Max Emerson (born September 7, 1988) is an American actor, model, author, director and

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

. He is known for his modelling and social media profile, particularly on

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, and he wrote and directed the movie ''Hooked''. He has appeared on TV in small roles, including the

season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

finale of

Glee Glee means delight, a form of happiness. Glee may also refer to: * Glee (music), a type of English choral music * ''Glee'' (TV series), an American musical comedy-drama TV series, and related media created by Ryan Murphy * ''Glee'' (Bran Van 30 ...

Early life and education

Emerson was born in Vero Beach, Florida and studied for a BFA in performance and directing at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

, from which he graduated in 2009.

Career

Modeling

Emerson began

modeling A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

while he was a student, when he signed up with the

agency Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that ...

Wilhelmina Models Wilhelmina International Inc. (NASDAQ: WHLM), formerly Wilhelmina Models, is a full service modeling and talent agency headquartered in New York City, United States. The company also has offices in Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami. Founded in 196 ...

. He works with agencies including Wilhelmina (New York), LA Models, Established Models (London), Heffner Management (Seattle),

Next Management NEXT Management is a modeling and talent agency founded in 1989 by Faith Kates and Joel Wilkenfeld. Next is headquartered in New York City with divisions in London, Los Angeles, Miami, Milan and Paris. Fashion models Notable models currently r ...

(Miami) and Factor Chosen (Chicago).

Filmmaking

He wrote, produced, co-directed and acted in two short films, ''DipSpit'' and ''Earwig'', which were shown for the first time at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival on April 26, 2011. ''Earwig'' is a drama about a

closeted ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other (LGBTQ+) people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and human ...

gay college student, while ''DipSpit'' is a comedy about two straight male models who get kicked out and move in with a gay college student. In October 2015, Emerson announced his intention to produce an independent film called "Hooked" for which he had written the story, telling the story of a homeless gay prostitute called Jack and addressing the problems faced by homeless

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

youth. He aimed to raise $150,000 for the project via Indiegogo and give half of any profits made to charities benefiting LGBT people. The launch video for the Indiegogo campaign featured

Todrick Hall Todrick Hall (born April 4, 1985) is an American singer, choreographer, and YouTuber. He gained national attention on the ninth season of the televised singing competition ''American Idol''. Following this, he amassed a huge following on YouTu ...

and musician Tom Goss. As part of it he released a single with Goss called "Not Enough". The campaign was supported by ''Out'' magazine. ''Hooked'' had its world premiere at NewFest: The New York LGBT Film Festival on June 26, 2017, and its European premiere at the 7th Homochron film festival in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

on October 20 the same year. The Los Angeles Times gave it a negative review, however, audience review scores remain high

Acting

As well as acting in ''Earwig'' and ''DipSpit'', Emerson has appeared in single episodes of the TV series

(the

finale ''

The Untitled Rachel Berry Project "The Untitled Rachel Berry Project" is the twentieth episode and season finale of the fifth season of the American musical television series '' Glee'', and the 108th episode overall. Written by Matthew Hodgson and directed by co-creator Brad Falc ...

''), '' Hit the Floor'', ''

The Real O'Neals ''The Real O'Neals'' is an American single-camera sitcom that aired on ABC from March 2, 2016, to March 14, 2017. The series, based on an idea by Dan Savage (who also served as executive producer), was picked up to series on May 7, 2015. The se ...

'' and ''

Eastsiders ''EastSiders'' is an American dark comedy web series created by Kit Williamson. It premiered on YouTube on December 14, 2012, and began streaming through Logo TV's website on April 23, 2013. Set in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, the series follows coup ...

'', and of the web series ''Coffee House Chronicles'' and the movie made from it. From September 7 to September 24, 2017, he starred as Mitchell in

Douglas Carter Beane Douglas Carter Beane is an American playwright and screenwriter. Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Beane now lives in New York. His works include the screenplay of ''To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! J ...

's comedy play ''

The Little Dog Laughed ''The Little Dog Laughed'' is a 2006 comedy play by Douglas Carter Beane. The four characters are an actor, Mitchell, his acerbic agent Diane, a hustler named Alex, and Alex's girlfriend Ellen. When Mitchell and Alex become involved in a physica ...

'' at the

Red House Arts Center Syracuse ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers, and Rochester. At the 2020 census, the city's p ...

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

. A local reviewer said each of the four actors in the play "brings a memorable, engaging performance", and that Emerson "delivers the role of a sweet, confused, and occasionally thoughtless young star with sensitivity and kindness".

Writing

Emerson wrote an autobiography, ''Hot Sissy – Life Before Flashbulbs'', describing his teenage years growing up in a "

redneck ''Redneck'' is a derogatory term chiefly, but not exclusively, applied to white Americans perceived to be crass and unsophisticated, closely associated with rural whites of the Southern United States.Harold Wentworth, and Stuart Berg Flexner, '' ...

" area of Florida. ''Hot Sissy'' was released as an e-book and in a limited print run of 500 hardcover copies in December 2014. The limited editions were each signed and came with an original

Polaroid Polaroid may refer to: * Polaroid Corporation, an American company known for its instant film and cameras * Polaroid camera, a brand of instant camera formerly produced by Polaroid Corporation * Polaroid film, instant film, and photographs * Polar ...

picture.

Personal life

In June 2016, he publicly introduced his boyfriend, Andrés Camilo, an officer in the US Army, in a YouTube video. Emerson has an active social media presence and posts regularly on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

where his username is "TheMaxVicious". he has 1 million followers on

and 19,500 on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. On YouTube and on social media, Emerson is known for his humour and for showing off his body. In May 2017, French comic TV presenter

Cyril Hanouna Cyril Valéry Isaac Hanouna (; ar, سيريل فاليري إسحاق حنونة, link=no; born 23 September 1974) is a French radio and television presenter, writer, author, columnist, producer, singer and occasional actor and comedian of Tunis ...

used one of Emerson's torso pictures to set up a

catfishing Catfishing is a deceptive activity in which a person creates a fictional persona or fake identity on a social networking service, usually targeting a specific victim. The practice may be used for financial gain, to compromise a victim in so ...

profile on a gay dating site, and tricked the men who responded to the profile into revealing sexual fantasies to him while he was live on his show ''

Touche pas à mon poste ! ' (TPMP), literally "Don't Touch My TV Set!", is a French live television talk show. It is broadcast on C8 and produced by Productions. The show, hosted by Cyril Hanouna, deals with media news; it is broadcast from Monday to Friday at 8:30&nbs ...

''. The segment triggered nearly 20,000 complaints to regulators and condemnation from LGBT groups. In April 2022, Emerson served as the Grand Marshal of the Miami Beach Gay Pride. In July 2023, Emerson and Camilo announced their engagement on Instagram.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Emerson, Max 1988 births Living people Male models from Florida People from Vero Beach, Florida American gay actors American LGBT models Male actors from Miami Gay models LGBT YouTubers LGBT people from Florida 20th-century American LGBT people 21st-century American LGBT people American gay writers