Josh Kilmer-Purcell (born August 28, 1969) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

, businessperson, and television personality. In addition to his ''New York Times'' and National Bestselling memoirs, his life has been documented in the television reality show ''The Fabulous Beekman Boys'' with his husband,

Brent Ridge Brent Ridge is an American physician, business owner, and reality television participant. He was formerly the Vice President of Healthy Living for Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Together with his partner Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Ridge bought in 2007 a 19 ...

. He has written articles for ''NPR'', ''Huffington Post'', ''Publishers Weekly'', ''AdWeek'', ''OUT Magazine'' & others. The pair also participated in the 21st season of ''

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in forei ...

'', ultimately becoming the season's grand prize winners.

Television

In 2010, Discovery Network's

Planet Green Destination America is an American cable television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. The network carries programming focused on the culture of the United States—including food, lifestyles, a ...

channel debuted a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series about Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge, titled ''

The Fabulous Beekman Boys ''The Fabulous Beekman Boys'' was a reality television show produced in the United States by World of Wonder Productions. The series followed Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his husband Brent Ridge as they learned how to become farmers and launch their ...

''. The series documents their relationship and lives as farmers in upstate New York as they build a green lifestyle company together. The President and General Manager of

declared it the "No. 1 original series" on the network. In 2012,

Cooking Channel Cooking Channel is an American basic cable channel owned by Food Network, a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media Group (31%). The channel is a spin-off of Food Network, broadcasting p ...

acquired rights to the program, and began airing the second season. On March 10, 2010,

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels *Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 *Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...

television network announced a development deal with

Darren Star Darren Star (born July 25, 1961) is an American writer, director and producer of film and television. He is best known for creating the television series ''Beverly Hills, 90210'' (1990–2000), ''Melrose Place'' (1992–1999), ''Sex and the City' ...

to produce ''I Am Not Myself These Days'' as a scripted television series based on Kilmer-Purcell's bestselling memoir of the same name.

Writer

Kilmer-Purcell has written or co-written six books, including two bestselling memoirs, a novel, and four cookbooks. '' I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir'', Harper Perennial, 2006, Memoir. Kilmer-Purcell's first memoir is a tragicomic account of his early days in New York City, living as an advertising art director by day and a

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

named "Aquadisiac" (or "Aqua") by night. The memoir details his relationship with a crack-addicted male escort named "Jack", and was a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' bestseller in the spring of 2006. ''Candy Everybody Wants'', Harper Perennial, 2008, Novel. ''The Bucolic Plague'', HarperCollins, 2010, Memoir. Kilmer-Purcell's second memoir recounts his purchase of a historic mansion and goat farm in

Sharon Springs, New York Sharon Springs is a village in Schoharie County, New York, United States. The population was 558 at the 2010 census. Its name derives from the hometown of the first Colonial settlers, Sharon, Connecticut, and the important springs in the village ...

, and quickly became a national bestseller. Kilmer-Purcell has also co-authored three Beekman 1802 cookbooks with Brent Ridge and Sandy Gluck. From 2006-2009 Kilmer-Purcell wrote a monthly column about urban gay life for ''Out'' magazine. He has contributed to national media outlets including '' The Advocate,'' ''

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

,'' and

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

Biography

Kilmer-Purcell (born "Joshua Gordon Kilmer") was born in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

, and was raised in

Oconomowoc Oconomowoc ( ) is a city in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The name was derived from Coo-no-mo-wauk, the Potawatomi term for "waterfall." The population was 15,712 at the 2010 census. The city is partially adjacent to the Town of Oc ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. He attended high school in

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

and attended

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, where he studied creative writing with the poet

Diane Wakoski Diane Wakoski (born August 3, 1937) is an American poet. Wakoski is primarily associated with the deep image poets, as well as the confessional and Beat poets of the 1960s. She received considerable attention in the 1980s for controversial commen ...

. He received a BA in English Literature in 1991. He added his stepfather's surname "Purcell" in 1990. He met husband

in New York City in 2000. Kilmer-Purcell has worked at several Manhattan advertising agencies, including

Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners Kirshenbaum , sometimes called ASCII-IPA or erkIPA, is a system used to represent the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in ASCII. This way it allows typewriting IPA-symbols by regular keyboard. It was developed for Usenet, notably the newsgrou ...

, Merkley Newman Harty, TBWA\Chiat Day, SS+K, & JWT. It is widely believed that the events in '' I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir'' took place while he was working at Merkley Newman Harty. As his drag queen alter ego "Aqua" (short for "Aquadisiac"), Kilmer-Purcell performed at nightclubs in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Aqua was best known for her use of live goldfish in the breasts of her costumes.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA; , stylized as PeTA) is an American animal rights nonprofit organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. PETA reports that PETA entities have ...

(

PETA Peta or PETA may refer to: Acronym * Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943 * People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization * People Eating Tasty Animals, an ...

) sent a letter of protest to Kilmer-Purcell condemning the use of live animals in his shows. In 2008 Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge launched Beekman 1802, a lifestyle company inspired by their farm in

. In 2015 the company ranked #1112 on the Top 2000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America by Inc Magazine, and has been called "one of the fastest growing lifestyle brands in America" by Nasdaq. In 2015, Beekman 1802 launched a magazine titles "The Beekman 1802 Magazine" with Meredith Publications. Beekman 1802 is the third largest brand on the American television retail channel Evine. The brand is also present on Canadian and European shopping channels. Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge often appear on the channels as company spokespersons.

Personal

Kilmer-Purcell is openly gay, and with his husband, Dr.

, a physician at Mount Sinai Hospital who was the vice president of healthy living at Martha Stewart Omnimedia, have been together since 2000. Their engagement was announced in December 2011. The couple married on June 28, 2013.

Filmography

Television

* 2010—: ''

'' * 2011: ''

NewNowNext Awards The NewNowNext-Awards is an American annual entertainment awards show, presented by the LGBT, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender-themed channel Logo TV. Launched in 2008, awards are presented both for LGBT-specific and general interest achievem ...

'' * 2011: '' Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood'' * 2012: ''

the Amazing Race 21 ''The Amazing Race 21'' is the twenty-first season of the American reality television show ''The Amazing Race''. It featured eleven teams of two competing in a race around the world. The season premiered on CBS on September 30, 2012, and the tw ...

Film

* 2011: '' Making the Boys'' as Himself

Bibliography

Books

* * * * * *

Anthology

* * *

References

External links

Website of Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge's farm and soap business

"I Am Not Myself These Days: A Memoir" Website

Website of The Memoirists Collective
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilmer-Purcell, Josh 1969 births American columnists Farmers from New York (state) 21st-century American memoirists 21st-century American novelists American drag queens American gay writers LGBT memoirists Michigan State University alumni Writers from Albany, New York People from New York City People from Schoharie County, New York People from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin The Amazing Race (American TV series) contestants Novelists from Wisconsin Living people LGBT businesspeople from the United States American LGBT novelists American male novelists Journalists from New York City 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) American male non-fiction writers Reality show winners