to the fore in recent years, with incidents such as the # Oscars So White controversy of 2016 highlighting the lack of people of colour being recognised for their work.
But there have been improvements since then, and in the theatre, shows such as Hamilton have embraced colour- blind casting and become roaring successes.
Does Tituss believe the reasons he wasn’t deemed to be leading man material are as prevalent in 2018? “I don’t think so. It’s changing, and we’re putting people who look like every- day people on stage,” he says.
Adding another string to his bow, Tituss is now part of that driving force that’s changing the Broadway and wider theatrical landscape. When Attitude speaks to him, he’s about to start work on a musical he’s written, based on the 1996 movie The Preacher ’s Wife.
Tituss links his own experience as a black man, growing up in a Christian home ( he now considers himself to be more spiritual than traditionally Christian), directly to the reason he bought the rights to the film. “In productions, we rarely see a black family with both parents in the home,” he says. “We only see single parents and broken families. So the story is about the familial unit and the struggle to fight against gentrification, and how it tests their faith.”
It’s clear that Tituss sees the arts as a way for individuals to share their experience, opinion, and individuality, but he laments that, in the digital, Trumpian era, fewer people seem to exercise those rights. “It’s kinda funny and sad, but we live in such a digital age of convenience,” he comments. “We run to the nearest ‘ fast- food’ information source to get our opinions.
“That leads to a gravitational pull towards ignorance, which leads to chaos, which leads to people such as Trump getting elected. Art, music, comedy, drama and storytelling are our greatest weapons to remind people who humans are at the core.”