Alex Newell Breakthrough of the Year

About a year ago, Alex Newell had just returned to New York City after the pre-Broadway tryout of the musical Shucked in Salt Lake City.

PHOTOGRAPH BY THEA TRAFF

A Utah alt-weekly was already calling Newell’s number “Independently Owned,” sung from the perspective of the self-reliant whiskey distiller Lulu, a “knockout show-stopper.” Broadway agreed: in June, Newell won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, becoming one of the first two out nonbinary people to win in an acting category, alongside Some Like It Hot’s J. Harrison Ghee.

But Newell started breaking boundaries long before the corn-centric musical comedy opened on the Great White Way in April. Their breakthrough role—as Unique Adams on Glee in 2012—was one of the first transgender characters on prime-time TV. Five years later, they made their Broadway debut in the revival of Once on This Island. In 2020, they played the gender-fluid DJ Mo in the musical NBC series Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Ahead of the Tonys, in May, Newell told TIME that winning the award would just be a cherry on top of what they had already achieved: “I created a lane for somebody after me to come and do exceptional. I have created space and created conversation and made the ruckus to create active change.”